W.J. Hayes State Park — Attraction in Cambridge Township

We have been camping at Hayes for years. This trip was an adventure in contrasts. We stayed mid-week when the park was mostly empty. The daytime staff were very friendly and accommodating when my wife requested changes to our reserved sites after viewing them in person.

Later that day, Meg at the check-in seemed rather diligent to the point of being rude and unnecessarily petty in the enforcement of the two car per site rule. We had 8 people total for two sites, and our equipment included three tents. We had a total of five cars, and we could easily park them in the RV concrete slabs. She told us we needed to book another site to park the fifth vehicle. She was remarkably inflexible and unhelpful. I understand that she was bored (as evidenced by her playing solitaire when we came back up to the booth) and needed something to do, but this was just plain silly.

She did call the park ranger when requested. When Ben, the ranger, arrived, he listened politely to our concerns and then reiterated the policy for us. He mentioned that they were working on getting overflow parking (there’s a huge parking lot across the road that he said we could not use and that we would be towed if we tried). He acknowledged that the policy wasn’t great and suggested that we ask our neighbors if we could register one of our cars to their sites.

Luckily, a camper arriving that night pulled in and consented to let us register a vehicle on their site. Meg was very sure to make sure they were comfortable with the idea, and then tried to enforce vehicle location on their site, which we ignored. She was, again, rude and unhelpful as we attempted to clarify cars for the following evening.

I have camped at Michigan State Parks for years and have never experienced this level of hassle about numbers of vehicles on sites, even when the parks were much more busy.

Facilities were clean, and everyone but Meg was very polite and helpful. Maybe she should stick to cleaning the toilets if she can’t be polite to patrons or exercise some common sense and discretion when enforcing park policies. Photos to both sides of our site attached...

Me and my family have been coming to this beach for years. And a couple of days ago, I camped at this state park for the first time since I was a child, about 25 years ago.

The beach area is very nice. There are concessions with general finger food, like fries and pretzel bites. There is also BBQ on weekends and holidays I believe.

The swimming area is exceptional. The water always seems to be clean and refreshing. You can swim quite far out before reaching the swim area boundaries as well. There is a LOT of room to swim. The water is all quite shallow also.

The campground is okay. While the spots were pretty close to one another, they certainly were not the smallest I've ever camped in. There are also over 100 camping spots.

There are also 2 nice hiking trails; one a 1/2 mile and one a full mile. Both go in a circle.

One thing that's kind of a bummer though is that the camping area is not that close to the beach. So driving to the beach is most likely your best bet if camping here.

The bathrooms in the campsite did not have soap either.

Overall, decent state park with an excellent swimming area and a campsite that's nice but with a few...

What a great time....again! Awesome lake within walking/biking distance for swimming. Clean showers and restroom facilities within a very short walk. Dollar General and and a Gas Station/Convenience store just outside the park. 15 and 30 amp hook up at site 107 with a water nozzle right there. Site specific info: 107's back is to the east. Since sites 181 and 183 are right behind you, there isn't any shade. All the sites are pretty much the same size. We use a 10X10 screen tent and 14X10 sleeping tent. We also use a sun shade that's 6X3. There is a picnic table at every site and a fire pit. Even with all our gear, there's room for a few chairs and another 14X10 tent. There's a cement pad at 107 that can find a Ram and Jetta. 181 can fit a Ram and Tahoe. We've never experienced negative folks here! Everyone is friendly and we've made friends on a few occasions. I grew up camping and this state park rivals any private park I've been to. No pool or putt-putt but I can find...