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.

[travelnutz]

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.

[hornet28]

A bit farther north is Muskegon SP and Pioneer Park a county park. Both have nice sites not on top of each other and less than a 1/4 mi. walk to the beach.

[GordonThree]

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.

Yes there's a tiny State Park as well, with lots of steps. If you don't like boondocking or need electric and don't have a generator.

[travelnutz]

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.

[drsteve]

troubledwaters wrote:
Try Petoskey State Park, further north (about 3 hours which is what you spent in take down and move 3 times), on the beach, and much easier to get into. Also you can try Platte River Campground (Sleeping Bear Nat'l Lakeshore). I also second Higgins Lake South SP. Any of those is going to be a lot easier to get into.

Grand Haven, Mears, Hoffmaster, Ludington aren't worth the hassle to try and get a reservation - overhyped if you ask me. Lots of other (better) choices - JMO.

Petoskey is one of our favorites, but be aware that neither of the two campgrounds within the park are on the water. From the Dunes campground there is a short trail over a low dune and across the parking lot of the public beach area.

South Higgins does not have lakefront sites either--it's a short-to-medium walk, depending on where your campsite is located, but it is enormously popular with boaters, because campers can leave their boats in the water for the duration of their stay. The lake is beautiful and crystal clear, and well stocked with fish. It's very hard to get a reservation there.

Same goes for Platte River, which is very popular, and about a mile from Lake Michigan.

Most of the Lake Michigan shore is lined with tall dunes, and most of the campgrounds are on the other side of the dunes from the lake.

[GordonThree]

Enjoy your visit, best of luck finding a site.

[Katman1100]

Thanks for all the great info and parks to look into. Sounds like there are many other good choices I didn't know about. We would like to stay further south this time. We have stayed at silver lake and liked that as well.
Last year we took the boat up to torch lake area and enjoyed the beautiful blue water, but was a little cool. This trip would just be the rv and it is so nice for kids to be able to walk out of rv and swim right there without having to pack up a load of stuff and drive somewhere.

We may try several of above mentioned areas in southern part of the state. It is easy for us to move, we only hook up power. So we are flexible.
Thanks again

[GordonThree]

2gypsies wrote:
If you can't get into Grand Haven, try Manistee national forest campground on the lake - beautiful beach, shade, big sites, quiet:

This is a beautiful park. FYI none of the sites are anywhere near the beaches they picture on the website. You can't even see the water from the camping areas.

[2gypsies1]

If you can't get into Grand Haven, try Manistee national forest campground on the lake - beautiful beach, shade, big sites, quiet:

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/lake-michigan-at-manistee/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRS...

[GordonThree]

Young State Park in Boyne City has beautiful wooded sites overlooking the lake as well as plenty of open sites on the lake as well.

[troubledwaters]

Try Petoskey State Park, further north (about 3 hours which is what you spent in take down and move 3 times), on the beach, and much easier to get into. Also you can try Platte River Campground (Sleeping Bear Nat'l Lakeshore). I also second Higgins Lake South SP. Any of those is going to be a lot easier to get into.

Grand Haven, Mears, Hoffmaster, Ludington aren't worth the hassle to try and get a reservation - overhyped if you ask me. Lots of other (better) choices - JMO.

[GordonThree]

Katman1100 wrote:
To answer a few questions: Yes what we liked that it is right on the beach/lake. I was able to stay there last summer 3 nights by just moving around each night. That was with only about a week notice, so I just got lucky and picked up some cancelled days by other people.
Yes I do know the sites are extremely close together, and there is blowing sand everywhere, but at least it isn't salt water. However the kids loved it, and it was nice to be right on the water so it was worth the hassle to me for a few days.
GordonThree I will look into Manistee beach, that sounds pretty good. We boon dock completely quiet often for several days at a time so that would work, but I really would like to be camped right on the lake. Let me know if you have any other recommendations that are as close as possible to the beach.

Take a look at it on Google Earth, you're pretty close.

Other parks with lakefront sites, these are really sites and not just parking spaces.

Newaygo State Park, rustic
Benton Lake National Forest Park, rustic
Higgins Lake North and South, might be crowded very close to expressways
Silver Lake, same problem with expressway

Now further North
Interlochen State Park
Grand Traverse State Park, beach is across the road, ped bridge
There's a private park right on the lake in Bear Lake

Even further North Wilderness State Park has over 100 large sites on the beach

But honestly July is sold out for premium sites like those on water. There's still hope for Labor Day!

[Katman1100]

To answer a few questions: Yes what we liked that it is right on the beach/lake. I was able to stay there last summer 3 nights by just moving around each night. That was with only about a week notice, so I just got lucky and picked up some cancelled days by other people.
Yes I do know the sites are extremely close together, and there is blowing sand everywhere, but at least it isn't salt water. However the kids loved it, and it was nice to be right on the water so it was worth the hassle to me for a few days.
GordonThree I will look into Manistee beach, that sounds pretty good. We boon dock completely quiet often for several days at a time so that would work, but I really would like to be camped right on the lake. Let me know if you have any other recommendations that are as close as possible to the beach.

[valhalla360]

It's a very popular park. No secret tricks. As soon as the sites open up, they get reserved.

Great Beach and right on the edge of town, so easy to walk in.

[hornet28]

Do you know that it's all sand and pavement with no shade