Traverse City State Park

We were skeptical of a state park so close to a bumpin' city, but it turned out to be pretty great! This place was very very busy as it was the week before the 4th. Checkin was a breeze. We went right to the dump station which was an easy in/out right after the check-in station. You can get fresh water near the dump station.

This place is very big, but the signs will direct you right to your spot. It was snug coming in with our 42' 5th wheel. Our spot was very very snug and we had to ask the neighbors across the road to move their vehicles. Once we were in the site, it was awesome. There are large fire pits and nice, accessible, picnic tables. We were next to the main highway, but the noise wasn't too bad.

Our site only had electrical (30 amp), but there was a water station a couple sites over. Our dog loved the massive amounts of squirrels and chipmunks. There was plenty of shade which kept the camper cool.

Stayed 8/14-8/16/20 - $33/night

Huge sites, but very close to neighbors, so no privacy. They are in the process of updating all bathrooms and showers, so that will be nice. The “old” ones aren’t terrible, but only two showers for each section. Never had an issue however, even on a sold out weekend.

Wood ($5) and ice ($2) available on-site until 10pm. That was great!

If it wasn’t for the construction, would have been miserable turning left towards downtown. Beach access across a pedestrian bridge.

We stayed here 4 nights. Longest place we have stayed yet and we were happy we did. As out of starters we had to pay an additional 34 dollars for their state rec pass, we paid this at our last site. The site can be pretty close in some places and the sites themselves can be hard to navigate due to the trees. We were unable to situate so that we could have our slides and our awning fully out. It wasn't a problem with the awning since the site had great shade from tree coverage. The beach is across the street with a pedestrian overpass making it easy to get to. Beautiful beach and the overall area is amazing. Lots of other parks, beaches, and some nice vineyards.

We enjoyed our stay here. Loved that you could walked across the bridge to the beach. It’s a huge campground with almost 500 sites. They’re updating a lot of the sites and making improvements to them. The bathrooms were new and clean. The new sites are a concrete pad, while the older ones is just dirt and grass. We would definitely stay here again.

We like the vibe at Grand Haven better but the actual site here was the best of the four Michigan state parks we stayed at. Downsides though, it is on a major busy road. No way you are turning left. The road sound was loud until after midnight and early in the morning. It’s a weird state park in the middle of the city. Tons of construction. Right across from the beach with a nice bridge over the busy road. Lots to walk to from the park. Excellent cell service.

Street is busy going into/out of campground. Turning left out of campground is dangerous and a light is needed for big rigs to get in/out. Arrived at 1pm (mandatory checkout time), so dump station line was long on the loop our campsite was on. Since I had to wait for an extended period just to get to my site (358); I decided to forgo waiting longer to get to the narrow two lane (one lane requires a tight turn) dump station just to fill my water tank and then waiting another 25 mins to get to site again and make the line wait while I unhooked. Trees close to pavement almost blocked backing in/access to the site. I then attempted to use the UNTHREADED water spigot utilizing a "Cheater" / "Water Bandit" to fill my tank. The Camp Host yelled "You can't do that!" as he was walking up to me when I was filling my tank as if I was a criminal who should be publicly shamed. I submitted (at 50% full) not knowing if I missed some sign at checkin. I then looked up the Michigan Campground rules on the DNR website, which do not say you can't fill your tank from loop potable water fill stations. After 6.5 hrs of driving in high winds I was mentally exhausted and unwilling to argue.I later discovered at three other state campgrounds we used that they have threaded spigots, no host/ranger issues with using them, and there where 3 wide lane dump stations with fresh water connections that don't have long lines blocking campsites. Michigan needs to take a look at Traverse City State Park. The campers were loud and playing music after 10pm. Bathrooms were old and filthy and cleaned only on the last day we where there (Sat-Wed). Baths where buggy and floors where filthy. New bathrooms/bathhouse is planned apparently. Beach access was easy and location is great due to proximity to downtown and Sleeping Bear Dunes and many wineries.