Free Michigan Camping in Upper Peninsula: St Ignace Casino, Bond Falls, Sturgeon River National Park

May 2023, 9 nights

Kewadin Casino campground in St. Ignace, 2 nights, weekend

We had initially planned to camp at Hog Island State Forest Campground. The weather turned very cold and rainy the two nights we were in this area, so we decided we wanted a camping location with power instead of a primitive site. This camping area next to the casino has power, a dump station, and picnic tables (after it opens May 15th). We were there before the 15th, so no amenities were available except the electric. There was also no charge for our stay! 😊 The cost used to be $10 a night, and now the website says it is $20. We were able get a few tasks completed during this stay: there is a decent laundromat in town with free wifi, and we grocery shopped at Cedarville Foods after visiting Les Cheneaux Distillers. The grocery store had a decent selection with good prices for this rural area. You can find more info about the market and distillery by clicking on the "Cedarville" label at the bottom of this post.

The casino campsites are along the perimeter of the lower parking lot (some might complain that this is parking lot camping). Since we had lousy weather with no opportunity to be outside, and there were only a couple of other campers during our stay, this was not a problem. The wifi signal from the casino is not strong enough to use from the camping area.

Eagle in Brevort Lake National Forest Campground

Hog Island State Forest and Brevet Lake National Forest (neither of these are free)

We checked out these campgrounds after our casino stay on the way to our next destination. Hog Island did not appeal to us, and we were glad we had decided to stay at the casino. The sites are small, not very level or private, and some of them were wet with standing water. We would have stayed in Brevort Lake NF, except it was not open for the season yet. We walked through the park, and observed many spacious sites on the lake. 

Bond Falls campsite from road

Bond Falls west campground in Haight Township, 4 nights, site 20, weekdays and weekend

This was one of my favorite campgrounds during our 6-week trip. It is a primitive campground with only vault toilets and trash receptacles. There is an old hand water pump in the campground, which looked like it has not been working for awhile. Park information does not say that fresh water is available. Sites are all first come, first serve.

Bond Falls campsite

The road into the campground was quite rough. Possibly, this may have been because the campground had just opened the day we arrived, May 11th (we drove past a few piles of snow on the edges of the road), and the road had not been graded. Once we arrived at the campground, we were delighted to see that it had been worth the rough ride in. The campsites are spacious with fire rings and picnic tables. Our site was very tidy, as if someone had just blown off all the leaves and debris before we arrived.

Bond Falls campsite
Boat ramp is tucked up in left corner barely visible through the trees

Although this campsite is near the boat ramp, we were not bothered by noise or activity at the ramp. There were plenty of buffer trees between our campsite and the boat ramp.  

View out our back window showing the drive into the campsite at Bond Falls

This site could be tricky to get into with a large camper, as there is only one drive in, and you need to pull in, in order to have the camper door facing the water. We had enough room to pull in and unhook, but not enough room to turn the camper around when we were ready to leave. Pulling out with the camper would not have been an option anyway, because the right turn onto the one-way road is a sharp turn. My husband easily backed our camper out when we departed.

After you choose a site at this campground, there is a registration clipboard at the Outpost, which is across the street from Bond Falls Scenic Site. We entered our site number on the clipboard, and a staff member came to our site to finish checking us in the next day.

Road departing Surgeon River Campground

Sturgeon River Campground in Sturgeon River Gorge (National Park), 3 nights, site 7, weekdays

This is another primitive campground that was a bit challenging to get to. The campground is 5.7 miles down a seasonal road/snowmobile trail from M-28. Possibly, this campground had also just opened when we arrived on Tuesday before Memorial weekend. We passed some kind of work pickup truck on his way out just before we arrived at the campground, and a person was working with a road grader every day after we arrived. The road was still a bit rough when we departed, although not as bad as it had been when we arrived. Some portions of it are very narrow with no shoulder, so we were glad we did not pass another camper when we arrived, or when we left. I was glad anyway! My husband said everything was just fine. 😬

Campsite 7 in Sturgeon River Campground

We were the first camper to arrive in this park, and selected site #7, which is the most open riverfront campsite. We were unable to park our 25' camper parallel to the river because of the barriers between the drive and campsite area. We tried backing in and pulling in a few different ways, and then just ended up backed in as far as we could get. You should be able to park in just about any position with a smaller travel trailer, truck camper, van, etc.

Campsite 7 in Sturgeon River Campground
Above photo is view through back camper window

Each campsite in this primitive campground has a picnic table and fire ring. There are vault toilets in the center of the campground loop. We did not observe fresh water, and there are no trash receptacles. Registration for a campsite is not required, like at Bond Falls. Information I had read for this campground says there are 9 campsites, and the campsite after ours was labeled as #9. We only observed 8 campsites though. There was an open area across from site 9 where that person parked his vehicle trailer, and we did not see a fire pit or picnic table in that area. We definitely needed our screened tent during our stay, as the gnats and small flies at the campsite were quite thick. 

View from inside our screened tent in Sturgeon River Campground

Recreation: hiking, falls, fishing, boating, swimming

We saw some beautiful nature on our hikes at Bond Falls, and Sturgeon River. I will share some of that information in my next post.

Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to share this post for others.