I've been coming to South Higgins Lake Campground (west side) for years and if it weren't for the beautiful Higgins lake, I'd go somewhere else. Each year I stay at a different site, and they are all the same: nearly all dirt, lousy facilities and crummy water issues. The water spickets that are located on each street were recently updated to include an on/off valve which sounds great, but when you turn it on it sprays outward, not downward, so you get water sprayed all over you. How hard is it to put in a proper faucet end?! And the bathrooms are similar where the faucets to wash your hands and the shower heads, are all "misting" water flows. I'm sure it's to save water but this is not helping me in cleaning my hands and body. Not to mention the water is ice cold each time (I've tried many different times of the day with no luck). As a taxpayer, we are paying for these parks and deserve top notch, simple amenities such as smooth waterflow, larger hot water tanks and a little grass on the sites. Other than this, the lake is gorgeous and great to spend time on it! read more

I came here to camp (car camping/tents) for the first camp of the summer and what a great kickoff to camping season it was for me and my group! Everything here was top notch and well maintained, probably above average from the many state park campgrounds that I have camped at through the years! What that tells me is that this is probably one of the more highly trafficked campgrounds, so there is a lot of maintenance done on it! This campground had the most "modern" bathrooms. Everything was automatic, the toilets, the sinks, the hand dryers. This is by main indicator that the bathrooms are the latest and greatest update! We also loved our campsite. We had a few of Higgins Lake peeking out from around other campsites from ours and were able to enjoy the lake breeze and sunset view from our campsite alone. It was also an easy walk to the lake, where there was a little playground/swing set AND a dog-friendly beach just right off of that playground area as well! Super dog-friendly, which was great because I brought my dog along! Lots of trailers/RVs at all the neighboring campsites, which is to be expected, especially of a more popular campground! This campground also had the most campsites that I've seen as of late (minus Ludington, I'd say)! South Higgins Lake State Park also had some great hiking trails that we took advantage of! Marl Lake Trail is a trail that is very customizable for any of your time/energy level needs - 1, 3, or 5 mile loops can be done on this trail! Other than the hiking and the camping (spent 3 days and 2 nights here), we didn't do much else at the state park, opting instead to rent a boat (from the South Higgins Lake State Park Store - see my review there for details on boat rentals and our experience!) to spend a whole day on the actual lake, so I can't attest to the other amenities this state park has to offer. But for our purposes on this wonderful weekend, it was darn near perfect and we really enjoyed our time!! Hope to be back soon! :) read more

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Park store charges $5 for a skimpy scoop of ice cream. Old owners gave you much more for your money. Got a bad case of swimmers itch yesterday. Would be helpful if the park had nice feet washers and showers to wash the parasites off but instead that have a dribbling high in the air "washer" where the ground is covers with piles of sand and essentially of no use. The grass is long which makes it a haven for bugs. The beach area is so small and crowded. Need to clear more edging for beach use. Overrun with boats and have to wade through them all to get to a deep enough area to swim in. Lucky if you get in the park at all on the weekends. read more

Love going here by boat, vehicle or camping. I live fairly close so driving and boating is no issue. Haven't camped there in awhile but every time I did it was fun read more

THE DOG SITUATION IS RIDICULOUS!! (See photos) ...My BIG issue with this, ergo the rant, is I'm paying just as much as the next guy and I have to sit in the swampy armpit (literally water visibly squirting up and out from between my toes as I sit in a chair looking at a stump and weeds) because I have a dog, BUT I also can't leave her unattended at the campsite making the chances of enjoying the "nice" beach with everyone else impossible. I think dog owners should get a seriously reduced rate if we can't enjoy the main feature of this park. It's a bunch of CRAP!! read more

South Higgins Lake State Park - LOOK!! I found the dog "beach".... what a joke!! - Parks Near Me - Roscommon, Michigan

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Love Higgins! In my opinion best park and lake close to the metro Detroit area. Every yesr I can't wait to visit and this year I will be there three times! I can guarantee you will love it :) read more

South Higgins Lake State Park - Lake - Parks Near Me - Roscommon, Michigan

Our family recommends South Higgins State park as a place to visit. This park offers large campsites and full hook up, which we took advantage of. If you're looking for a Michigan state park where there is water an hiking trails, we highly recommend South Higgins State Park. Our visit was early in the season, so no doggie bags for pick up. This would make it a 5 star for me read more

