Muskegon Lake empties into Lake Michigan through a navigation channel, and the walkway puts you over that water with the harbor at your back. On a west wind the spray comes over the rail and whitecaps hit the pier. A CCC blockhouse on the dune ridge looks at both lakes. The pier keeps going until the lake is under you on three sides.
You swim below the dune in Lake Michigan, and the stairway over the sand is the commute between the loops and that beach. Boats work the channel, and the Lake Michigan beach keeps the surf.
The Lake Michigan Campground is up on the dune, 106 modern sites in two loops. The way to the water is a stairway over the sand, down to the swimming beach. Camping there stays open all year.
The Channel Campground is the seasonal overnight, 139 sites in two loops. Some of those sites sit against the navigation channel, and the others sit toward the dune and Muskegon Lake. As of September 2026, the channel walkway and beach house are under construction.
Book the campsite before the van. Michigan DNR sites open six months ahead of arrival, weekdays at 8 a.m. and weekends at 9 a.m. Summer electrical spots at both campgrounds go first.
The Muskegon Luge Adventure Sports Park, at the Winter Sports Complex, runs a track designed by Olympians that lights up after dark. Cross-country ski trails fill the woods around it, and a 1,300-foot dual zip line runs from the same complex.
Shivering Timbers is the wooden coaster on the skyline at Michigan's Adventure, a park day that doesn't have an overnight on the grounds. Duck Lake State Park is day-use too, the shallow cut where Duck Lake meets Lake Michigan through the dunes.
P.J. Hoffmaster State Park
The Dune Overlook Trail climbs a forested dune on a stairway of about 220 steps. You are in trees for most of the climb, then Lake Michigan is the view from the top. The round trip is about half a mile. The Gillette Sand Dune Visitor Center is on that same ridge, at the top of the stairs.
The modern campground has 297 sites in three loops with electrical hookups. It closes for the season by late fall. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, Michigan RV rentals use the same parks.
Grand Haven is the Grand Rapids beach weekend. North of Muskegon, the Silver Lake ORV dunes and Ludington are separate trips.