Grand Haven State Park is the mouth where the Grand River comes into Lake Michigan, paved sites on the sand a few steps from the lake. Morning is a walk onto the pier, out to two lighthouses that mark the entrance, the channel running beside you as you go. From a campsite on the sand you can see those lights and the water at once. Half a mile of shoreline is the whole beach, and the weekend out of Grand Rapids is staying on that sand overnight.
A beachfront loop opens onto the sand, paved sites with the lake at the foot of the campground. Wind off the lake is the night noise, and it decides how long you sit outside. You swim from the site, and the van is a few steps from the water when you come back.
Summer weekends want this stretch of Lake Michigan. Michigan DNR sites open six months ahead of arrival, and the campground's 174 paved sites go first, so the pad is the first booking. A Recreation Passport is required to enter, and Lake Michigan Drive and I-96 are the roads west from the city.
Holland State Park is the Lake Macatawa beach with Big Red, south of this stretch. Muskegon State Park is the channel and shore to the north.
Yankee Springs Recreation Area at Gun Lake
Campsites at Gun Lake Modern Campground go from shade into the open along the water, with a buoyed swim area and a fishing pier on that same shore. You swim and fish from the loop you sleep on, and the site you pick is shade or sun. A Gun Lake weekend keeps you on that shore, the van in the trees behind the sites. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan bunk, Grand Rapids RV rentals are the step up.
M-179 off US-131 is the road, about halfway toward Kalamazoo. As of September 2026, a Hall Lake Dam drawdown has closed the boating access site, and Gun Lake Road can see intermittent closures and detours. The Gun Lake Modern Campground itself stays open.
Ionia State Recreation Area has modern-campground loops on a wooded hilltop above Sessions Lake, with fall color on the water. The Grand River forms the north border, and Riverside Picnic Area is the carry-down access.
In the fall, ArtPrize spreads installations through downtown Grand Rapids galleries, storefronts, breweries, parks, and museums. Those weeks land on Grand Haven State Park and on Yankee Springs at Gun Lake, and they overlap the last of modern-campground season, so the event and the beach compete for the same vans and the same sites.
Farther south, Kalamazoo is the beach run to Warren Dunes and South Haven. For the Upper Peninsula and the Straits, start on the Michigan campervan page.