Indian Lake State Park — Attraction in Thompson Township

The campground was nice, restrooms were clean. They would not leave us alone though! My fiancé and I took a trip to Indian Lake with our little dog just to get out of the city and spend our anniversary outdoors. Someone came to our campsite constantly with some issue: first we were driving too fast (I have a manual transmission jetta and I leave it in first when I'm in a campground because you never know if there will be kids or dogs or something) but the speed limit is 5 mph and so apparently someone reported me for exceeding that. Then it was an issue with the dog, I had her tied to my car on a 15' lead but that wasn't acceptable, she had to be under my direct control at all times. For context this is a 40 lbs. border collie mix who lives in an apartment, she doesn't bark or lunge and people, she was just laying there chewing on her toy and minding her own business. There were a few other instances like this but it made the trip unenjoyable. The park rangers were nice, maybe just a bit bored, but my honest opinion is that they were getting complaints from people living there in RVs for the summer who wanted to treat this as their own personal retirement home. My fiancé and I are both in our 30s so there was no drinking or drugs involved here, we just wanted to see the UP and do our own thing. Also the trail was flooded, normally that wouldn't be something I would complain about because I understand that you can't control the weather but if you're going to talk the talk of "we run a tight ship around here" then you need to walk the walk. It was not a good experience, if you are a casual camper interested in spending a weekend outdoors I recommend that you go...

It’s the closest state park campground to Kitch-iti-kipi about 10 minutes away, conveniently close to the city of Manistique, close to Thompson State Fish Hatchery, and about 30 minutes from Fayette Historic State Park. Indian Lake has among the largest and most spacious campsite lots I’ve ever been to for a modern campground. We stayed 3 nights on a lakeside lot and 2 nights on a wooded lot. For the lakeside site 86, we were kind of disappointed since the lake was mostly obscured by trees. We didn't have a “right on the lake” campsite like we imagined, but it was still very nice. Our site wasn't very accommodating for our tent since it was slightly sloped with tree roots everywhere. These sites are along the woods and are a lot more peaceful. Most big RVs don’t use these sites since they don’t have 50A electrical hookups.

Note: To get 3 nights during the week on a lakefront campsite in late-August, we had to book over two months in advance.

The park was very clean, and there were workers everywhere. The front office personnel were extremely polite and helpful. We rented a rowboat for 24 hours for $35, including seat cushions, life jackets, oars, and an anchor for fishing. We walked along the Dufour Creek trail, which seemed to be the only other feature to the park. It was somewhat muddy but easily to walk in...

We stayed at the Indian lake West shore campground. The lots are nicely sized. Can easily fit a couple of tents. Each lot has a great double ring fire place and a picnic table. The host is super welcoming and picks up your trash every day. Our stay was planned for Friday through Sunday but we couldn't leave until Monday because the location was so perfect and there are too many things to do in the area! The mosquitos were absent! I might have one bite from 4 days! This place is absolutely perfect. You can cut up all the wood you want that is laying on the ground in the woods for firewood. Quiet hour starts at 11pm which was really nice even though we did have one night where rude campers just didn't care. We didn't use the electric but it was available and included in the $20 a day price. The park ranger circled often which was reassuring. There is a picnic area but it's quite a hike from the campsites. Not much for kids to do besides ride bikes if you brought them and pick up sticks. This place is perfect for a weekend getaway but be prepared to show up early! We stopped at 7 campsites before we found this one. They all fill up fast. We plan to come back in a few weeks for...