Cheboygan State Park — Attraction in Benton Township

UPDATED* GROUPSITE

Just got off the phone with management - we are using the group site with 52 people.

52 people on one pit toilet… here goes nothing.

Upon arrival, a kind employee helped us check in. We were told that the reason that bathrooms weren’t available during the night is because the beach area is technically “day-use” so it would be illegal for the park to keep them open… that’s understandable, so I asked if they’d be open during the day, sunrise to sunset (sunrise was at 7:05am while we were there)… they told me they usually open them at 8:00am but would aim for 7:40am just for us.

The first night/morning went fine. People knew what to expect and planned their bathroom use accordingly…

To our dismay, on the second morning, the bathrooms were still locked at 7:50am. 4 women waited patiently as I explained that someone would be there at 8:00am for sure… by 8:15am, no one had come to open the bathrooms… at 8:30am, a dozen women were lined up to use the bathroom that they were told would be open by 8:00am at the latest.

At this point, a few people broke rank and looked for creative options to avoid the pain of holding it in any longer.

8:40am - no park ranger… bathrooms still locked…

I called the office at this point and they told me “those bathrooms aren’t locked.”

“Yes they are” - I said

“Oh… we’ll try to send someone down there…”

At this point, we all lost hope and found other solutions to relieve and care for our bathroom needs.

I don’t know when they unlocked the bathrooms but is was sometime after 8:50am…

Needless to say, it was a low point for every person who was counting on those bathrooms to be open at 8:00am… especially for some of the women on the trip.

I gave 3 stars because the group campsite was nice and quiet, the beach area was beautiful, and the staff seemed nice. If bathrooms opened on time, it’d be +1 star for sure… if they opened a tad early, it’d be a 5-star experience!

Excited to go back and try again…

I’ll update this review if/when I...

This is our first time at this park, but I have to say, it is a terrific one! The staff is great and friendly, very knowledgeable and never rude or short like I have encountered at other campgrounds. The campground itself is empeccably clean, and the campers we encountered were of the quieter, family type. The bathrooms are cleaned twice daily. The bay on which it is situated is beautiful, and there are plenty of trails for lite hiking. Firewood can be purchased here. Kayak rentals on-site. And they take credit cards. Hammocking seems to be OK here, though I don't remember for sure if it was mentioned in the park rules.

Dogs are allowed in the camping area and on trails, leashed at all times, but not allowed at all in the beach area that is not connected to the campground.

Our site was wonderful, with cedars, a mostly-flat gravel pad, and a breeze coming off the lake. It looks like most of the sites have some degree of separation from each other by a row of trees, though some more than others.

Mosquitoes were annoying, but not too bad at our campsite. I imagine the sites without the lake breeze had a worse time with bugs. The mosquitoes and flies were, however, a nightmare on the trails. But I guess that's par for Northern Michigan wilderness and I can't hold it against...

Camped here week after Memorial Day 2024. Nice quiet park. They closed campground in 2023 to update electricity to sites - all sights now have new 20 & 30 amp pedestals. They are scheduled to close & replace the bathroom/shower building later in 2024 - the current one is old but was clean & had nice hot showers. The sites along Duncan Bay are my favorite with most having a short trail to the bay - others can access the bay via the carry-in water access. The bay is very shallow & rocky but beautiful. The park has a groomed beach (no dogs allowed) across the bay from the campground that you can drive to or you can hike a long trail through the woods to miles of empty beach on Lake Huron. Sites are not real big & are pretty close together but most (especially the row on the bay) have a good stand of trees between sites. Campground Map on State Parks page is wrong - there are only 72 sites now & they moved a lot of the numbers around this year - my photos have the updated map which matches the reservation system map - I was told green sites are shaded & yellow sites are in sun - which looks about right - the site I had was in full shade & is green on the new map but the description said full sun when I booked it probably because it was yellow & across the road on...