Hartwick Pines State Park

Unexpectedly, the campground was almost full during my stay. First few days in mid-week was mostly older folks and the campground was pretty quiet. Friday night was family time, however, so be prepared. LOTS of kids and family camping. Great choice for families but it was not quiet.

Many reviews comment on lack of cellular service. My site and my iPhone 14 Pro on AT&T did well enough for remote working (carefully) with two bars of LTE.

Some sites are very level but mine was not. The site was paved but required significant leveling both side and front-to-back to get reasonably level. I won't stay in that site again. Some sites also have sewer, unusual for state parks in that area. Mine did not.

Overall, I'd stay again at a different space but would probably find a local state forest campground for a more quiet weekend stay.

This is one of the largest state parks in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. There are several full hookup sites in the center of the campground but do not have shade. We chose an electric only site in a wooded area. You can see your neighbors but are not particularly close. In the evening, the campground was quiet; however, we were there only on weeknights. Firewood is available in the campground and about 3 miles away toward Grayling. If you have time, the interpretive walk in the virgen forest is worth the time as is a float trip on the Upper Manistee river.

If you're looking to get away from it all then this is the right place to camp! Don't plan on using your cell phone unless you have a directional external antenna. The cell sites are 3mi East & 3mi West and you're in a bowl. You'll have to drive to the entrance or visitor center to get a decent signal. Crappy over-the-air TV with external antenna also. Satellite is your only hope....but, you didn't come here to watch TV or Internet or make business calls all day right??? Lots of walking/bike trails, even a paved bike trail to Grayling (about 10mi). Historical logging museum & old growth forest. Very spacious sites, plenty of room for your slides without intruding on neighbors or trees; good solid foundation (but sloped from center for drainage so center your rig for the perfect level); nice grass, great fire rings. Unlike National Parks, this State Park can accommodate any size rig from monster Class A+ to your tent! The restroom/shower facility is top notch with individual room showers. Michigan DNR does know how to take care of guests!

Hartwick Pines, like many Michigan State Park Campgrounds, is really well maintained, with nice sites and clean facilities. This particular campground also has some local activities and an interesting museum with a wood-shaving festival in the summer.

The campground has a variety of sites, some completely wooded while others are in more open areas. Bigger rigs may have trouble getting into some sites and a few of the bends are somewhat tight, but we had no serious issues in our 42ft class A.

I was hoping for better cellular internet performance than the previous reports, but I'm sad to say that nothing has changed. Despite being in an LTE service area on both the Verizon and AT&T maps, we could not get LTE service on either, even with the use of antennas and a booster.

The local towers are also very congested in the evenings, so expect very poor network connectivity here. The best I managed to achieve was about 5Mbps in the very early morning on AT&T. Most of the time download speeds were well under 1Mbps on both Verizon and AT&T.

But other than that, we enjoyed our stay and the central location is convenient as a hub for visiting nearby areas.

We stayed at Hartwick Pines State Park because of its proximity to Grayling, MI and fly fishing on the legendary AuSable River. The Logging Museum and Old Growth forest area are both a short bike ride away and well worth the visit. As a bonus, this MI State Park has several full hook-up campsites. The bathhouse was immaculately clean and like most Michigan State Parks, has separate, individual shower stalls. We had site #111 and it was a large pull-through site with trees that provided privacy from site next door. The only downside to our site was the weird access to it with you tow vehicle (I honestly can’t explain it!)

Grayling is a 15-minute drive away and is your typical northern Michigan town, except a little bigger than most. We went to the Black Bear Brewery in town and it was ok. We had a really fantastic dinner at the Gates Au Sable Lodge, located east of town on the Holy Waters of the Au Sable. I also used a guide from Gates on two of my Au Sable River floats and I highly recommend them. In the summer there are several rafting and canoeing places in town so you can rent something and float the river if that’s your thing—it’s a very lazy river flowing through sandy hills and pine forests.

We have stayed a week at a time at Hartwick Pines Campground for the last several years and have always enjoyed it! The campground is well maintained, bathhouses are clean, sites are reasonably sized and those in the wooded area all have good privacy due to shrubs and trees between sites. Lots of good hiking trails, and the logging museum is a must if you are staying there! Fun for kids and adults equally.