Reservation at Grand Haven State Park MI

[Katman1100]

Anyone have any tricks to getting a reservation here on the water? Obviously they are in high demand, and I keep trying to get on right before the deadline to reserve a site, but I either am told system is slow and I end up missing it, or the site is no longer available.

I know a lot of people book 2 weeks out to get the week they want and then cancel the first week later so if anyone has a a few days they are going to cancel in July of this year please let me know the time you will be doing it so hopefully I can pick up one of these cancellations!
Any help to secure a waterfront site here would be appreciated.

[Newbiecampers]

GordonThree wrote:
No steps. Boondock right at the beach. Town is a short walk for shopping and restaurants. Depending on proximity to the 4th carnies might be taking many of the boondock spots.

Where is this that there is boondocking at the beach? That is exactly what I am looking for. Hate the downtown Bombay or Calcutta-type spots.

Any other great boondocking spots near lake Michigan (or Michigan anywhere) would be appreciated as well.

Thanks

[LowRyter]

I've enjoyed South Haven.

[bgradert]

I was able to reserve a site at Grand Haven for the 4th of July week. We then are going to Ludington for 5 days.

We camped in Holland, Sleeping Bear Dunes and Petoskey last year. Petoskey was my least favourite. Sites are super close together and the beach wasn't great.

Platte River Campground in Sleeping Bear Dunes was fabulous and highly recommend.

Holland was nice. A parking lot like Grand Haven but really close to the beach. Loved watching boats come in and out of the harbour and we kayaked in the lake. Plan to do the same at Grand Haven.

Have fun, Lake Michigan is beautiful.

[hornet28]

travelnutz wrote:
hornet28,

Not dissing any decent town or location on the very special gorgeous West Michigan shoreline. The thread OP said Grand Haven State Park and thus my reference was to and about Grand Haven State Park and close by alternatives, options, and features. You seem to really like it too!!!

BTW, do you know that Muskegon County used to be part of Ottawa County and Grand Haven still was the county seat then? Look it up! A little history for you!

Your right. Prior to 1859 the southern 3/4 was Ottawa, northern 1/4 was Oceana

[troubledwaters]

travelnutz wrote:
Just the facts man, just the facts!

Translation = Dang, I wish that elephant would stay behind the curtain.

[travelnutz]

hornet28,

Not dissing any decent town or location on the very special gorgeous West Michigan shoreline. The thread OP said Grand Haven State Park and thus my reference was to and about Grand Haven State Park and close by alternatives, options, and features. You seem to really like it too!!!

BTW, do you know that Muskegon County used to be part of Ottawa County and Grand Haven still was the county seat then? Look it up! A little history for you!

[travelnutz]

troubledwaters,

The only way to solve or attempt to solve the OP's original thread issue is to reserve at 12:01 am January 1st or maybe for GHSP to double the present 178 camp spaces if he wants to camp there. GHSP would love to have an additional thousand or more parking spaces for day beach users too but this won't happen either because it's land locked and there's no room to be had for doing any of either!

There are 11 other CG's in the local very close area to choose from with 2 others also being on Lake Michigan within 5 miles of GHSP and 6 being on the big Grand River. All of them have hookups and one is a new 2 year old really high class 130 site park on the river with every thing you could want but it's not cheap of course. The DNR bought several hundred acres on the Grand River and the miles long gravel pits lake connected to the Grand River a few miles east of town for a huge new very needed state park. However, money was used on other SP's and the Belle Isle the last 5 years to preveht the starting of the development of called the Bass River State Park so it's still the big Bass River State Recreation Area and is highly used.

Dry primitive camping is permitted and has beaches and a boat launch on the pit lake and it borders the the very large day use county park to the south that has more nice boat launches. Boating, camping, fishing, swimmimg, and all types of water sports is a way of life in West Michigan and up north too!

The Lake Michigan CG's book full real fast and always have. Our area could sure use at least 5 more CG's on Lake Michigan but at $10K to $30K per front foot on Lake Michigan property just 200-300 feet deep from the water if you could even find some available. Not going to happen or would have to charge perhaps $300/nite per CG site to make ends meet. Hint: they aren't making any more shoreline on the Great Lakes so what is, is!

Just the facts man, just the facts!

[hornet28]

travelnutz wrote:
hornet28,

How about you looking up Belle isle 30 year lease yourself so you can read it with your own eyes. It's in black and white! 6 articles! Maybe you should read the newspapers and find out the facts and the report of the GVSU research grant given to do the study and research of the GHSP and the tourism numbers in Grand Haven found for the calendar year in their report. It's not a secret! Not much chance you will find it in the Chronicle as it wouldn't be nicely received by Muskegon residents. Both the GH Tribune and the GR Press ran the story and I saw it on Ch 13 WZZM-TV also.

I wasn't referring to Belle Isle. I know Grand Haven is a popular tourist stop, I don't dispute that, but it's not the only nice Lake Mi. beach. It happens to be the one with state park camping right on the beach. Also the easiest one for people from GR which accounts for a lot of the day use. The boardwalk alone attracts many people myself included. It's nice to be a booster of your town but sometimes you need to face reality and recognize that where you live isn't the only nice place to live in W. Mi. That leads to the towns reputation of being known as thinking your better than others

[troubledwaters]

travelnutz wrote:
Grand Haven State Park is the most popular of the over 100 Michigan State Parks and has roughly 2 million visitors each year. The OP knows why as he had stayed there last year. There's so much to do at the state park and also around town for kids and adults of all ages in a very clean and safe local area with NO run down areas anywhere that you really couldn't do it all even if you stated there all summer long. 2 million people each year know why they want to be there and just keep returning! We know also because we have lived in Grand Haven for 76 years now. True beach camping on one of the top 5 beaches in the USA as so noted by a poll taken by Good Morning America.

