Rollways Campground
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 19All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 3 – September 30Open May 3 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rollways Campground is located 7 miles from Hale, Michigan along the beautiful AuSable River. The site was built in 1909 as one of the first campgrounds established in Huron National Forest. The space is small and secluded and features an observation area, picnic grounds and log shelter.. The facility is located just off the River Road National Scenic Byway in northeast Lower Michigan. The byway showcases incredible views of the AuSable River Valley. Keep reading
Recreation
Hike on the accessible trail that connects the campground and picnic area to Westgate Scenic Overlook. Bring binoculars and a camera to take advantage of the epic view. The same hiking path passes a stairway leading down to the river where visitors can fish and wade.
Facilities
The campground offers 19 pull-through campsites with picnic tables, a lantern post, grills, tent pads and campfire rings. At the picnic area, a log shelter, picnic tables and grills are available. Vault toilets and drinking water spigots are dispersed throughout the campground and all roads and camping spurs are paved.
Natural Features
Rollways is perched on a high bluff overlooking Loud Dam Pond on the AuSable River. The river flows from west to east for 138 miles until it reaches the great Lake Huron.
Nearby Attractions
Follow the length of the 22-mile River Road National Scenic Byway, which parallels the AuSable River.
What the agency tells you
Your permit is subject to forfeit and a violation notice may be issued for failing to follow these rules:
• 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
- 55 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…picnic tables and grills are available. Vault toilets and drinking water spigots are dispersed throughout…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grills are available. Vault toilets and drinking water spigots are dispersed throughout the campground and…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 147th 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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 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 Oct 1, 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
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.
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 108 ft | 785 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 108 ft | 680 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 148 ft | 850 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 187 ft | 678 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 148 ft | 807 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 142 ft | 707 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 164 ft | 884 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 142 ft | 791 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 120 ft | 994 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 120 ft | 965 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 146 ft | 1,139 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 191 ft | 1,311 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 100 ft | 1,289 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 158 ft | 1,447 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 100 ft | 1,308 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 208 ft | 1,288 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 179 ft | 1,102 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 149 ft | 1,023 ft | $15 |
| ROLLWAYS CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 149 ft | 886 ft | $15 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
South Branch Trail Camp Group SiteHuron National Forest · 2.2 mi
Monument CampgroundHuron National Forest · 7.9 mi
Round LakeHuron National Forest · 9.7 miRound Lake Campground and Day Use AreaHuron National Forest · 9.7 miHorseshoe Lake Campground and Boat LaunchHuron National Forest · 9.8 miPine River CampgroundHuron National Forest · 11 miFrom Hale, Michigan, travel 7 miles north on M-65. Turn left on Rollways Road and enter campground on the right.
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 May night 42°F, day 66°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 42°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
Rollways 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 →