Clare, Michigan: Herrick Recreation Area

June 2024, weekend - weekday, 2-nights

Herrick Recreation Area

Reservations and arrival

We decided to camp at this park last minute, as it was on the way to our next destination in Bay City State Park Campground. We did not make an advance reservation for a couple of reasons: we had never been to this park before and did not know what the campsites actually look like, there were many available campsites, and there is a $5 online reservation fee. 

The entrance booth on the south side of the road was empty when we arrived at the campground area. A sign on the window instructed campers to check-in at the picnic area on the north side of the road (about 500' east of the campground entrance). Since we needed to continue into the campground area to turn around with our trailer, we decided to drive through the campground first to see some of the campsites. We found several empty sites, wrote down the numbers of a few we liked, and then headed to the the picnic area to check-in. We were able to get one of the sites we had chosen; however, we still had to pay the $5 reservation fee. 😳 The nightly rate is $25, and this park also has the following daily fees: vehicle entrance fee $6, and boat/kayak fee $6. We had two kayaks with us; however, we did not use them, nor had we planned to. It sounded like we had to pay the boat fee anyway, so with these additional fees, the nightly rate would have been $43 (+ the $5 reservation fee). After I questioned this, we were told that since it was free fishing weekend in Michigan, the park was waiving the boat and entrance fees, so our final cost was $55 for two nights. There is no information about the boat fees on the park website, and I doubt we would have stayed in this campground if the cost had been $43 a night.

Campsite 54 in Herrick Recreation Area

Campsite 54

This campsite is a spacious and somewhat private site in one of the last campground loops. It is level and grassy with 30 amp power. The fire rings in this campground are very small, and set in flush with the ground, which we thought was quite dangerous. That are not highly visible. You can enlarge the labeled photo above by clicking on it.

Pere Marquette Rail Trail from Herrick Recreation Area

Recreation

This park has several ponds for small boats and fishing. There is one pond on the campground side of the road, and two across the road in the day use area. There is a designated swimming area at one of the ponds in the picnic area near the pavilions. We did not use our kayaks or get in the water, because we thought it looked green and kind of nasty. We observed people fishing in both areas. It is easy to access Pere Marquette Rail Trail from the campground, so we spent our full day biking. When we left the campground, we turned left/west, and then north on Summerton Road. We returned via Leaton Road from the east. The only unpaved portions were the roads inside the campground, and Herrick Road. None of the roads were busy; only a couple of vehicles passed us on the paved roads. 

Campsite 54 in Herrick Recreation Area

Misc. and overall

This campground has a sanitation station with room for one trailer at a time. If there is a line for the dump station, it seems like campers departing from campsites below #43, would need to drive past the dump, and then turn around in one of the campground loops to get in line. Or, maybe people line up in both directions then alternate turns from each direction. We were gone on our bike ride during checkout time on Sunday, so we did not actually see how this works. There is one building with flush toilets and showers located next to the sanitation station. There are pit toilets near the front sections of the campground, and there is a fresh water spigot in every campground loop.

Let me know if you have any questions or info you'd like to add!