November 2015, Weekend-weeknight, 3 nights, Site 352
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| Lost Lake - photo taken from Lost Lake Trail near Beechwood campground |
State website and advance reservations
The activity information provided on the state website for Ludington State Park is great; however, the campsite photos and information for the campground are the worst I have ever seen. This is the only state of Michigan campground I have researched that does not provide the lot sizes. Not only that, many of the photos look deceiving as they are pictures of only the ground cover and no surrounding elements. Several photos are fuzzy, as well. The two photos below show the kind of photos on the campground reservation site.
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| Lot 311 - photo from state website showing only the ground cover |
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| Lot 314 - fuzzy photo from state website |
We thought lot 310 looked like the lot we wanted; however, since there were only two lots reserved in the entire park, and a few things about the lot information were unclear, we decided not to make an advance reservation and save the $8 reservation fee. Just our luck, that three days before our stay, someone checked into lot 310 for the rest of the week!
Arrival
There was not anyone working in the ranger station when we arrived Friday evening, so we used the yellow telephone to check-in. When you register for your lot this way, you can pay by credit card over the telephone, or drop a check in a locked box. Several more lots had been taken before we arrived, and we ended up choosing lot 352. Beechwood campground is not close to the ranger station, and it was almost dark, so we did not drive back to look at the lot first. This was out first experience setting up in the dark! It was dusk when we arrived to check-in, and we needed our flashlights by the time we got checked in and backed on to our lot.