Munising / Pictured Rocks KOA Journey — Hotel in Munising Township

The location is good for Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but the campground is over priced in the KOA system for what is typically expected from a KOA. Many of the sites are of the alternating direction "shared sites, " meaning picnic tables and firepits are on the camper door side immediately facing a neighbor's door. We have no problem with shared sites as long as site sizes are wide enough to not feel like you are sitting in your neighbor's site. Here's what we experienced at this KOA: We checked in and were given a map with arrow directions to enter our pull through, full hookup site. No escort to the site. The roads in were narrow and not well marked with street names or signs. We had to figure out directions by looking at campsite numbers. The campground roads are a bit dark in late afternoon/evening due to heavy tree cover. We pulled into our site, splitting the front to back distance, but realizing the sewer connection was on the far left side and finally seeing the electric and water hookups on the far right side and hard against the site line for the next site over. We made the sewer connection and added a hose to make the water connection, but we were at least 15 feet short with our 35 ft cord to make the electric connection. We called the office and the young lady who checked us in told us to go to Tractor Supply in town to see if we could buy an extension cord! A camper across the gravel road from us heard our frustration and loaned us his spare camper cord for our 2 night stay. Very nice of him. We realized after hooking up that our picnic table and fire pit were on the sewer/connection side of the camper and not on the door side. We called the manager and he later came by to look. He said he would move the picnic table, but the folks on the shared door side had already set up right to the edge of their site. When we opened our canopy, it came right to their chairs at their firepit. I pointed out there was no space for the table without impinging on the neighbor's set up and certainly no space for a 2nd firepit even if it could have been moved. The manager suggested we turn our camper around in the site and run all of the connections under the camper...so our door would open on the picnic table, firepit, and all of the sewer/water/electric hookups. We were later told by another campground that had we done this we would have violated Michigan law for fire! The sites are mostly tree covered and shady, but the narrow roads with a lack of signage directing people to sites and to exits definitely make this campground a fire hazard waiting to happen, especially if people can't disconnect quickly because they have turned around and run connections under their campers! My recommendations is to prune out trees, widen roads and campsites to make all hookups accessible with picnic tables and firepits on the door side , add gravel to the campsites to widen them and aid placement of tables/firepits and buy more than one extra electric cord/water hose, etc. rather than telling guests who are weary from travel to visit Tractor Supply in town!

At this point, I cannot recommend this KOA to anyone! On our 2.5 month camping trip around the USA (May, June, July, 2023), we stayed at 5 KOA's. Three (Bowling Green, KY, Holbrook, AZ, and Monument Valley) were great and exactly what we would expect from a KOA branded campground. Two were not: Munising Pictured Rocks KOA and Rapid City/Black Hills KOA (See my separate review of the...

This is a relatively new to the KOA system, but it is obviously a re-incarnate of a previously dead campground... There is a lot of work still to be done in the park. Our initial site was a pull thru but we could not figure out which way or which of the three road ways was the actual site. The logical direction did not make any sense because the services were not on the correct side. We questioned the staff at the reception area, and she did not know which way the site actually went... We visited in mid September so one would have thought staff would be familiar with the campground layout by the end of the summer... We asked to be assigned a different more easily identified site. The staff were very accomodating, however the next site was also set up with services shared between sites and the site we had resulted in the services on the wrong side. We have enough power cord and cable to connect so it was not an issue, other then the annoyance of the lines running across the site. However, the biggest complaint with out site were the number of tree roots that really need to be ground down. They are very high, jagged and attention needed. The campsites are all well shaded, and the ground is all sandy. No grass between the sites and rather close to your neighbours. The reception area is neat and clean, the pool was still open at this time of the year which was a nice surprise and the cable provided suggicient channels to give one the news and a few...

Pros: close to Munising and waterfalls. Wooded. Heated pool. Large playground area and has wifi. Restroom building has newer nicer fixtures in it. Staff maintain sites and fire pits after campers leave.

Cons: cannot chose your own site and they put us directly behind the slide and swings. 100% constant noise all day. Electric box was confusing which site serves which. Only one restroom building that's closed from 12-2 so if you've gotta go then either make a trip to town or find a deserted tree. Playground facility is dated but is in good shape and works. Is directly off of 28 and I swear every car hits the highway rumble strips on purpose as such. (Very noisy). Quiet hours are not enforced. Playground needs to be fenced off and closed at 9 like the pool Not enough places to get fresh water for those that don't have full hookup. WiFi is shotty at best and loses connection easily. Parents leave kids at the common area to let them terrorize the restrooms and try to break into campers.

Campground is just meh and isn't worth the price it costs to camp here. Easily the worst campground I've ever been to in the 38 years I've been camping. Will not return and will not recommend. It's very unfortunate because I was looking forward to what I've seen online about a KOA and what was recommended by family /friends. Looking online you can see it was a wandering wheels campground that they just changed the signage on and...