Interlochen, Michigan: Lake Dubonnet State Forest Campground

 September - October 2021, weekday - weekend, 3-nights, campsite 4

Beautiful sunset from our inflatable boat on Lake Dubonnet

We drove through this state forest campground 4 years ago, and I have been wanting to camp here ever since. We finally made it!

Self-serve registration in Lake Dubonnet State Forest Campground
Road to the right at this point is the boat ramp road

Arrival

The campground is another ¾ of a mile after passing the state forest entrance sign at Mud Lake Rd. The dirt road is hard packed and smooth with only a couple of small potholes. The first road to the right when approaching the campground is the boat launch and parking lot. There are no signs at the intersection, and fortunately, we made the correct decision by continuing forward at this point. During our stay, we observed campers drive down that road, and then around the launch loop before continuing into the campground. 

Road to the boat ramp in Lake Dubonnet State Forest Campground
Looking back from the launch area

There were only 8 occupied sites when we arrived around 5PM on a Thursday evening. This campground has 4 loops with over 30 campsites; however, the first loop on the left was not open. Although we had driven through the campground in 2017, we had not made note of the campsites, so we were not sure where we wanted to camp. We looked at the sites in the two loops on the right near the lake before settling on site 4.

Campsite 4 in Lake Dubonnet State Forest Campground

Campsite 4 and more

This is a spacious campsite near the boat launch. The ground cover is dirt, and the site is mostly flat. The second photo above showing the back was taken from the road that goes to the boat ramp. A fresh water pump is located between campsites 4 and site 5. The water from the pump looked mostly clear with just a touch of iron color.

Campsite 4 in Lake Dubonnet State Forest Campground

Sites 5 and 6 have a better view of the lake than site 4; however, campsite 6 was occupied. The area between sites 5 and 6 is open, so we opted for site 4 instead. None of the sites are actually right on the water, as the hiking trail passes through between the campground and lake.

Campsite 30 in Lake Dubonnet State Forest Campground

We observed one pull-thru site in the second loop; it was either site 12 or 13. This site was occupied when we arrived, and then again by another camper after the first one departed. One of my favorite sites was campsite 30 in the loop that was closed. Site 30 is not near the water; however, the site is spacious, flat, and private. 

It was raining acorns doing our stay! Many, many acorns dropped heavily on our truck, trailer, awning, and heads. We raked them away from our fire pit and table area to keep from slipping on them during our stay. Other than the acorns, this was a peaceful stay. It was one of the quietest campgrounds we have ever stayed in. The boat ramp was kind of a busy area, so we would probably choose a different site next time. The activity was not too loud; it was just busy with boaters, duck hunters, hikers (parking in the lot), and ORVs passing through.

Lake Dubonnet

Recreation: boating, fishing, hiking

It was easy to launch our inflatable boat at the boat ramp, and there is plenty of parking at the ramp. My husband caught a [probably legal] large mouth bass shortly after we got on the water without even hardly trying. We threw him back since we did not have a tape measure. We observed many people fishing from boats and from the shore area. We did not get to do as much investigating around the lake as we would have liked, because it was raining the second time we wanted to go out.

We walked through Lake Dubonnet Trail camp when we hiked Lost Lake Pathway. Lake Dubonnet Trail camp was completely empty, although we observed camp tags on trees that were less than a week old. This camp does not have designated campsite boundaries, and there are no fire pits or picnic tables. Other than the registration booth at the entrance and the hand water pump, this campground looked like dispersed camping in the forest. 

Lake Dubonnet from Camp Trail Road

We were surprised we did not see any wildlife during our hikes, as we were the only hikers on the trail the first day. 

Lost Lake in the distance (above)
Bench for giants (below)!  😁 

Lost Lake Pathway is a pretty easy hike that passes by two small lakes. There are many benches along the trail. One of the benches near a wet area was too high off the ground for me to climb up on. I guess they wanted to make sure it stayed dry during heavy rains!

Ramp from trail to Lake Dubonnet

There is a ramp down to Lake Dubonnet from the trail near campsites 13 and 14.

Misc. and overall

We loved this peaceful campground, and are planning to visit again next fall. We were a bit early for peak colors this year.

Campsite 4 in Lake Dubonnet State Forest Campground when we arrived

The trash dumpsters were removed from this campground shortly after we arrived. We drove through Platte River State Forest Campground, and the dumpsters were gone from that park, too. I am not sure if they take them out for the season, or what. There were no signs providing any information about where to dispose of trash. People left their bagged trash on the ground in the dumpster area at both parks (not us--we took ours with us!). I guess I should not be surprised by this behavior, as we had to clean the trash out of our fire pit when we arrived. A ranger drove through our campground every morning of our stay. He did not pick up the trash, and I did not observe him clean any fire pits. I assume he was collecting payments and checking site tags. 

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