Overview

If you take I-96 west past Grand Rapids until the interstate ends and then keep going until you hit the water, you’ll find Muskegon State Park. This park is about 1200 acres nestled between Lake Muskegon and Lake Michigan. One of many Michigan parks boasting dunes and the usual summer fun. This is also home to numerous winter activities including the Muskegon Luge Adventure Sports Park.

There are two main campground areas. One near the shore of lake Michigan, and one on Lake Muskegon near the channel connecting it to the great lake. Both are divided into two loops and both are modern with electrical hookups and modern bathrooms. The Lake Michigan Campground in the North has two mini-cabins, which are open year round.

Our Most Recent Experience

Admittedly, this is a park that my family had skipped over for camping in the past, but it is for a reason that might make it appealing to many campers: The fact that the campgrounds are modern. We tend toward rustic for the smaller crowds, but my son and I ended up having a blast going during an off time and trying out one of the mini-cabins at the Lake Michigan Campground.

Despite the plethora of state parks in Michigan, when looking in March campgrounds that are open can be few and far between. However, I take my boys each camping one-on-one at least once a year, and this was my middle son Zane’s trip for 2022. We decided to align it with his birthday, despite the unpredictable weather that time of year.

The campground wasn’t open for tent camping yet, so I booked a mini-cabin. This was a new experience for us, although we’ve stayed in the larger cabins before as a family. The cabin here is heated with two bunk beds, a mini fridge, and microwave. There is a vault toilet right next door between this and the other mini-cabin. Only two are available at this site.

Our first stop before setting up shop in our cabin was trekking up to checkout what’s called the “blockhouse”. This is an observation platform that was built here because it sits at the highest point in Muskegon County.

This lookout point is located along the scenic drive running from the Channel Campgrounds in the south to past Duck Lake State Park to the north. There is parking along either side with slightly different grades leading up to the lookout point. This is also a location to park for one of the trailheads, which we’ll come back to later.

After getting a lay of the land, it was time to unload the van. Zane immediately made himself at home rearranging furniture and finding places for all of his stuff. I actually hadn’t been crazy about the cabin idea, but watching him thrive in the newness of it got rid of my hesitation in a hurry.

The cabin was cozy overall. If you were to try this out with the full capacity of four people, I wouldn’t plan to spend too much time with all of you inside at once. That said, t was pretty good for the two of us, which ended up being important with the way the weather was about to turn. The campground overall was basically empty. I very much doubt this is the case during the summer, as the location was very nice. One side of the campground sits right along the coast, making it a short walk from the cabin to an overlook of the water and stairs leading down to the sand.

The chill and the strong wind during our visit basically made for an empty beach, and that was fine with me. It’s not often you can get this much great lake coast line to yourself at a park. We didn’t last incredibly long, but Zane was ecstatic about the larger than usual waves and watched longer than I expected given the weather.

The temp dropped further putting us inside the warmth of the cabin as the sun got lower in the sky. I love a good night in a tent, however, I admit it was definitely a lot easier playing games in the cabin. I was also happy for the heat when we woke up to a late March snow. You never know what season you’re going to get in Michigan.

Thankfully this didn’t dampen either of our spirits much, and we spent the day Saturday checking out what else the park had to offer. We had originally planned some fishing, but agreed that with the wind and snow it would be best to wait. There’s always a different mindset in spring than in the fall. If we were facing the end of the summer we might have forced in one last trip. Instead though, we scoped out possible locations for future trips.

The Lake Michigan Campground is near the north edge of the Muskegon park, and a brief drive up takes you to Duck Lake. There’s no camping at this state park, but there are trails and a couple of nice looking fishing spots on the small lake that hooks up to Lake Michigan.

At Muskegon state park itself we took a look at the fishing pier across from the park office. Muskegon lake is a large, relatively developed lake. At the time though, there were more birds than people.

Before the temp dropped further going into the evening we took a hike along the cross country ski trails. These are rather wide trails that are groomed during the winter months with regular lit markers for evening use, but they made for a nice afternoon hike in the “warmer” weather.

Our destination was Lost Lake on the far end of the loop we chose. This turned out to have a very nice overlook, complete with a couple viewing scopes. It’s not often you see these without the accompanying coin slot to pay for a chance to look. In this case we were pleasantly surprised to see these were free to use (though the smaller one was iced over on our visit). We also came across a locked box with a word combination and a riddle. Inside were stickers. A very neat little scavenger hunt type activity.

We wrapped up our second day with more game time in the cabin along with just some reading and chatting. It was a more low key trip than I had planned, but still ended up being a wonderful bday camping trip. That said, I definitely plan to take the whole family back at some point for a preferably snow-free trip.