Easy to find, good communication. Good amount of bathrooms and trash cans spread out. Campsite was clean. Personally prefer above ground campfires for ease of physicality and cooking read more

For any outdoor enthusiasts exploring around Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore...I highly recommend staying here at Empire Township Campground!! Yes...I discovered it through the trusty ole app on my phone called CAMPENDIUM! In fact, I've used Campendium to locate plenty of campsites, RV Trailer Parks and rest stops along my plenty of travels these last few years. Definitely...if you're an adventurer...download Campendium. And what's great about it is that you can find campsites at the last minute/spur of the moment. That's how I came upon this Empire Township Campground. After driving all day to Sleeping Bear Dunes...I knew I needed a place to camp out because there weren't many accommodations offered in the area. Campendium mentioned to just show up here and it's first come, first served. I visited back in late May of this year 2021. The camp host was very friendly. She mentioned had I visited over the weekend, the campsites would have been full. So fortunately, I showed up on a Tuesday evening and there were plenty of spaces available. There were 60 campsites for me to choose from. The host handed me a map and told me to pick a site that was unoccupied and then return to the entrance where she'd secure my reservation. I picked Site #6 located right near the shower house. It was $25 per night for primitive camping. Having already planned out my Sleeping Bear Dunes itinerary ahead of time...I booked for 2 nights here for $50. So...I'd spend the first night here, hang out all day at Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore the following day, return back here for my 2nd evening, and then finish up my explorations of the area the last day and eventually move onto my next destination. For being here for 2 nights...I surprisingly planned out everything perfectly! Here are some details about this Empire Township Campground... It's located 5 miles outside the Sleeping Bear Dunes Visitor Center and the quiet little town of Empire, Michigan. My cell phone reception worked perfectly so I was able to watch a movie inside my tent one night before going to sleep. They have 3 showers. But...bring quarters with you as they charge .50 cents for every 3 minutes of hot water use. I used $1.50 and took my time cleaning off for 9 minutes. Outside the shower house there were a few electrical outlets which allowed me to plug in my phone and generator to grab some power. They actually offered AMP Power at some sites. In fact, I probably should have paid extra (which I'm sure wouldn't have cost much) for the accessible AMP Power. Oh well, my bad. My campsite #6 featured plenty of space and room. I felt like I was in the heart of nature and far enough away from other campers to have some privacy. The whole setting here was really pleasant. The camp host does sell ice to keep drinks cold as well as firewood to ignite flames for chilly evenings. Each site has a fire pit and picnic table. Also, charcoal grills are allowed as well. One night I barbecued some hot dogs during a scenic sunset. There's also dump stations for RV's. For locating this Empire Township Campground...simply plug the name into Google Maps and you'll have no issues finding it. They have real toilets for when using the bathroom, not vault toilets or porta potties. That's always a nice aspect. I can't think of anything else to say other than my 2 night experience here was quite memorable for all the good reasons. For anyone interested in getting ready to explore the UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan and heading north, I highly suggest making Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore a priority to visit and choosing this Empire Township Campground as a your place for enjoying nights in the great outdoors. read more

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We LOVE Empire Township Campground. My wife and I were sent to this campground after finding out both National Park Campgrounds (D.H. Day and Platte River) in the area, were full several years ago while in Northern Michigan. What a pleasant surprise. Located just 5 miles from Empire this campground has some fantastic tent camping sites, and located right in the heart of activities and recreation. There are two camping areas, the deciduous camp circle and the pines camp circle. Both are heavily wooded but we prefer the pines. The campground is not very noisy even though there's over 50 sites but it does fill up quickly being so conveniently located from the Sleeping Bear Dunes and Lake Michigan. Customer service has always been fantastic. The showers are coin op, vault latrines, one flush toilet. The office is open every day with fire wood, and ice for sale. There are 10 electric sites located away from the non-electrics. A public beach 5 miles away in Empire is wonderful, clean and has been completely upgraded within the last 5 years. It's extremely clean, newer vault latrines, playgrounds and beautiful turquoise water and sandy swimming areas with gorgeous views of the dunes. Get there before noon as the place fills up and gets busy! The town of Empire has the National park office for information on all activities. Glen Arbor, is another quaint town located about 8 miles north of the campground and it offers some nice shops, and wonderful restaurants and a grocery store. Traverse City is an amazing city with tons of shopping, restaurants, arts/culture and attractions. It is only about 20-25 miles from Empire. The only complaint about Empire campground are that the vault latrines are old and smell pretty bad. If you're not a fan of vault latrines, then this is not going to make your experience pleasant although many wait in line to use the one flush toilet. Considering all the pluses, I'll make do with a stinky latrine. read more

