CAMPANAC.Powered by public lands intelligenceMore Than Just Parks
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U.S. Forest Service · Manistee National Forest · MI

Marzinski Horse Campground

ReservableBookable through November 30, and from April 1 through April 16.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:34 UTC
Sites
19All of them booked ahead
Photos · Public Domain
690 ftElevation
1.1 miWater · an unnamed pond
6.8 miE of Manistee, MI
78%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 177th darkest of 192 in MI

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices

In the agency’s own words

The Marzinski Horse Trail and Campground were developed for the horse enthusiasts, who enjoy riding through a forested quiet trail system. The Marzinski Horse Camp serves as the primary access location for the 18 miles of horse trail. Keep reading

Recreation

The Marzinski Horse Trail is open to non-motorized use only. They are designed for horse riders but may be used by hikers as well. The trail is accessed by either the Marzinski Trailhead and Campground or the Steinberg Trailhead. Neither trailhead is maintained for horse use in the winter months. The Forest Service and volunteers maintain the trail system, which is marked by oak-routed signs and posts and request that care is taken to keep the trail system clean. “Pack it in, pack it out.” Horse riders are asked not to access the Little Manistee River, which may accelerate erosion and to be careful when crossing adjacent county and forest roads.

Facilities

This campground has a day use area and 19 pull through sites with ample room for horses on each site. Hitching posts/poles are available at some sites. All sites include a picnic table and fire ring. The campground has one toilet building and one well for drinking water.

Natural Features

The campground is located in a white pine stand and offers quiet and privacy between camp sites. The Marzinski Horse Trail passes through mostly mixed pine with some hardwood vegetation types. Topography is mostly flat forested land with some small openings.

Nearby Attractions

Sand Lake Recreation Area Udell Rollways Day Use and Disc Golf Course Pine Lake Campground

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

What the agency tells you

Rule

You do not need a permit to camp on the National Forests or in designated campgrounds

Rule

If your campfire will be on National Forest System lands you will not need a wood permit to cut firewood.

Rule

No RV hook-ups are available for water, sewage or electric at any campground.

Source: recreation.gov facility notices, quoted verbatim · Sep 9, 2026

Tents and rigs

Sites
19 · 19 equestrian
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Pets
Allowed
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Drinking water
Yes
“…has one toilet building and one well for drinking water. Natural Features The campground is located in a…”
Stay limit
14 nights
recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Lake, River
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

30 of 38 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:34 UTC

Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.

OpenBooked

Booking windowThrough November 30Bookable now through November 30, 2026, the end of this reservable season, and again for April 1, 2027 through April 16, 2027. Tomorrow at 10 AM ET, availability opens through April 17, 2027.recreation.gov
Max stay14 nightsthe facility record
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
Watch for a cancellation

Full? Watch it.

One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.

We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.

Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Tell me when the season opens

Watch for the season to open

One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.

We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.

Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.

We’ll write once, when the season that starts Thu, Apr 1 2027 is open for booking.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 10

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Rates for the season the campground is in now, Apr 3, 2026 to Nov 30, 2026.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

Who keeps the booking fee

The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →

How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

recreation.gov availability, read 15:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

19 sites

All 19 sites

Sleeps
Marzinski001equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski002equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski003equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski004equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski005equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski006equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski007equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski008equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski009equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski010equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski011equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski012equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski013equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski014equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski015equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski016equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski017equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski018equestrian nonelectric
Marzinski019equestrian nonelectric
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Coordinate44.22562, -86.16148
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

This Afternoon54°Rain Showers Likely65% rain
Tonight32°Chance Rain Showers28% rain
Saturday55°Sunny1% rain
Saturday Night39°Clear

NWS forecast for Parkdale, MI

Source: National Weather Service, APX forecast office · Oct 16, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 42°F, day 59°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

90°32°10°

Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more

A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.

Measured at: MANISTEE 3SE, MI (USC00205065), 7 miles away and at about the same elevation
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

John Moolenaar, official portrait

Marzinski Horse Campground is in Michigan’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, John Moolenaar (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: recreation.gov is offering sites on 30 of the next 30 nights, which isn’t something a closed campground does.
Sites on recreation.gov: recreation.gov’s own month availability payload for this facility, asked for October 2026 and November 2026. It names 19 of the 19 campsites the agency files here, and every one of them carries an answer either way. A campground nobody has read carries no answer at all, never a no. · Oct 14, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.28 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 192 rated federal campgrounds in Michigan · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Parkdale, MI, 5.2 mi ESE (a census designated place). Straight line.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026