Monument Campground
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- A night
- $15–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 19All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 3 – October 24Open May 3 through October 24
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Monument Campground was established in 1909 as one of the first campgrounds built in the Huron National Forest. The campground is a fully accessible camping area within a red pine plantation. Families love this conveniently located campsite, just 15 minutes from Lake Huron off the River Road National Scenic Byway. Keep reading
Recreation
Campers can access the Highbanks Hiking Trail from the campground or explore the 22-mile River Road National Scenic Byway that overlooks the lovely AuSable River valley. Beside the campground is the Lumberman's Monument Visitor Center, replete with information about the area's rich lumbering history. Here, visitors can climb through a log jam, use a peavey, cut a wooden cookie with a cross-cut saw, and learn about the life of a lumberjack through video and displays.
Facilities
Pressurized drinking water, vault toilets, trash collection and grills are among the amenities offered at the campground. A host is onsite to answer questions. In the nearby visitor center, campers can partake in educational programs and browse through the gift shop.
Natural Features
Each site is secluded and shaded with large oak and red pine near the AuSable River. The river flows from west to east for 138 miles until it reaches the great lake, Lake Huron.
Nearby Attractions
Explore the many trails of the Huron-Manistee National Forests and spend time at Lake Huron.
What the agency tells you
• Occupancy limits apply to your site
• Keep all camping equipment and vehicles within your designated camp site.
• Keep all vehicles, trailers and RVs on camping spur.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
• You must occupy your site within 24 hours of the start of your reservation. Contact the Forest Service to request a late arrival or your site may be forfeited.
• Quiet hours are from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM, and keep noise reasonable all other times.
• Pets must be on leash at all times.
• If potable water is available at your site, please be sure to wash your dishes and clothes away from the water source. If watering livestock or pets, please water them away from the water source. This will help protect the water source from contamination.
• Pack it in, pack it out. Leave the site clean for the next campers. Do not leave trash in fire rings, and do not burry or burn trash or recyclables.
• Be careful with fire. Do NOT leave hot campfires unattended. Make sure your ashes are cool to the touch before you leave.
• You may use downed wood for firewood. Keep fires within the fire ring.
• Fireworks and use of fireworks are NOT permitted.
• Do not tie/tack anything to standing trees, including (but not limited to) horses, pets, laundry lines, garbage bags.
• ORV’s may only be operated on trails signed as open for their use. ORV’s may not be used within campgrounds.
• Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information
• Other rules and regulations apply. For questions, late arrivals, or early departures please contact Lumberman’s Monument at 989-362-8961, or visit the Huron-Manistee National Forests website www.fs.usda.gov/hmnf.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 19
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Facilities Pressurized drinking water, vault toilets, trash collection and grills are among the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and displays. Facilities Pressurized drinking water, vault toilets, trash collection and grills are…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Ranger programs
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 142nd darkest of 192 in MI
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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.
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 make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$30 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sitesAll 19 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 19 of the 19 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 19 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 140 ft | 1,592 ft | 713 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 165 ft | 1,732 ft | 895 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 140 ft | 1,495 ft | 669 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 164 ft | 1,658 ft | 891 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 152 ft | 1,354 ft | 592 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 164 ft | 1,543 ft | 854 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 115 ft | 1,318 ft | 662 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 115 ft | 1,212 ft | 626 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 142 ft | 1,123 ft | 485 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 158 ft | 1,248 ft | 435 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 153 ft | 1,013 ft | 342 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 177 ft | 901 ft | 199 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 191 ft | 1,044 ft | 82 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 189 ft | 1,126 ft | 248 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 160 ft | 1,385 ft | 454 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 220 ft | 1,264 ft | 298 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 211 ft | 1,494 ft | 528 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 208 ft | 1,658 ft | 701 ft | $15–$30 |
| MONUMENT CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 140 ft | 1,532 ft | 614 ft | $15–$30 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Round LakeHuron National Forest · 6.7 mi
Rollways CampgroundHuron National Forest · 7.9 miPine River CampgroundHuron National Forest · 9.0 mi
South Branch Trail Camp Group SiteHuron National Forest · 9.5 miHorseshoe Lake Campground and Boat LaunchHuron National Forest · 14 miMonument Campground is located on River Road, 15 miles west of Oscoda, Michigan.
From East Tawas: Follow Wilber Road north to Monument Road. Continue on Monument Road 11 Miles to River Road. Turn right and travel about .5 miles to the campground entrance on the left.
From Hale, Michigan: Travel 11 miles north and east along M-65, turn right onto River Road and continue 3.5 miles to the campground entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sand Lake, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 58°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 37°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Monument Campground is in Michigan’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Jack Bergman (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →