Clayton, Michigan: Camping in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

May 2024, weekdays, 3 nights, campsite 38 and more

Sunset from campsite 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

This was our first visit to this park, which is designated as a dark sky preserve. The campsites have electricity, there is a fresh water pump, and vault toilets only. There is no dump station or modern facilities in the park. The nightly campsite cost was $22 at the time of this post.

Arrival

We arrived a bit before the 3:00 PM check-in time. Apparently, we were the only ones arriving that day, because the staff member seemed to know who we were when I gave him our reserved site number. He told us we were all set to go. I told him this was our first visit to this park. Since there were no signs ahead, I asked how to get to the campground. He said to just follow the road left to the end. After we drove away, I regretted not having asked for a park map. We drove for over a mile before the road split, and we saw a sign for the campground and boat ramp. The road was paved until we turned onto the campground road at this point. When we got to the campground (another half mile plus), we saw two loops with no campsite number signs! Grrr -- we had made our reservation about 6 months ahead of time, and did not know which loop to choose. We ended up choosing the incorrect one, so we drove through the entire campground on dirt roads before we found our campsite. We were glad we had arrived before dark. 😳

Campsite 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

Campsites 36, 37, 38

Campsites 37 and 38 have the best views of the lake. There are no photos of site 38 on the Michigan DNR reservation page, so I chose our site based on photos others have shared. There is a better lake view from campsite 37; however, site 38 is more level and shaded with less protruding roots. The ground has some clay in it, and we had a couple of small wet spots on our site (near front of big slide, and back corner of trailer not visible in photo). There had been no recent rain before our arrival.

Campsite 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area
Bottom photo is the view from the water

We needed to use all three of our 25' power cords to reach the power box for site 38, which is located between sites 37 and 38. 

Lake behind campsite 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

The water behind sites 37 and 38 was not nice in May, and we had a difficult time getting in and out of our inflatable boat. The bank was steep and a bit slippery from sand/clay mix. Campsite 37 was empty the first two nights of our stay, and we were surprised to see people swimming behind the site the next day. We were not surprised about them swimming behind a campsite they were not camping on; we were surprised because we thought the water was a bit yucky for swimming.

Above: campsite 37 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area
Below: campsite 36 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

No one was camped near us when we arrived. Someone stayed on site 37 the last night of our stay. The outhouse for this section of the campground is around the corner next to site 31. It was incredibly hot for May, and we could smell the outhouse as soon as we got to the corner by site 37. Most times, the odor was not present on site 38. For this reason, we were glad we had chosen campsite 38, rather than 37. Additionally, campsite 38 is shadier than site 37.

Above: possum on campsite 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area
Below: view of boat ramp area from the point across the inlet 

Recreation: hiking, boating, swimming, fishing

We saw many people fishing on this lake, and my husband caught a rock bass behind our campsite. We saw a possum on our campsite when we first arrived; deer, birds, and a gopher when hiking. There is a path from the campground near site 12 to the boat ramp and beach. The walk to the boat ramp was just over a half mile from our campsite, and the beach was another half mile beyond that.

Swimming beach in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

We did not think the swimming beach was much nicer than the lake area behind our campsite. It looked like sand had been brought in to try and make the area more beach-like. There is plenty of room in this area, and many picnic tables in the grass before the beach sand. The lake is great for small boats and kayaks.

Sunset from campsite 37 (above), and 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

Misc. and overall

We like to hike and bike when we camp, and there is not much hiking in this campground, other than the one mile walk to the beach. We did enjoy the peacefulness, boating on the lake, and the view from our campsite. Along with the outhouse stench, we also smelled manure from the farms around the lake. Possibly, our experience with the odors is not the norm. I imagine the manure smell is worse in spring than other times of the year, and it was incredibly hot for mid-May this year.

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