New Michigan State Park System is Operational

Just went there. Wow! Checked out site we were on just a couple of weeks ago. This is the best state park site I have ever seen. Maybe ReserveAmerica can take a hint from this.

Super neat and very informative new site and so easy to use! Even though we HAVE been staying in Michigan State Parks CG's for 50 years now and know so many of what the campsites actually look like, the pics of the sites are so welcome. Yup, we just can't remember them all and sometimes they make changes to them over the years! The pics are even lot more important to those who haven't stayed in many of the over 100 state parks or the over 140 state forest CG's.

We just happened to be staying at Burt Lake SP on site 238 when they were taking some of the campsite pics of unoccupied sites. He had a camera mounted about 2 feet over his head on a backframe tubular structure and walked from site to site snapping a couple pics of each unoccupied site. The pic fo #238 doesn't show us there so he must have taken the pic after we left.

I didn't find the same CG layout showing where the individual sites are that was on the site before the change. Maybe I missed it!

travelnutz - I found it as soon as I clicked on the campground I was interested in. But the size of the campground layout map is now much, much smaller than before because they changed the scale to include more of the surrounding area. Pretty easy to miss if you are not looking for it.

Jeeze... Post the link please!

Michigan DNR Reservations New Site

Great Find!
I don't see a map showing the individual locations of the sites, though. Am I missing it?

JRS & B,

Thanks as I have seen the overall individual State Park map/layouts now on the site.

What I was referring to is that the DNR site used to have a map/layout that covered your entire puter screen with each site in a section or the entire CG shown in color (yellow or green) and numbered so you could see exactly where the site was in the CG. It's size and also it's relation the a bathhouse etc. Also helped to be able to see how easy it would be to back a long rig into and how much area there was to park a trailered boat plus the tow vehicle and the RV. We often double tow with having our boat behind the 5th wheel so some usable parking room is needed.

Knowing the location in the CG is important to us because my wife is permanently disabled in that she can only walk short distances etc. Some days are better and some are worse and she doesn't get to pick when the good days will be. Permanently disabled but not in a wheelchair and has a lifetime disability vehicle license plate on all our vehicles and RV's. Also has one that hangs from the vehicle's mirror if she rides in someone else's vehicle. The old CG maps were very helpful for us.

Maybe they don't have that feature ready yet or perhaps it belonged to the prior reservation system and they new reservation people can't use it. Without it, how would you know where in the CG the particular site number was located before you reserved it?

travelnutz - I am probably just a little slow today, but here is what I did.

1.) Went to DNR Site
2.) Under "Find Site" I clicked "On a Map"
3.) A map of the entire state came up.
4.) I clicked on the U.P.
5.) I got the U.P. map with the campgrounds identified
6.) I clicked on Muskellonge state park
7.) I got the overall map of the total state park
8.) Clicked on (for example) Section 3
9.) This got me the individual sites with the Red, Green and Yellow codes.

Note - For this particular campground, the map of the sites is not even remotely to scale. Everything is kind of smoothed out, but that is not how all of the roads run nor where all of the trees are located. It is just a rough sketch kind of a map.

JRS & B,

Yes, I can find a see the same thing you did. However, it does NOT show the site's relative size by giving the shape and lines depicting the actual campsite. The old DNR site DID and for every section and the entire CG. It was very helpful and the only thing I see missing on the new DNR site. It's going to leave a lot of guess work now and worse for those who have never been to a park and trying to make good or required reservations to fit their particular needs.

In Muskallonge SP CG, we've stayed in section 1 sites 23, 26, 15, 64, 65, 66, and 72 over the years that I can remember right off hand. Only once in section 3, site 149 if I remember correctly. We really like Muskallonge SP and it's always a part of our annual fall colored leaf peeping trips. Just like the River Bend CG at Tahquamenon Falls SP at the lower falls is.

Do yuo know if they are going to pave/rebuild H-58 yet to Grand Marias? I know it was on the schedule to be done.

travelnutz - I'm not familiar with anything that showed the relative size. I remember talking to the people at Muskellonge years back and telling them their map scale was off base, especially in that some sites that look to be close to the lake were not close at all.

As far as H-58 goes, the section in Alger County was done back in 2010. The section in Luce County is still gravel.

I couldn't find anything in the MDOT site showing any paving project for H-58 or any nearby Michigan state roadway for 2013. They have been talking about paving that section of H-58 in Luce County for 25 or 30 years now.

I will believe it when I see it.

But anything is possible. They have had fiber optic cable up there in the boondocks for years, but with almost no customers because service was too pricey for the average customer. This very expensive fiber optic cable line was built anyway "for free" and it dead ends at some politicians subdivision. Imagine that?

All we need is for the right politician to build a home on H-58, an then just step back out of the way of the concrete trucks.

I see the "log in" (or "sign in" as it is referred to now) is a bit different.
The previous website used a "username" and "password" to access an account. Now they are asking for an "email address" and "password".

We had two accounts on the previous system and I tried both those passwords with our email address and neither worked to get us into this new system.

I wonder if everyone has to recreate their accounts on this new system?

I expected to receive an introductory email from the MI-DNR before this site went active.....guess I was wrong. :)