Camp Petosega

We wanted to get into Petoskey State Park, but it was full. Needed an alternative. This was great! Check-in was easy and the staff is great. Most sites are huge and spread apart with lots of foliage in-between. Each site has electric and water. The water spigot is about 4' tall and has 2 outlets with water pressure restrictors already installed. There are 4 playgrounds and a well kept 18 hole disc golf course. The beach is on the small side and has the usual swimmers itch warning found on many Michigan lakes. Overall, the park is very well maintained. 20 minutes to Petoskey.

There are 5 full hookup pull-thru sites. There are a few no hook-up tent sites with a raised platform for the tent. Wood is available for sale.

As noted, this is a very family friendly park so do be on the lookout for lots of kids on bikes.

The only negative has nothing at all to do with the park itself. It is the approach. If you are coming from I-75 traveling west, do not...I repeat...DO NOT...follow the GPS instructions to turn left onto Parke Rd. It is a horrible 1 mile, dirt, washboard, 5 mph road in bad need of grading. Keep going and turn left on Miller Rd which is paved.

Cell Service - We have T-Mobile. Mostly, it was not great. Bounced between 4G and 5G with only 2-3 bars. But you are not there to live on your phone! Right?!

Getting there: the roads are a bit rough and lots of hills/curves to get there but it's worth it. All paved and once in the park, it's smooth driving.

Checking In: painless and very helpful service. This place is pretty big and the front desk help was great with the map and directions. Very friendly staff.

The Site: spacious and comfortable!! Either paved, gravel or hard packed dirt, depending on site. Most are relatively easy to either pull thru or back in. Our site was mostly open with some shade but some are fully wooded with 100% shade (and considerably cooler). All are well maintained and seemed to be trash free.

The Campground: this is good for "quiet camping" but ideal for families or groups looking to stay near one another. VERY family friendly with lots to do for the kids, CLEAN and modern bath facilities, and just a real "camping is fun" kind of vibe. Yeah, some kids get loud a bit and driving through you'll need to watch for little ones on bikes or whatever. It's camping, not military school. Let them have some fun! Most are respectful and jump off the road when they see you coming. Great place for a family weekend or reunion!

We will definitely be back if we're in the area.

We arrived in the early evening and were greeted by a ranger for check-in. The ranger was friendly, gave us a map, and answered questions. The dump station was just after the ranger station and was an easy in/out prior to heading to our site.

We were in site 56 which is in the "new" section of the campground. We had to drive through the "old" part of the campground and it looked very nice. Throughout the campground, the sites are spread apart fairly well and all had picnic tables and fire places.

Site 56 was fairly easy to back into, but I probably wouldn't do it with much longer than our 42' 5th wheel. The pedestal only had 50amp and 15amp; there wasn't even a plug for 30amp. The site also had a water hookup with about 60psi of pressure. The bathroom and showers were new construction and were very nice. The showers are individual and there were 4 or 5 of them.

The area was very quiet and there weren't many people around. There is a nice trail that leads to the lake and there was an area where we could let our dogs run into the lake; it wasn't fenced, but dogs were allowed to swim. There was also a self guided audio tour.

We had enough Verizon and ATT service to work on video calls, but it lagged sometimes. We didn't have any issues once we put up our booster. The only pain was driving to/from the park as the bridge was out and you had to go around down a forest service road.

Overall, we would come back and stay again!

We stay at Petosega every summer because it has all the amenities we love. Water and electric at each site (full hookup is available too), wooded lots that are nicely spaced apart for privacy It’s on the Pickerel lake (part of the chain of lakes) with beach access (although a bit of a walk from the campground). Asphalt roads. Walking trials. Two playgrounds for the kids. Cabins available. It is a hidden gem. The only thing that has been a problem the last two years is swimmers itch in the swimming area so we cannot use at all and we take the kids to Petoskey State Park which is about 20 minutes away. Why don’t we go there instead? State parks don’t have water hookup and the sites are small and on top of each other.