Empire Township Campground - Campgrounds Near Me - Empire, Michigan

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Just stayed here and loved it!! Yolanda was very friendly and accommodating despite the last minute nature of our trip. She helped us choose a campground that was perfect for our needs (for any hammock campers out there, site 8 in the Pines is perfect for multiple hammocks!). She also gave us some great recommendations (including maps!) on hikes to go on of various difficulty, activities to do both in the area and a little farther out, and general directions on how to get around. We did a hike she recommended in addition to the scenic drive and had an excellent time! Her driving directions allowed us to enjoy the scenery rather than having to look at the GPS constantly. She even gave us some kindling to start our fire with! Yolanda gave us her personal cell # in case we needed her after hours, assuring us that we would not be bothering her. Very generous and helpful. The campsite was spacious, clean, and gorgeous. We had a midsize car, a tent, and two hammocks, along with the provided picnic table and fire ring and still had plenty of room. Quiet and relaxing. We did not have any problems whatsoever with the nearby airport or with bugs. If you want to avoid bugs, stay in the pines. The flush toilet and showers were very clean and well kept the whole time we stayed there. The clean water was incredibly convenient and a godsend after hiking on the hot dunes. The location is perfect. You can get away from town without being too far from anything. Only a 5-10 minute drive to get to various parts of the dunes, hiking trails, multiple lakes, cute restaurants, etc. At only $20 a night for the primitive site, it met all our needs for a very reasonable price. We will definitely be back!! read more

Spent Labor Day weekend here, it's a very rustic campsite, but it's location is pretty excellent if you can't make a reservation at the National Park site. Good: Location, Quiet at night, very pretty in the Pine trees sections, hot showers, they have ice and firewood on site. Con: Some sites are very close to others, next to an airport (very small but the weekend we went during the day guys were running R/c planes that were kind of noisy, only 3 showers so the wait time can be a bit when they're busy. Pro Tip: campsite 22 and 10 are desirable as they are more secluded and on a pine needle bed. read more

We are regular northern Michigan campers and when we go up to the Leelanau area usually stay at the amazing Whitewater Township Park campground in Williamsburg (note to self, write them a good review). However, they were full this time so we needed to find an alternate location. The first place I called was this place, the Empire Township Campground. There were red flags from the start and I should have paid attention. The first strange thing was that there were all kinds of issues getting the campsite booked. I left a message to find out about reservations but got no call back. When I emailed, the campground manager, Yolanda Bertaud, called me back and said there were no spots available. I then made a reservation somewhere else. A few hours later she called me back and said there were sites after all. I had to have multiple long phone conversations with her about minutae of the trip - that there was a deposit and the remainder of the fee would be charged upon arrival, that the office closes at a certain time and will leave parking passes out if you don't get there in time, etc. She wanted to know our exact arrival time, which I was unable to tell her, but gave her a window of around 6-7 pm, then called me on the day of arrival again asking for an exact time - which I was still unable to get her. It seemed at that point like she might be a very anxious person, but nothing seemed strange enough to cancel the trip. Once we got to the campsite, things got much weirder. Yolanda had been insistent that the campsites were so tiny that our group (4 adults, 2 normal sized tents, 2 cars) could not fit on one campsite and we needed to rent 2. I understand that campsites like to limit the number of people, for quality of campground experience for everyone, and if that was the reason she had given, that would have made sense. However, she had told me on the phone that the reason was because the campsites literally would not fit two tents unless they were "two man army tents." I was picturing some tiny campsites and what we ended up at were some of the largest campsites I have ever seen. At our friends' site, there were two long driveways that would have fit at least 8 cars, and enough flat space for probably 10-12 tents on top of that. So that just seemed extremely strange upon arrival. Next up, a trip to the bathroom. They were absolutely filthy. We camp at latrine sites fairly often and it's no problem. These were in a state of complete disarray and disrepair. Feces all over the toilet, broken lights, etc. Also, no sinks. It was disgusting. The campsite also only has three showers for 60 campsites (for comparison, Whitewater has 5 showers for 53 sites), and the showers were dirty and filled with wasps. However, the worst part of the trip happened the following day when we were in Suttons Bay. I got a call at Yolanda who began screaming at me about the noise at our campsite and how we were playing a "boom box" and everyone was complaining. I had no idea what was going on and tried to explain to her that we were not even at the campground, and did not bring a "boom box" or a radio or anything. She then changed her story and began claiming that she was not talking about now but that apparently this had happened last night. I let her know that I had gone to bed early, and did not know what she was talking about, and perhaps she had the wrong campsite. She started yelling at that point and said she had gotten six complaints about blaring music, boom boxes, and people yelling profanity all night. I again told her that I had been asleep all night and had not heard anything, but that I would talk to my friends to see what was going on. She screamed that she didn't care who I talked to and that she was going to call the sheriff to have us removed from the campsite. I asked her to stop screaming at me and be respectful because I had no idea what she was talking about and was only trying to understand the situation, but that again, I was pretty sure she had the wrong campsite. She then hung up on me. My friends said they said they had not played music or yelled or made any noise other than chatting amongst themselves, and my boyfriend called Yolanda back to try to clear things up. She then screamed at him and hung up on him as well. We are lawyers, so we don't appreciate people threatening to use the law in inappropriate ways. My boyfriend then called the sheriff directly to discuss the situation. The sheriff's office was well acquainted with Yolanda and assured us that we had done nothing wrong and they had no plans to remove us from the campsite. That night, I again went to bed early and heard nothing. My friends said they did hear music playing at another campsite, but nothing too loud. The whole thing was extremely strange and the combination of the poor conditions a deranged campground host made this a horrible experience. But I highly recommend Whitewater if you need a campground in the area. read more

