Sterling State Park

We stayed at Sterling State Park 9.11 - 9.15.23. When we arrived on Monday the park was nearly empty. It began filling up on Thursday. Our site, 26, was lake front had electric, no water or sewer hook ups. There is a sanitation station with three stations as well as fresh water. The showers and bathrooms were spotless.
There is a car wash across the road from the park that will accommodate most rigs should you need it. You will also find several national chain restaurants close by.
US Cellular and T-Mobile had decent LTE signals. We do not use 5G.
On our last night the large utility located next door was doing maintenance and it was rather loud, otherwise a quiet campground.
This is our third stay and plan to use it again in the future.

We were just passing through and decided to stay here. It turns out it is a nice park to stay at. I would like to stay a while longer but we have places to be and are headed to other campgrounds in Michigan, I would stay here again when I had more time to use the features of this park. The park has paved pads in all sites the park. Some of the sites have full hookups. The site we were on had 15,30,50 amp water and a dump which was handy after traveling for 5 days without dumping.

It’s an rv campground for sure. Not really woodsy but we were along the tree line. Swamp smell at night caused me to close the windows. The blinking lights of the plants nearby were noticed as well. Sounds don’t bother me as I sleep with earplugs. Sunrise was gorgeous. Park is nice for kids. Dogs are not allowed on the beach fyi but there’s a nice paved trail all around with a couple lakes you can have them dip in if they don’t look to bad.

This site is right on Lake Erie complete with a sandy beach. You can watch the sunrise as you drink your coffee. Neighbors we’re friendly and polite, but you are right next to 75 and a massive power plant and you will hear them the whole time. If you like background music, then you’ll be fine. Trying to get the passport online was a trial and I was never able to get it, but I was told at check in that a ranger would come by and sell me one directly, which took a huge load off of my mind. Overall it is absolutely a place I want to return to!

We grabbed a last-minute campsite when it opened up for this weekend. Even though the campground was full, it was relatively quiet. The sites are a decent size, especially for a state park. They are close together and not intrusively close. The lots are set up at an angle that makes this better. My neighbor on the street side of our trailer utilized every inch of the yard they had and only came over once when one of their balls rolled under the trailer. Sitting under the awning, I looked out into the street area rather than the camper next to me.

We arrived late in the evening and weren't prepared to cook. We went to R Diner, which I can not recommend enough, then hit a Kroger to get some groceries for the remainder of the weekend. The lake was closed to swimming due to hazardous water conditions (HABs), which was unfortunate.

We did not use the restrooms since we are fully contained. The dump station was nicely set up to service three campers at a time near the entrance of the park. There are two potable water pumps at both ends of each station with the sewer and another pump for black and gray tanks. Potable water was far enough away from the dump tank to pass our usability check. One criticism I had was that the navigation within the park was confusing. I think we traveled down the wrong way a couple of times when looking for our site. Better signage and one-way signs indicating this in a few spots would help.

Overall, I found this a lovely state park and will likely return again.

This place has so much potential! It's right on Lake Erie and is in wonderful shape. But it is right in between a coal plant and a nuclear plant. People were swimming in the water, but I was hesitant. If I didn't look anywhere but at the water it was a perfect spot! Clean, free showers. Fine for an overnight, but I wouldn't spend a lot of time here.

I almost don't want to give this place a good review because then it will fill up, but locals already fill it full on weekends. We would have stayed longer but there were 0 spaces open on the weekend. Reserve ahead of time if you want weekends.
During our trip swimming at many spots at the great lakes I could not find a campsite that offered swimming and had enough data to teach my classes. This campground had great data on Verizon. No problem at all teaching classes. The beach was just across the little road, about 50 feet to get to the water. The beach is wonderful soft sand, although at the waters edge and going into the water there are places with lots of rocks and shells. My boys and I enjoyed picking up rocks and shells (clam like shells and spirals). We also found some sea glass. There is also a fair amount of small trash on the beach. One local said that it is not usually like that.
We swam every day at least once. The water does not get deep very fast so plenty of swimming space. One day we walked up to the public beach. The tree roots are very cool to see there.
The bathrooms looked clean. Showers are each in their own room instead of inside the bathroom.
The negative is that there is very little space between sites and very few trees for shade. There is one area that backs up to trees, about numbers 34-40 if I remember right (the south end of the loop). Those spots go fast so reserve early to get them.

This is not my favorite state park in Michigan, but it's close to home and allowed a shakedown trip of my recently purchased used camping trailer. The site is not level, leaving the front of the trailer with the hitch all the way down and the back barely down at all, still not affording a level front to back camping experience.

The fire pit and picnic table are in great shape and the restroom facilities were clean. My only real complaint, and the site not being level is not as much of an issue for me as it would read, is the water pressure in the showers were at the mercy of anyone else using the showers at the time, making it hard to feel clean. The water is hot, which is nice.

Overall, I will stay here again with my boys.

This is a really beautiful, decently laid out campground set along a beachy shore of lake Erie.

Choice between either 50A/Sewer/Water or 30A only. Sites are solidly laid asphalt. Some are more level than others, but all can be worked with. Firepits and picnic tables at each site, and most are spaced about 50ft on each side from your neighbor.

Bathrooms/showers are well kempt, but if mayflies are out then you'll be showering/pooping with them.

Speaking of mayflies - they live here. The make love with other mayflies here. Then they die here. Nature.

Beach is un-gaurded but open for swimming. There are miles of paved walking/biking/running trails throughout the park and extending from the park. Playground is nice, but is in the day-use area. There is a paved path from the playground to the campground - it's not far from the lower numbered sites.

Firewood is for sale here, and camphost will lend you lawn games if you desire. Rangers host twice daily kids activities in the summer.

The park is surrounded in the distance by 'cloud makers' (energy plants of varying sorts). It's kind of neat, and is possibly what keeps the beach area of the lake warm? I'm not Neil DeGrasse Tyson, so don't trust me on that - but the lake was a nice, warm temp when we were here in late July.

The fees of this (and most) State Park are a bit obnoxious. There is a daily vehicle rate that you must pay for your rig of $9/day you are here (on top of price of site). If you are towing a vehicle there is a flat rate $7/entire stay. There is an online reservation fee ($8). We easily extended our stay by a day without any additional fees by going to the campground/ranger office - staff was super nice.

Verizon and AT&T both work well here.