South Higgins Lake State Park — Attraction in Gerrish Township

WORTH THE READ!! we stayed in the first section and had sites 65, 67, and 92 (all pretty much next to eachother with exception to 92 who was about 3 sites away). Nobody could make this up when I tell to my brother who plugged into site 92 instantly had smoke in his camper right after he plugged in(with surge protector) and not even a minute later overheard a complete stranger in the site next to him say he too had smoke in his camper after he plugged in(also with surge protector). neither of them no longer had power other than running off the campers battery. This is a 2020 and a 2022 camper might I add. both of their power inverters were fried. both had black burn marks and liquid on them and what looks like a capacitor that blew open on top. They both had to drive to camping world and spend $250 on new inverters. The DNR was called to the sites about 5-6 times in total. first time they came out they just hooked meters up and said everything checked out and that it was their campers that were the problem(hard to believe 2 totally unrelated campers right next to each other on the same circuit). Even after new inverters were installed the power kept going in and out at the sites. the next morning they woke up and once again their campers were running on the battery power. they no longer trusted the sites and hooked up to the 120 V instead at different pedestals. They requested the DNR get an actual licensed electrician out there to investigate and even he was dumbfounded and was scratching his head and had no explanation. so when we were finally just moving past the situation the following day Friday evening my 2023 camper started running on battery power and my inverter got fried too! THATS 3 $250 INVERTERS WITHIN 40 YARDS OF EACH OTHER. At this point DNR was out for about the 6th time and once again told us its not the campground! we gave them ideas like maybe a root or a stake was driven into the power or something and they weren't even interested in investigating it. told us they will just continue booking these sites even when we leave. They literally told us we should plug our campers in WITHOUT surge protectors. That's literally owning a camper 101 not to do that. Multiple other people in the area were having weird electrical problems. There was a kid who was sleeping outside because he was afraid to be in his camper by himself being that it was smoking when they plugged in! We tried to even get half off the site because we had to deal with all that and they wouldn't even do that! And if we were to want reimbursement for the new inverters we had to buy we have to issue a claim with the state who most likely is going to just call the campground and they are going to just tell them that it's not the campground and that its the 3 newer campers right next to each other that is the problem. I would not book any sites in this entire first section if I were you go to the complete opposite side of the park! Also apparently don't be proactive and book your site ahead of time because apparently their rule is that is you prebook you can't get to your site till 3pm even if its been empty for more than 24 hours. you should just randomly show up hoping they have a site and purchase your site that same day because then they will let you back to your site right away. Make that make sense! I was literally standing at my parents empty site when they blatantly lied to them and said they were cleaning it.. Enjoy my picture of my blown up invertor the other 2 looked the exact same. look at the blown tops of the brown cylinders. Their supervisor's name is Rachel and she wouldn't do anything for us other than give us a refund if we left right now when we still had 2 more nights and were 4 hours away. Probably so we can be our of their hair and they can just book the sites again to...

South Higgins Lake Stare Park is our favorite campground, conveniently located between US 127 and I-75. It is a boater's, fisherman's, and swimmer's/beach-goer's dream, and a great family camoground.

One mile of white sand beach and knee-deep water on crystal clear Higgins Lake that is over 10,000 acres. There is a designated, marked, day use beach, and the entire shoreline has designated, marked, beaches separated by non-beach access points to launch kayaks or small boats, and there are 3 designated dog beaches, one at each end of the campground area and one at the end of the day use area.

There is a camp store at the day use beach with trails from the campground. The store offers ice cream, limited food items, campfire wood, propane tank exchange, snack items and camping need items, t-shirts and souvenirs.

The campground offers both wooded and open sites with some full hook-ups with electric, water and sewer. All sites have 30 amp or 30 and 50 amp electric. The one thing to watch is the campground slopes up from the lake, and some sites are very unlevel while some may flood. Watch the site descriptions!

The campground can handle both big rigs and tents with some sites offering some privacy.

There are benches, swings, playgrounds, and picnic grills all along the beach walk. There are also volleyball nets near the camp store and between loops 1 and 2 plus an open field for baseball, soccer, etc.

The park offers multiple boat launches on a calm lagoon with a dredged, marked boat access to the lake, a large parking lot, and a boat wash.

Across the main road to the park is Marl Lake, a smaller, shallow lake good for kayaking or small boating, and there are walking trails.

Roscommon is charming on the south branch of the AuSable River near the headwaters, and there is a canoe livery. There is a McDonalds and some nice, smaller restaurants. There are plenty of small shops and a bowling alley.

Houghton Lake is the largest city about 20 minutes south, and it offers shopping centers, fast food and restaurants. There is no hospital, but there is an excellent urgent care clinic.

Grayling is 25 miles to the north, and there is a National Guard training base there. Grayling offers a few restaurants, bars, fast food, grocery stores, and limited shopping. Hartwick Pines State Park with a campground and the Old Growth forest is about 15 minutes north. Grayling is on the headwaters of the main branch of the AuSable River and is near the north branch, and there are canoe liveries. Grayling has a small branch of Munson Hospital.

The city of West Branch is 25 miles to the south. It has a larger hospital and shopping centers at the south...

Let’s be clear here since some other reviews acted like this campground was full of surprises...

This is a large state campground with all walks of life. That means young adults partying on weekends, screaming kids, and barking dogs. This shouldn’t be a shock to people because this is a VERY popular family friendly place. Yes, some people do stay up past quiet time playing music but I have never had a terrible experience with people being too obnoxious. You should also really expect to hear kids early in the morning, because they’re being kids!

If you want a nice shower you should plan ahead. If you want a nice clean stall with warm water you should get up very early before the bathroom rush. With that many people using the water, you can’t expect it to stay warm all day (common sense) and yet I’ve seen so many reviews complaining about how cold the water was and how dirty the showers were. There are hundreds of people using these, they are bound to get sandy and the cleaning crew comes in I think 2-3 times a day.

Definitely expect no WiFi. This is a campground, they do not provide internet nor should they be expected to (still can’t believe people are dumb enough to expect it). You are there to enjoy the outdoors on a beautiful lake, not to stare at your phone.

The DNR staff is very friendly. Some of them are teens and naturally aren’t respected by adults, so if your campsite neighbor is loud and rude, make sure you ask an older employee for help.

Many people bring their pets, so you will hear dogs barking. THIS SHOULDNT BE SHOCKING and yet people are so fired up about it. Just don’t come if you’re not a dog person or can’t stand the sound of them barking. I’ve always experienced dogs barking but it has never bothered me.

If you come during 4th of July, expect a very heavy police presence both on land and water. Usually where all of the boats hangout in front of the store there’s a huge water party. If you have kids, avoid this area as many people are drinking. Also, cops tend to drive their jet skis through the large crowd which is actually very dangerous and they should know better. The boat basin usually has a long line extending all the way out of the park on a nice 4th of July weekend, so it’s extra chaotic, but there are usually at least 3-4 cops watching to make sure everything goes smoothly. Expect to see a few drunks loaded into ambulances and maybe a few arrests, it’s actually very entertaining.

I’ve been coming here for years and in my experience everything is great and what you should expect from a state campground.

I’ve been coming to this lake for 15 years and always come...