My partner in i stayed here for 3 nights and July and really enjoyed the campground. Its truly in the forest each site is carved just enough out of the surrounding trees and the rest is nature. It rained pretty heavily over our last night but were surprised to wake up to relatively dry ground because of the sandy soil! The manager Yolanda is very thorough and informative and if you get to know her very sweet. She can come across as a little matter of fact which can be taken the wrong way but you have to understand she deals with all of the yoohoos that come in and out every day. There are mosquitoes but they're not terrible is this is a little inland and typically dryer. Couple things of critique. the coin operated showers we're a pain in the butt. Guess I'm spoiled having a credit card to be bothered with keeping bunches of quarters around making sure I remember to bring them. One stall I put the $0.50 in to start it and it didn't start had to use an extra quarter that luckily I kept in my wallet for Aldi shopping! Another time a young woman popped the door to that stall open as my gf was leaving begging for a quarter because she didn't budget for the strange $0.25 add on charge for that same stall number 3 from the left! Lastly the one out house for the whole campground RV parking pass there own separate one) is about a 5 minute walk from the rear area It was heavily used and had the most foul smell I've ever had the displeasure of encountering in an outhouse and I have used many. There is one single flush toilet but as you can imagine it is heavily used and inconveniently about a 7 minute walk from the rear of the campground. It was a mere $20 per night however but if you ask me and I don't want to seem like a high fluent prick but charge 25 a night and have more flush toilets and free shower is and you will have one very happy camper! Plenty to do in the area especially if you have water craft. We took our kayaks to the DNR launch on Platte lake and paddled to Lake Michigan. River with shallow fast flowing but very smooth and clear and warm. Sleeping Bear tunes has great news the Lake and islands. You'll have a blast. read more

I really wanted to give this a great review but cant sadly. I like the location I love how many trees and the staff was nice. There are a few big issues the road is very narrow but wide enough the issue is the trees are not cut back enough and scratch your truck. The other issues is the restrooms oh my god bad just the outhouse type no light and just a screen window above the door with not enough light coming through you have to take a light with you during the day. When we got to the site there was trash all over and the leaves had never been cleaned up from last year and that would not seem like much but if your flame comes out of the fire ring your tent could burn with you in it. read more

We have visited/stayed at the Empire Twp Campground for the past 15 summers. Always a pleasant experience, no matter what time of year we visit. Helpful staff, great campground Manager (named Yolanda) and excellent sites to choose from. Quiet and serene. We have stayed in the Hardwoods, the Pines and the electric sites. Have not had a bad site yet! Most site floors are pine needles, or leaves. A great rustic feel/smell to your camping experience. If you have more than 4 people per site, there are options to group family sites, which can hold up to 12-14 people. There is one flush toilet near the office. There are 3 sets of vault toilets, all new solar powered. A great addition. 3 clean Roomy showers! Hot water! Bathrooms and Showers are very well maintained. Close to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park system. We plan to return Spring/Summer 2018. read more

Great Campground. Very rustic. 9 sites with electricity. 3 showers. Very good for tents and small campers. If you bring a fifth wheel or anything large, you will damage your camper and trees. This Campground is 10 minutes from the sand dunes. Buy groceries and eat in Traverse City (22 miles) $16 for a burger read more