Petoskey State Park — Attraction in Bear Creek Township

Unfortunately, there is a character limit on Google reviews and I can’t list everything. My rough draft was 2000 words of in-depth detail. But the gist is I was intentionally intimidated and bullied by two male staff members. I do have witnesses to these behaviors. They also purposefully censured and intimidated my middle school and high school campers to the point where we felt unsure of leaving the camp site at all to do anything even in the daytime when these 2 employees were not staffed.

After 8 years of planning a youth camping trip in state parks across the state and never having issues ever about anything I guess it was bound to happen.

The campsite was not clean but in fact VERY dirty. When we arrived, there was burnt trash in all four of the campsite fire pits, there were logs everywhere, there were full trash cans, no toilet paper in the toilet, and feces smeared all over the pit toilet.

Out of their control, there were also wasps everywhere in the group site, we left with 8 stings.

Also it wasn’t private at all. There were private residences nearby- we could see them from our site, which resulted in a lot of people in and our campsite and in the woods around us. One women would walk on the trail through our site (because the trail from the residence to the park was also our driveway into the organization campground site) on the phone, loudly, EVERY MORNING BEFORE 6.

One of the park staff mentioned at check-in that they were understaffed, so we chalked the mess up to ignorance and innocence of either people from the houses messing around in the site, or not having time to clean in between groups. We cleaned up the camp, and somebody even bought cleaning supplies and cleaned the pit toilet- I do have the receipts time stamped.

We had one incident of a noise complaint, and that was brought up at every conversation that I had, but it was immediately rectified when it did happen, and I had to profusely apologize every time I spoke with anybody even when it wasn’t the topic. It kept being brought up!

A day after we left, I received a complaint from the park that we left the campground in unacceptable state. Which is untrue. We MADE sure we left it clean. I was APPALLED with how it was left for us- I’m not going to leave it the same way for you. When I started to give some of my complaints, I wasn’t listened to but I was interrupted and told there was no way the site was left for us in that condition. She wouldn’t even let me offer that perhaps the people who were always in the woods and came into our site on several occasions came in on Sunday and messed around in the site after we left. I understand having camaraderie and trust with your employees, and believing their side of a story, but it is unacceptable as a supervisor yourself to not even listen to another persons- a park visitor and a paying customers, opinion when there’s an altercation ESPECIALLY WHEN IM THE ONE REACHING OUT AND SAYING HEY I DONT WANT TROUBLE PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE AFTER 8 SEPARATE CONVERSATIONS/SITUATIONS IN 2 DAYS!!!

I’m sorry I didn’t take pictures, because I assumed they weren’t aware and because we usually don’t interact with Park staff at all on our camping trips. I do have pictures of us having to clear logs from the sites to create space for tents.

2 of the women who worked in the morning when we were there were absolutely wonderful and so helpful. But the men were so horrible to me. Two of my other chaperone’s said that when they spoke to these two men particular, they were very polite to them. However, they will also attest to the fact that I was treated very poorly, rudely and with contempt. I don’t know if it’s because I’m young or whatever but it was DEFINITELY there.

Oh and perhaps you should also GET a policy that everyone follows regarding beach access to campers at night for stargazing since I was told multiple times different things by different ppl and insinuated a liar by a staff member (by his tone and phrasing) for repeating something different...

It's a decent campground. Nice facilities and location. The beach is really great, awesome concession stand and kayak/paddle board rentals. There is a laundromat, groceries, a brewery, pharmacy etc within walking distance. About a 10 minute drive to downtown Petoskey and 20 min to Harbor Springs.

I ended up leaving early because the bathrooms were not sanitary and many many people did not wear masks in the bathrooms. The bathrooms only get cleaned once a day. I called their office to complain and told them it didn't seem like the bathrooms were getting cleaned (the tampon boxes were constantly full, dirty stalls etc). There's hundreds of people using one small bathroom with only a few stalls multiple times a day. They said they would inspect and determine whether they needed to increase the frequency of cleanings.

I guess they decided not to because I ended up coming back a few weeks later. My friend had a reservation, and I noticed the bathrooms still had the same problem and were only getting cleaned once per day. It just seems gross to me.

Furthermore, the timing of the cleanings is just weird. Check out is at 1PM and check-in is at 3pm so to me it makes sense to close the bathrooms during that time. But instead they close the bathrooms for cleaning at 11AM... So all the people still there packing up cannot use the bathroom. I would think it makes sense to clean them early at 6 or 7am to clean up from the day before so that they are fresh every morning, and again at 1pm so that they are clean for all the new arrivals. Waking up to a dirty bathroom is just unpleasant. At other State Parks in Michigan the employees will sanitize the water faucets multiple times per day. This campground doesn't appear to do so.

My only other complaint is that the Dunes Campground consists of One Way streets but there isn't a single sign or indication that it's a One Way. You are supposed to just "know." Also the wood available for purchase is not cured and can be hard to get a fire going if you don't have lighter fluid or some other high powered fire starter.

Overall I didn't think it was a bad place, but management and sanitation could definitely...

Not the best as far as Michigan state campgrounds go. We stayed in the Dunes campground with our little trailer. We're liked that the sites have plenty of trees, but some sites are quite small. The electric for the sites are often shared (our electric post was for 4 sites!). You get one 20 amp plug, and it is upside down, so in order to plug in a trailer you have to do extension cord, to converter, to 30 amp cord.

Additionally, the bathrooms are old. They did keep them clean while we were there; however, the shower heads are hung very low, so if you are taller than about 5'2", you have to stoop to use them. Furthermore, I used a shower on the other end of the campground and the light was set on a 15 second timer! If I didn't wave my arms around in one particular area every 15 seconds, the light turned off. The showers also have a step in them, so it may be an issue for people with mobility difficulties. I am not sure if there is a handicap accessible shower, but I will update my review if I find one.

Edit: I did not go back to check the bathrooms or get pictures, but I wanted to add to be wary of fall camping. I'm not taking points off for this, but wanted others to be aware. We had a lot of issues with some kind of wasp or yellow jacket during our trip as well. At any given time, there were 4-8 swarming us and our camper. Made it very difficult to do anything outside, especially...