I've complained before and am again though I don't expect it to change anything. But sometimes I wonder if anyone really complains about price any more so the seller never knows?? We are from Illinois and were just camping at Sleeping Bear Dunes NP campground. No hook-ups but nice campground for $6 (senior pass). We called to see about reserving Ludington St Pk. It would have totaled $49 for 1 night. Rediculous. This crosses the line! This includes entrance fee(which many states waive if camping and I think maybe it's more for non-residents), The camping fee and a way too high $10 reservation fee. Most of the states which charge a daily entrance fee have a lower camping fee so that the total is around $30. PLUS the sites have only elec, no water. So we found a public park several miles away for $30 with full hook-up plus Wi-Fi. We drove through Ludington SP for a look and I've never seen a sate park campground so crowded and with sites so close together. Boy, I sure am glad it was so outrageously expensive so that we did not stay there.

Yep, I agree. It's pretty ridiculous.

Silver lining: Michigan state parks are generally nicer & in better shape than Illinois ones, which do not charge an entry fee. You get what you pay for, sometimes - and we have found that usually applies to state parks. Not that it seems to be an issue with the OP, but some on this forum have from time to time complained about states that charge more for non-residents. I have never had a problem with that, since state income taxes often are used partly to support the state parks. Nonresidents don't pay those income taxes (though they may pay their own states), so it's only fair, IMO, to charge nonresidents a bit more to use facilities in another state whose own taxpayers help foot the bill.

Missouri State Parks are hard to beat. NO entrance/use fee. No up charge for out of state. Paid for by an 1/8 of one percent state sales tax. Not big on discounts for various things,(10% senior/disabled) but the cost is already more than reasonable.

kknowlton wrote:Silver lining: Michigan state parks are generally nicer & in better shape than Illinois ones, which do not charge an entry fee. You get what you pay for, sometimes - and we have found that usually applies to state parks. Not that it seems to be an issue with the OP, but some on this forum have from time to time complained about states that charge more for non-residents. I have never had a problem with that, since state income taxes often are used partly to support the state parks. Nonresidents don't pay those income taxes (though they may pay their own states), so it's only fair, IMO, to charge nonresidents a bit more to use facilities in another state whose own taxpayers help foot the bill.Don't agree with you on the point of charging someone more because they are from out of state. All states want tourist and the money they spend while traveling. Charging more for being out of state just makes me want to stay away. How much money does or will a state loose if people don't visit some place out of state. They will loose more than they are making charging an out of state fee.

Watch out for cost of Michigan State Parks | Good Sam Community

LowRyter
Explorer
Jul 01, 2015
Just got from South Haven, Van Buren St Prk. I thought it was pretty reasonable. I had to pay the vehicle sticker, etc. I plan to go back. Seems like it was $24 a day plus the vehicle pass.
RedRocket204
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
wbwood wrote:
RedRocket204 wrote:
Spend tens of thousands of $ on an RV, TV and supplies.

Complaining on the internet about $5 - $10 extra a night for an out-of-state charge = priceless

Has nothing to do with how much you spend on your rig, if one is comparing apples to apples (parks to parks), then it is a legitimate complaint. Of course, no one is forcing it upon them. But they have every right to sound off about it.

And what is sounding off about it on this forum going to do? Seems like their time would be better spent contacting MI State Parks.

Aside from all that... if they have a right to sound off about it, then I have a right to sound off about their sound off? :)

The simple solution is to not spend money on something you don't agree with and move on with your life.
ktosv
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
Next time you might want to consider Sleepy Hollow State Park. It is a reasonable $20/night.

This is also a good park if you are one of those that don't like to be next to your neighbor as a good portion of the sites have a tree buffer between you and the next site.

Then again, you are also about 120 miles from the wonderful sandy beach of Lake Michigan, but at least you are near Lake Ovid.
wbwood
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
RedRocket204 wrote:
Spend tens of thousands of $ on an RV, TV and supplies.

Complaining on the internet about $5 - $10 extra a night for an out-of-state charge = priceless

Has nothing to do with how much you spend on your rig, if one is comparing apples to apples (parks to parks), then it is a legitimate complaint. Of course, no one is forcing it upon them. But they have every right to sound off about it.
wbwood
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
travelnutz wrote:
A little explanation:

Have to read the OP's post as he was only going to stay one night and a very busy huge extremely popular Michigan SP and why was the cost was so high? There's more than 100 State Parks in Michigan and most are a lot cheaper than Ludington SP, Grand Haven SP, Holland SP or PJ Hoffmaster SP and you can include Silver Lake SP in it too just on the West Michigan shorelie of less than 100 miles length of its 586 miles of its West Michigan shoreline length. These parks are fully booked all summer long and have a very long waiting list. Must be a lot that don't think the fees over a length stay is too high as these SP's sure don't hurt for campers ever, for the last 50-60 years or more!

