Lake Hudson State Recreation Area

Beautiful campground. We were fortunate to have reserved one of the best sites (in my opinion) at the campground. It was shaded and we didn’t see any other campers unless they were walking or driving by, the other sites weren’t within view. There are wide open sites, however, if that’s what you’re looking for.

We will definitely be going back there several times.

We stopped here overnight on our way west. It is a bit of a hike from the highway. We didn’t need a reservation, although a lot of sites were reserved, especially those closest to the lake. All the sites have an electric pole but the pole is a long ways away in some of them. None of the sites are pull-through. Once you find a site you like that doesn’t have a reservation slip on the post, remember the number. You then drive back to the Headquarters building (about a mile plus) and pick up the yellow phone, which connects you to someone at MI State Parks. Then you find out if you can stay in that site and pay. Check-out time is 1 pm.

Sites are mostly very private, some wooded and some open. A very quiet park with only about 25% occupancy midweek. If you do not reserve in advance, you need to drive to the office and call (using their “yellow phone”) after you have selected a site.

Could not give 5 stars because:
1. Electric boxes are ridiculously far away from the campsites. With 50’ of cord we were not able to reach, so we had to back the camper into the path intended for us to walk to the box. Some sites are worse - up to 100 feet. Some sites have the boxes quite close, but these are generally the less desirable ones. 2, 4, 24, 25 are among those that have easily accessible boxes.
2. The only access to water is a very hard to operate hand pump. I had to hang onto it like the Hunchback of Notre Dame and pull down with all my body weight. After getting most of our water, an employee offered to let us fill up with a hose at the office.
3. Sites are not level. Plan on having a good leveling system if you have a trailer.
4. Poison ivy is EVERYWHERE. Use extreme caution!

The pit toilets were relatively clean. There was only one per loop.

The lake water was warm, and there is a small shallow swimming beach which kids would enjoy. No lifeguard.

Our site (23) had a long path to the lake with a ladder going down the small cliff to make it possible to set in a kayak. There is also a boat launch with a couple of places to set in.

We visited this park to see the night sky, but it was cloudy both nights. If we return, it will probably be during a less humid time of the year. We really wanted to see comet Neowise, but it wasn’t meant to be.

This state park is a great combination of nature and modern amenities. As the previous post said, there is little to no water, and the access to power can be a very far run. On site 42 we were able to use a 50’ extension cord and still have plenty to spare. As previously stated as well, the sites are not very level so we spent a fairly significant amount of time leveling our pop-up camper before setting up. Each site includes a fairly secluded lot surrounded by trees, a fire pit, a picnic table, and 30A 220V / 15A 110V electrical hookup. If you want a nice time away without too much commotion, this is a great option. We did, however have an issue on Friday night with someone exploding sticks of dynamite when felt like very close to our site. This occurred twice and each time shaking our campsite. We had decided if it occurred a 3rd time, we would alert the authorities, but thankfully it didn’t happen again. Overall, we really enjoyed our short stay!

When looking on the map you might think there is water to be had, but I warn you there was not. While there is a single well pump to use it was not working. We spoke with a DNR representative and he was not able to get it working either. We had only a small amount in our tank but thankfully we were camping across from family and they brought more. They had site #9 and honestly #8 was better. We also walked around to check out other sites and while I've read others review that #37 is the best site I wanted to mention that it rained while we were there and a lot of rain flows down through that site into the lake and it looked pretty funky afterwards. Our site was nice and wide and as others have mentioned it's a pretty long throw to the power. We used all the 50' we had to reach it. Oh, and I had 2 bars AT&T LTE, which was enough to stream Netflix from my hotspot.

No dump stations or water hookups. Well pump. Electric a distance from lots. Remote with cellular. If you have a trailer or rig larger than 30 ft just a few lots are level or large enough. Ideal for tents and small setups if you enjoy rugged campgrounds. Grass lots. Trails to beach and lake.. Gravel roadway.