A mile of sandy shoreline on spring-fed Higgins Lake stays clear through July at South Higgins Lake State Park. Two buoyed swim areas open off the campground, two more in day use, and the boat basin behind them lines up nine launches. Loops in the hardwoods keep the sites behind that sand, and you walk from your site to the water.
The park covers 1,386 acres, so the loops have room to spread in the hardwoods. You swim off the campground buoys and boat 9,900 acres from the basin.
A 404-site campground makes South Higgins the second-largest in the state park system, with traditional and full-hookup pads, some of them 50-amp, and pull-throughs in the mix. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, Michigan RV rentals cover the same shore.
Memorial Day through Labor Day, full-hookup and 50-amp pads fill under Michigan's 6-month reservation window on MiDNRReservations.com, so book the site before the van. A Recreation Passport is required to enter.
North Higgins Lake State Park
North Higgins Lake State Park faces the same water from 449 acres of north shore. The grounds used to hold the world's largest seedling nursery, and the Higgins Lake Nursery and CCC Museum is still on the grounds. A modern campground plus two mini cabins in the west loop, each sleeping 4, puts you on that side of the lake.
The Au Sable at Grayling
From Grayling, the Au Sable runs a tree-lined canoe corridor toward Mio. You drift under the canopy, and on a multi-day trip you camp along the bank. Carlisle, Borchers, Penrod's, and Shel-Haven run day trips and overnight canoe-camping down that stretch, with a shuttle for the vehicle. River campsites from Grayling to Mio are state-owned and first-come-first-served, so the night on the river is a site you take when you find it.
Late July, the AuSable River Canoe Marathon starts Saturday night in Grayling and runs 120 miles nonstop to Oscoda. That weekend competes for the same vans and the same sites as ordinary peak-summer camping on the river. Treat the race and a canoe-camping trip as one demand spike.
Hartwick Pines State Park is the old-growth walk next to Grayling, 9,335 acres named for 49 acres of red and white pine, among the last left in Michigan. A 1.25-mile paved Old Growth Forest Trail runs through that stand, and a modern campground is on the property if you want hookups next to that walk.
The Tittabawassee is the other river people name. For the Upper Peninsula, the Straits, and Ludington, use Michigan campervan trips.
Houghton Lake
Houghton Lake covers more than 20,000 acres, the largest inland lake in Michigan. Houghton Lake State Forest Campground on the north shore is the overflow when you show up without a site at South Higgins, with no electrical service and no reservation list. It takes no reservations and charges $20 for most sites as of September 2026, and caps a stay at 15 days. West Houghton Lake Drive and Old US-27 reach it 8 miles north of Houghton Lake.