Warren Dunes State Park — Attraction in Lake Charter Township

This is a Michigan State Park you’ll definitely want to visit if you like broad, wide open beaches with lots of sandy swimming space or enjoy exploring a variety of trails ranging from woodland, dune, to wetland all in the same two hour hike. Ample parking is available close to the beach. Consider picnicking on a beach blanket because the few roadside picnic tables fill up fast on busy weekends. Like all Michigan state parks, if you buy an annual parks pass with your auto license (a great deal!) you just drive in. The day pass isn’t expensive for those without a pass though. It’s surprisingly uncrowded most days considering it’s a little over an hour from Chicago. If you pick a beautiful weekend in the summer expect a crowd and try to arrive early, but even on those packed weekends you’ll still get a parking spot and enjoy your beach day. We’ve been there dozens of times and found the beach nearly deserted on some weekdays, especially outside of peak season, and on a day when we had to troll the parking lot for 10 minutes to find a spot we still had lots of room to spread out. If you have the stamina for the 260 foot climb up the main dune bring a hat and water as you’ll want to head off down some of the 6 miles of mostly dune trails which will take you to a glorious lookout over the tops of the trees. My brother, who lives in Massachusetts and has explored many wonderful trails hiked it with me last May and couldn’t get over how beautiful and varied the trails were. He said,” You’ve really got a gem of a park here in West Michigan. If I lived here I’d be out here every weekend.” If you go in the late spring or summer you should bring along some insect repellant for the wooded shady sections of the trails. Some places may be wet also so waterproof hiking boots will help. If you end up at the north end where the trail comes out onto Lake Michigan pull those boots off and walk back with your hot feet in the cool water! There are tasty refreshments for sale at the edge of the parking lot and the restrooms are quite clean (“beach standard”). There are many excellent beaches. parks, and cute towns along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan so if you try Warren Dunes and like it you just might want to make a week of it and keep...

Great time and I highly recommend camping here!!

We stayed Friday until Sunday. Friday night there was a rainstorm that lasted 6 hrs, dumped a ton of rain on us but our campsite stayed dry (#204). Other campsites were flooded out, maybe 10 or so in the whole park.

Saturday, undoubtedly due to the heavy rainstorm the night before, waves reaching 6' high were waiting for us on the beach of Lake Michigan. We jumped in and rode the waves on our boogy boards all the way back to shore. Beautiful experience for my family. Also took a hike on the dunes, and we were rewarded with some truly breathtaking views.

Sunday was uneventful starting out as we packed up our gear and loaded it into my truck. Then as we were almost to the park's security gate to leave, my truck broke down. There were 4-5 vehicles that stopped and asked if my family and I were ok and if they could help. Special shout out those who stopped and tried to help the "Grey ghost" get back up and running. The park staff was also extremely helpful and courteous towards my family's situation with breaking down. Very happy for all their help and monitoring to make sure we were OK.

All in all, great time and I'd do it again in a heart beat. If you go, your only regret will be that you couldn't stay longer than the weekend.

Thank you...

The park itself is wonderful. We had camp site 100 which was perfect and had trees for shade. The employees were wonderful and the beach was fun with music and food trucks and just a wonderful positive experience. Our only ... frustration caused us to leave a day early. New campers checked in Saturday for what I think was a family camping trip with 7 young children. The elders in the family didnt seem to speak or perhaps understand us but all 14 people continued to walk through our campsite and not use the path in fron of theirs or the roads. Tripping over our electric lines, having a squirrel gun fight 3 feet away from us and our food and power banks. We asked several times for them not to and within 3 minutes back to walking through the middle of our site, running around our vehicles (parked in our site) and then the children were disrespectful and smiling as they encroached. The previous campers were nice fun and respectful and the new ones... we're kinda nightmare. That doesnt reflect on the park but I would say, michigan is so diverse and perhaps including site rules/ etiquette for foreign campers would be nice. We have never had this happen anywhere we have ever camped before so perhaps it's a one off. Will definitely be back... hopefully with...