Young State Park — Attraction in Evangeline Township

The Spruce section we were in (site 163) was very crowded and close together with virtually no trees or shade. I can see why the Oak and Terrace sections are preferred but the water levels are so high, many sites are flooded and not usable and the beach is almost gone. The few spots of the beach left are "spoken for" by people who leave their umbrella and chairs there the entire stay, over night, all day, regardless if they are at the beach or not. I wish the rangers would handle this. If you're no longer at the beach, take your things and let others use what little beach is left. We stayed over the 4th of July weekend, so it was very busy and Lake Charlevoix was extremely choppy. We did really like using our bikes in the park, their camp store with ice cream, and their little fishing pong with fish and big snapping turtles. The playground was your usually little campground playground but I was extremely disappointed that there was no "baby swing" for our special needs daughter to swing on, swinging is her favorite activity and pretty much the only thing she is able to do at a playground and she cannot hang on to a normal swing. Please get a baby swing. The rangers and staff were all extremely nice an helpful. Our neighbors put their tent entirely on our campsite and they handled it almost immediately when we informed them upon checkout. We also liked the area (close to Charlevoix, Petoskey, and Fisherman's Island SP) and we found tons of Petoskey stones off of Lake Michigan coast in Charlevoix, and Charlevoix stones at Fisherman's Island. The shower facilities in the Spruce section were okay too, but only 2 per gender in our section. No water hook-ups...

So I have been coming here for years for the beach and started camping here maybe 6 years ago. Until 2 years ago everything was great, but because of the high water in the great lakes, the beach and some of the sites are now flooded (3-4 in Terrace, 2-3 in Oak, more in Spruce down the center). Standing water here and there. It was bad last year but we stopped by for a beach day in the middle of June. Over 1/2 of the beach is gone. The walk way from the park store to the beach is flooded before you get to the end. You either have to walk completely around or thought the standing muck. They brought in sand to help but it's coarser and a bit uncomfortable to walk on. The areas where Spruce campers usually go for the beach is pretty much gone. Social distancing is going to be an issue on this beach. I might suggest holding off on going here until the water levels come back down. There is only so much the State Park system can do against mother nature.

Edit 5/25/21: Went on Easter week just to check out the beach. They seem to have fixed it. Looks like they brought in a bunch of new sand. Plus the water level is down from it's peak. Was unable to look at the campground since it was roped off. Will be coming back here...

We camped here one night over a long weekend of camping. We were really happy to be able to get a campsite as a number of them were closed due to flooding. I rated four stars as this campground is like some we have stayed at where there are ton of sites and hardly any buffer between the sites (if any). We are friendly people but we also like to be able to sit around our fire and not feel like we are on display for everyone to see. That is really the only negative I had. There is a path right to Lake Charlevoix, which, during our stay was very high and as such, there was hardly any beach to walk on but that isn't an issue with Young State Park. The bathrooms were cleaned daily and the shower areas were nice for camping. Looked like every site had power hookups which was nice as well. If you are out of state, as we were, you have to pay $9 for a day pass or $34 for a year pass. Even still, we felt the price was OK... A little steep but as I mentioned earlier in my review, we were thankful to get a...