Shade is not even necessary because being right on the Lake Michigan shore brings natural air conditioning breezes off the huge deep lake.

www.visitgrandhaven.com

I'd sure pick P J Hoffmaster State Park which is 5 miles north of Grand Haven and is approx 1200 acres in size and has 2-1/2 miles of pristine Lake Michigan beach and is just a short walk of a couple hundred yards on flat ground to the beach from your campsite (300 campsites with 30/50 amp in the woods having 4 loops with excellent bath houses too) over any of the other mentioned near beach CG's. At Hoffmaster, the campground has their own private beach section complete with a flowing shallow clean and warm sand bottom creek and very popular with kids to play in right where it empties into Lake Michigan. No long steps to climb to and from the beach like at Manistee for instance.

Nice write up about all the reasons why someone should visit Grand Haven. Now if you could just solve the original over-reaching problem that prompted the post in the first place that would be very helpful. The wonderful description ignores the elephant in the living room.

[travelnutz]

hornet28,

How about you looking up Belle isle 30 year lease yourself so you can read it with your own eyes. It's in black and white! 6 articles! Maybe you should read the newspapers and find out the facts and the report of the GVSU research grant given to do the study and research of the GHSP and the tourism numbers in Grand Haven found for the calendar year in their report. It's not a secret! Not much chance you will find it in the Chronicle as it wouldn't be nicely received by Muskegon residents. Both the GH Tribune and the GR Press ran the story and I saw it on Ch 13 WZZM-TV also.

[hornet28]

travelnutz we realize from your postings that you are a huge booster of Grand Haven. How about backing up some of your statements with links to show us they are correct.

[travelnutz]

drsteve,

I stand by my comment that Grand Haven State Park is the most popular of the 102 Michigan State Parks is people going into the park annually and backed up by the Michigan DNR who is the controller of all Michigan State Parks. They do not count the estimated 1.6 million visitors who enter or go thru the GHSP on the boardwalk or off location parking and walk in. There's also a beach shuttle bus running daily from a big parking lot about 1-1/2 miles away on US-31. It was monitored an counted for the state by Grand Valley State University thru a grant 2 years ago. The long boardwalk go right thru GHSP to get to the very popular 1/4 mile long south pier and the beach without going thru any entrance gates. Foot traffic, bicycles, skateboards, etc as when the parking lots are full in the park as happens by about noon daily, they park closer to downtown and use the very busy boardwalk along the river to get to the beach!

The roughly 2 million is ONLY how many went thru the park entrance gates and there's no gates on the very popular boardwalk as it goes from the end of the south pier to downtown GH .7 miles distance and then continues miles further all the way along the Grand River across 2 bridges and into downtown Spring Lake. Yes, it's very tough to reserve an RV site at GHSP because it's always booked full all summer long and into the fall. That is what the OP is talking about! You or some other's may not like camping on concrete surrounded by gorgeous sand and water but GHSP has no problem booking full for the year on January 1st yearly!

2 million + 1.6 million is 3.6 million and doesn't include the gobs that come by boat either!!! I'm sure the thread OP has seen it personally when he was there!

As for Belle Isle State Park? The DNR nor the people of Michigan do not own Belle Isle, it's been leased for 30 years time period in 2014. Belle Isle is owned by the city of Detroit and was is a bad state of repair and crime ridden and scheduled to be closed down. Why, the City of Detroit had filed bankruptcy and had no money nor intent to either run or fix up the park as they were bankrupt so the DNR offered to lease the island for a 30 year period and initially spent 32 million dollars of state park money to repair the park island which didn't sit well the the most residents of the state. Meaning the other state park's needed maintenance was put on hold. Belle Isle is NOT an RV camping park etc either, just a day use park.

It was virtually giving the City of Detroit the initial 32 million dollars as the lease ends and the island reverts back to the City of Detroit. The 32 million dollars is GONE! The state nor it's residents will own NOTHING then. Many millions more has been spent on Belle Isle since then too. A very touchy subject! In other words, at best Belle Isle is only a temporary bailout for a state park not like the rest of the people owned state park system.

[drsteve]

travelnutz wrote:
Grand Haven State Park is the most popular of the over 100 Michigan State Parks and has roughly 2 million visitors each year.

Belle Isle had 4 million visitors last year. Holland has over 2.5 mil per year.
The Grand Haven area is nice, but camping on a concrete pad in the sand is not my cup of tea. Hoffmaster is my choice, nice, quiet park with easy beach access and lots of trails. And shade.

[GordonThree]

travelnutz wrote:
GordonThree,

OP wants electric and that means lots of wooden steep steps to go up and down for the beach as we have camped at Manistee Orchard Beach SP and know. The CG's on top of the a overlooking the lake. Even the State Park site pics on the Internet show it too.

OP mentioned a few pages back they weren't opposed to boondocking either.