For most campers in MI SP's, it's a 1 to 2 week long stay there or in other MI SP's. So that reservation fee is a one time charge of $10 divided by how many days stayed. 10 days = $1 per day! Remember that the SP doesn't even get that $10, the reservation place does! It's your option to have or not have a reservation and you know the reservation cost even before you reserve or don't.

The OP is including the 1 day entrance fee and if staying in any MI SP of any combination of MI SP's for a total of 4 days in an entire year's time, it's much cheaper to buy the annual pass as it's good in any SP anytime in the state for the year.

So that $49 number comes way down to under $40 or even down to approx $32 at these popular shoreline SP's and still much lower staying at the less popular SP's. Mid $20's would be an approximate average including your annual pass and with no reservation since in many MI SP's parks, reservation are not really needed other than on holiday weekends. Ludington SP is a very old park and the sites were built when RV's were very small. Most MI SP's have much larger sites and many are paved rv and vehicle areas on the site. There are way over a thousand good camp grounds in Michigan to choose from with hundreds of thousands of sites. On average, camp sites in Michigan are well below the national average in cost to stay at. Been several threads here on rv.net forum giving daily CG cost per day to stay and even $49/day isn't high according to what had been posted.

Why stop at 10 days or so? Of course the longer you camp the cheaper it will be. AS far as the "reservation place" getting the money, they make the deal with the state. If they Reserve America like North Carolina does then the fee is based upon the contract with the state. North Carolina charges $3 per day for reservations. The park I mentioned is probably the most expensive NC park. Matter of fact not many other state parks in NC have hookups. But they also only cost about $20/day including the $3/day reservation fee. Matter of fact you can camp at the same campground I mentioned for $30/day without hookups there. And as I mentioned, no entrance fees to the state parks. But it's not really a good comparison either way, when you can say well if you stay longer or if you stay only one day.
pegdiver
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
$20 campsite for NJ residents - $25 for out of state.
Plus now they have added a $5.00 reservation fee for walk-ups.
They have yearly passes to parks that goes by resident / non resident AND by size of the vehicle for parking. Yearly passes are expensive! But then this is a tax driven state and we are still in debt.
We don't camp in NJ state parks - sites are too small and no electric.
lbrjet
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
RedRocket204 wrote:
Spend tens of thousands of $ on an RV, TV and supplies.

Complaining on the internet about $5 - $10 extra a night for an out-of-state charge = priceless

Agreed. I grew up in Illinois and this original poster made me embarrsed to say that.
wing_zealot
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
Yes Pegdriver, you are right. I was wrong. Upon further checking I see that the fee for non-residents is $31.00 per year for the Recreation Passport. I didn't know that, I thought it was the same price. I don't know about the day fee either, I thought that was abolished. That must be in lieu of the annual Recreation Passport cause you don't need both. But in the end, is it any different then New Jersey. They charge more for non-residents also.
pegdiver
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
Little bit of misinformation here.
In response to the comment below -
As a non-resident of Michigan, we pay the annual park fee of $31.00 - for each motor vehicle! We have a motorhome and tow a car. We could get away with paying the $6 for the car at each park but then since we stay at several parks that would add up. Everyone has to pay the reservation fee for that service.
But for a one night stay, for a non-resident, it does get expensive.

Now if you want to talk about things not being fair - why do we have to pay for a state park sticker or day fee for the motorhome when a 5th wheel does not! We don't move out of our site during our stay. And that is applied to both state and non resident campers.

First, There is no "resident" and "Non-resident" fee. Everyone pays the same price. At The vast majority of state parks, camping fees are less than $30.00 per night.campground prices
Secondly, there is a yearly fee called "Recreation Passport", everyone, resident and nonresident alike pay the same fee and it's good for any state park in Michigan for the whole year. It's $11 for a year.
winger999
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
We are Michigan residents and gladly pay the extra 10 bucks for a licence plate with the park pass for the year.

Ludington State Park is the closest state park to my house, about 80 miles. We never go there due to the smaller sites and crowds. My theory to get to a less crowded park in Michigan is to find one that is not easy to get to. Our favorites are always off the beaten path, are just as clean and nice as the bigger, more popular parks. The Lake Michigan parks are also more popular due to the sandy beaches and sun sets over the lake. The Huron side has some outstanding state parks (that we frequent), but the beaches are not as big and the Lake Huron will often have rocks along the shore.

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