Brevoort Lake Campground

Don’t let the following dissuade you, this is a more than pleasant couple of loops situated—as most national forest campgrounds in the UP are—along a beautiful lake.

What first put me off on the place, aside from my continuing disdain for the high percentage of reservable sites in NF campgrounds out East, was the signage. The rules here are more akin to an RV Park than national forest. One RV/van and a tent, or two tents max, so no stuffing sites, which is acceptable (though the limit on number of people is 8, so two tents seems a bit low). But then “due to COVID” the rule is you must all be one family per site. So somehow you could come here and reserve two sites, a family in each, and hang around a fire together the entire time, and that would prevent disease but...anyway, confusing. Then there’s the “check in time is 2pm” rule, if you show up before 2 you have to pay for the night before. So if you’re first come first served, you basically have to loop the place or wait in a parking lot. I have never seen that rule anywhere in a National Forest before. The sign says it’s because they need time to clean the site up, but how does that equate to paying for the night before? Not to mention the 1,076 pistachio shells in our site which looked to be significantly at home in the place.

We drove around several times looking for a site that had bit sun for solar and cell reception for me to work. This was tricky, especially with the reserved sites, but found #14 to be adequate for both. At first cell service seemed non-existent but I ended up having enough to work all day (Verizon) and stream a movie at night.

The park is covered in trees, but the undergrowth is manicured. There’s a mini golf course which appears to be free. The host sells wood and ice. And you can rent kayaks and canoes for $20-$35 (see pics uploaded here.) all of this is quite nice, but with the proximity to your neighbors, well, this all just contributes to a more “RV Park” vibe. A very, very nice RV Park. I know that’s a positive to some folks, and a negative to others, so just throwing that out there. The loop away from the lake does seem a bit more quiet and private. A black bear and her cubs were spotted over there during our stay. It also rained 100% of the time, nonstop relentless rain that no doubt put a damper on our particular experience.

For me, this is a 2 or 3 star campground, but I felt like I was being too judgy so went with 4.

The chipmunks are not afraid of you, I caught one sitting on my foot.

Oh and just because I hate silly signs that have no business being in my national forest, that’s a reflection of S’mores Camp Management Corporation...the actual staff here were pleasant and cleaned the bathrooms really well every single day.

Most people would probably absolutely love this place. I’m just an old codger.

If you're traveling from Sleeping Bear Dunes to Pictured Rocks, an overnight stop at Brevoort Lake Campground nicely breaks up the driving. The campground offers primitive sites on a small lake just off the northern end of Lake Michigan. Many of the sites are lakeside. Our site had an obscured view, but a short path through the trees led to the water, where our dog enjoyed a swim. We enjoyed a peaceful night here before traveling north through the Upper Peninsula to Lake Superior. Cell service without a booster (Verizon and Sprint) was very limited.

A great national forest campground with huge sites and great views of the lake. The campground is on a point that juts out into the lake so almost all the sites have water access. The area is heavily wooded and there is decent privacy between sites. We unfortunately chose a spot next to a very noisy, very large family who made a quite a bit of noise late into the night. Despite the noisy nights we enjoyed our stay on the lake and would return again.