Traverse City State Park

Llegamos en pleno fin de semana de Labor Day asi que el lugar estaba lleno, no teniamos reservacion asi que nos pusimos en la lista de espera por medio del sitio de Internet, que es la unica manera , como a las 4 hrs alguien cancelo y en automatico nos cedieron un lugar, el lugar pertenece al Estado y lo mantienen en perfectas condiciones es muy grande y al cruzar la avenida esta la playa del Lago , increible lugar, hay un paso peatonal elevado que comunica con la Playa , el ambiente en el lugar es muy ordenado , cero contaminacion de stereos o musica a todo volumen, los baños y duchas muy limpios en general el ambiente es muy agradable , y es un lugar que justo esta en el centro de la ciudad , sin duda alguna una experiencia que vale la pena!!! Pero no olviden reservar y comprar su pasaporte para el acceso a los parques y lugares recreativos del Estado de Michigan , lo puedes comprar al ingresar al parque Saludos y Happy Camping!!!

The location is nice. It’s right across the street from the beach and has a crosswalk bridge over the main road. It also had direct access to the TART for biking into downtown. The sites are shaded. It is very large with lots of people. The worst part of the entire experience was leaving! Two dump stations for over 300 campsites. If you happen to be one of the unlucky people camping on the exit road to the dump station plan to add 30-45 minutes to your departure time. It’s a terrible setup for exiting.

This campground is pretty busy throughout the summer with sites pretty close together usually with little to no privacy barriers between them. Most sites are pretty level but there are some that have some pretty big bumps to them. The campground has lots of taller trees that can make navigating a few of the sites tough for bigger rigs, but they also provide pretty decent shade for the majority of the sites. Two out of three bathrooms are recently updated and still in good shape, though hot water can be hit or miss - no water/sewer at any sites so the showers see a lot of volume. Most folks we have encountered are pretty good about following the rules and don't get too rowdy or make a lot of noise too late so cant complain there. The real draw for this CG is the location - beach is right across the street, TART trail is right behind with foot/bike access into town and beyond, and it's by far the closest to downtown Traverse City. The park is right on US 31 but the road noise usually isn't too bad unless you are right in the front line of sites. We camped at Keith J. Charters Traverse City State Park in a Motorhome.

This state park is urban camping. The sites are packed in tight with lots of small roads. The location made it worth it for us, being close to downtown traverse city, and the park is attached to the TART trail which is great for getting around by bike. There is a pedestrian overpass from the campground to the beachfront day use area. The water was beautiful and a nice long sand beach. Just be prepared to be close to your neighbors.

This was our least favorite campground during a 10 day circle tour of Lake Michigan. We booked saying we had a 30 foot rig and I had to really work to get it into the site (60 on the east loop)I had to pull all the way into the site across the street to get in and out as the road is narrow and the back in is probably a 100-120 degree turn off the road. The site is at least 3-4’ below the road and short so my truck was on a steep incline and I had a difficult time getting the travel trailer unhooked. I’m order to leave I used blocks under the rear truck tires to help with the height difference and had to pull in and out into the site across the street 3-4 times. We went to make sure there was nobody staying in the site across the street because if there were, we would never have gotten out. There was another camper in the office saying they needed a new site and couldn’t fit into theirs either. The beach was our least favorite our tour as well.

We would 100% camp here again in a heartbeat!!! If you don’t like exercise, I could see why you may find the noise from the highway annoying at times and some of the sites are close together…..But, if you like exercise, this is the park for you!!! We road our bikes up to Acme for lunch and drinks right on the water, and you could keep going on the TART trail to other towns. Or, you could ride a couple miles the other way to downtown Traverse City and park your bike anywhere and not have to deal with parking issues.

Not having to drive was awesome! That alone makes this park worth it!!!! We rode our bikes everywhere, and you could always conveniently get off the TART trail to stop at a slew of restaurants to eat and drink. You could also easily walk to these restaurants which we did one evening. How nice to not have to use the car for 4 days!

You also can take the bridge across the road to the beach. It was very convenient.

Our site was pretty spacious, as it was on a corner, but others are tighter. However, I’ve been in a ton of RV parks with even tighter spots, so it wasn’t too bad. I also find that generally campers are friendlier people and you end up chatting with your neighbors anyway and have fun!

The bathrooms were clean and orderly when we went. The dump stations are harder to navigate as it is tight, but you really can’t beat this campground that’s a hop, skip and a jump to a bustling downtown.

We stayed at this park for 4 nights and in general it was pretty good. The biggest plus of this park is the location. There's a bridge that you can use to get to the Beach right on the bay. There's a trail to walk or bike into downtown. There's even a shuttle that goes into downtown (check at the main entrance to see the schedule).

The park itself seemed well-maintained. The bathrooms were kept up. There wasn't any laundry facilities but you can get that in town.

On the not great side: During the day there is a lot of air traffic - commercial airlines, sight seeing planes, and US Coast Guard low-flying helicopters. And... if you chose your site poorly, you may be up against the main road into town which is quite busy. Check your site's relation to that road! With all that noise, it does get much quieter at night. Honestly, it didn't bother us - we have a white noise generator that tends to make all that go away. But that may not be your case (for reference, we have stayed near semi trucks overnight and most places didn't bother us).

The other not so great thing is this park has an older layout which means you may have to do battle with low-lying trees and unlevel sites (even beyond what is said online). Do what you can to check out the site before booking. Would also recommend to pick sites away from the main road there (heavy traffic).

Related blog: https://www.joslynjourney.com/e96
Related video: https://youtu.be/Ej4_wnAj82M

Check in at this campground was simple and the staff was incredibly friendly. You can buy firewood and ice at the check in kiosk. Right as you enter the campground there is a dump station and an potable water fill station.

Our site was electric only, not much privacy in between sites but with the summer camping season coming to an end it wasn’t an issue as it wasn’t very busy.

Each site has a table with a really nice fire ring. There also is a pedestrian bridge leading from the campground to the waterfront area. It’s a great area to go swimming!

Be mindful that the road that the campground on is extremely busy, and at times we had a hard time getting out of the campground.