Baraga State Park

This is the first Michigan State Park we have stayed at that has offered some sites with full hookup, which we took full advantage of. I’m sure there are others, but as far as I know, this is the only one in the UP. The FHU sites are a mix of paved and gravel (we prefer paved) and are in the south and southwest corner of the park. The rest of the sites are the usual MSP fare: grass, mostly level, 20/30 amp (some 50). One lane dump station.

Two bathhouses, both with showers, small playground (but the Friends of Baraga SP are fundraising right now to build a new one), some permanent yard games (cornhole, ladder golf). Also one of the only parks we’ve been at that encourages recycling, which we appreciate. Both Verizon and AT&T work well here, there is also Wi-Fi, but only near the center of the campground and it is slow regardless. You’ll have better luck making a hotspot on your phone.

Only minutes to Baraga and L’Anse. Small casino in Baraga, some small stores in downtown L’Anse. Bishop Baraga Shrine and many, many waterfalls. 30 mins south of Houghton/Hancock and about 55 minutes northeast of Marquette.

Now the elephant in the room. The park is right on US Highway 41, and the day use area with the beach is on the other side of the highway. If you plan on staying here, expect to have to cross the highway to get to the beach and expect traffic noise. There’s a train track that runs behind the park, but we were here 3 nights and not one has gone by.

ATVs and UTVs are welcome, but only to access the trails outside of the park, not just to run around.

We liked this park! It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we think it’s just fine :)

The park has lots of amenities and things to do. The roads are narrow and would be hard to maneuver if the park was full due to vehicles being parked along the road. Our site was semi level grass. It was plenty large enough to accommodate our rig and truck and be able to unhook. The fees are outrageous! If you want to stay in a state park as a resident you are good but if you are a non resident visiting the state parks in Michigan, you will spend a lot of money for camping. As stated elsewhere, there are other parks that are full hookups, wider roads to navigate, and cheaper than the state park. When we were leaving out, we had to have a vehicle moved that was parked on the side so that I could maneuver to the exit to leave. I do believe we will stay in a private CG next time we visit Michigan.

This would be a gem of a campground, if only it wasn't so close to US 41. Nice wooded, electric only camp sites, great shower/toilet facilities, neat path; we enjoyed this park, except for the traffic noise. Baraga on the other hand is close to ghost town status. The best part was an old hardware store with two foot isles packed with nearly everything available at a big box store plus more from before I was born. There is a low key copper mine museum, Baltimore Copper Mine, south of near by L'Anise, Irene Pizza is a block away, and Carla's Restaurante, bar and motel is pretty good for dinner, only about 3 miles; she brags about her white fish. There is an Ojibwa campground near by this park that might not have the same traffic noise.

Nice state park, they say you can ride a utv right from this park (we did not). The sites were massive, we picked one with a lake view not realizing that put us right up next to the highway. There is a considerable amount of noise as a result but the later it got the quieter it got. Amazing, clean shower house, probably the best I’ve seen in a state park. The staff was nice and helpful the fire pits were clean and nice, they were unlike any fire pit I’ve seen at a state park, I loved it.

We stayed on site 12 with FHU. The website claimed it had partial shade but the partial shade comes at the very end of the day, the rest is all sun. We happened to have a 95 degree day as our last day there and it got brutal, especially being on an asphalt pad and with the wind too strong to bring out the awning. Nice pad though, level and fairly new with no neighbors on one side. It was a very nice site just not ideal for hot temperatures. Most sites are fairly level. Some had a lot more shade than others. Sites 5-11 seemed to have the most shade for the FHU sites.

The park was clean. The staff was friendly and helpful. They had fun crafts they offered at 2pm for the kids. There is a small town nearby with a drive-in, a pizza joint, and a bar. The park is across from Lake Superior. It's a nice park to relax in. P.S. - it does have train tracks directly behind site 12 and the others but we stayed 6 nights and a train never came through once.

It’s a nice campground with FHU on perimeter of one side; but mostly electric only sites. Well maintained. However the constant road noise from a busy US-41 is a big negative. Have your ear plugs and sleeping pills ready.
Tip: about a mile north on US41 is the Ojibwa Rec Area that has beautiful water views, no road noise. Electric only sites. First come $20 a night. Much better experience.

We visited the Keweenaw peninsula from here. Sure its an hour drive up to Copper Harbor (which we should camped at), but it was nice to check out the area.

Went to L'Ance town driving towards Scanee to find the high point. Lots of twisted dirt roads in the middle of nowhere but did find Mt. Arvin high point. Two wheel drive high clearance truck works well to get there.

Campground is across the street from the lake, so be careful walking over. They should put up a safety bridge or crosswalk or something. Not much in the campground itself. Walk to the DRIVE IN outside restaurant to get ice cream or other typical fried food.

Go see the Bishop Baraga statue nearby, and the Casino about a mile away. Also be sure to see waterfalls galore in the area.

Note as with all state parks you need the RECREATION PASSPORT sticker which is $33 for out of state per year ($9 for single use) and well worth the cost to support state parks.