South Higgins Lake State Park - South Higgins state park lake! - Parks Near Me - Roscommon, Michigan

Great park and beautiful lake. Camp host on the 300 loop is very unwelcoming and rude, unlike the camp host on the 100 loop who always has their site open for visitors and activities. read more

South Higgins Lake State Park is a great park for the simple reason that it's on Higgins Lake. The south end water is crystal clear, and the shallow extends out 1/4 mile at waist deep so there are tons of boats there. Just can't go wrong visiting Higgins Lake... read more

Cute beach...Actually has a dog beach off to the right side. Took my little poodle swimming for her first time. The water is beautiful. It's clear and you can see your toes, unlike some beaches! The dog beach is even kinda fenced in, it was a little more peaceful than the main hang outs. There's even bags incase your dog makes a present. Be careful when you put the address into your gps, ours took us down some dirt road that I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to be driving down. We had to turn around. The beach wasn't too crowded for a 88 degree day. Across the street is Marl Lake, we didn't get to go, but I hear it's more scenic on that side. read more

South Higgins Lake State Park - View of the lake - Parks Near Me - Roscommon, Michigan

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It would be fair to say that the South side is a little more of a party destination for the lake whereas the North campground is a little quieter and family oriented. That said, the South grounds are easy to access and the sites are decent sized with their own power outlets. And even towards the back of the park it's a quick walk to the water and the amenities are really pretty nice with two separate sites for restrooms and showers. There are individual unisex shower rooms and the men's room was clean. If you require a little more personal space the handicapped showers also have a restroom if you need a little more privacy. The beach isn't wonderful and it didn't look very well maintained but their is a lot of real estate along the park's coast to hang out and look out over the water. They have horse shoe pits and a volley ball net or two for campers to use. The water is clean and the swim area goes a ways out before the drop-off though you may want to watch out for Swimmer's Itch given the signs posted but I didn't have any issues with it. read more

I've never camped here, nor have I used the boat launch or the store. On holiday weekends, this place can be a madhouse and will often be closed to car traffic when it quickly fills up. I don't know why I came here on the Fourth of July, because it reminded me of Spring Break, although the girls were plentiful. The beach is nice, and the "swimming area" is about two feet deep at most. I'm mostly commenting on the Marl Lake part of the park. On the other side of the main road, you will find the neglected Marl Lake, which mostly serves the purpose as an overflow parking lot. It says a recreation passport is required, but I've gone here many times without one. In fact, I've gone to the main parking lot and simply told the girl at the shack that I did have one, and she never checked. I've "hiked" the Marl Lake trail, and it was rather boring. It only briefly goes near the lake, and it doesn't actually go around the small lake. You go through a few miles of trees, and then the trail turns around for a few more miles of trees. We walked the whole trail in around 2.5 hours, although there are shorter routes. It is suitable for bike riding, as there are no obstacles or difficult terrain. I fished Marl Lake for the first time in May 2016 now that I had a canoe to get off the shore. The lake is interesting to fish, as it's no deeper than four feet, but the bottom is probably several more feet of loose sand (marl). I know there's some sizeable bass in there. I saw them but was unable to catch them. read more

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very fun and really clear water. i had a lot of fun here. probably the clearest water i have seen in a long time. read more

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Very nice park clean park with clean sandy beach. I gave it 4 because the showers need work. They had 8unisex showers, 1 didn't work, 3-4 depending shat day it was had hot water. The whole one side was ice cold water all the time. In a beach campground where everyone wants to shower after swimming thats a big problem. NOTE: This lake has had problems with swimmers itch this the need to shower when you get out. read more

We reserved a pontoon boat for Saturday , and on Friday at 8:30PM the "manager" of the boat rental place called to say the boat has mechanical issues so we don't have a boat for the next day. He offered no compensation or discount for a future rental. He pretty much said too bad, so sad. Terrible customer service. Rent your boats from any other establishment. read more

Yes, as some have said, nice weather weekends end up being busy...like...crazy busy. There's a reason for this though! It's a huge, well maintained park on the most incredible inland lake in Michigan! With 400ish campsites and a couple cabins, book your stay early...enjoy the beach, the pricy camp store, and watch as hundreds of boaters launch their boats...sometimes it's hilarious! There's a boat basin there to park your boat in a sheltered area, and several boat ramps to keep the line moving. The boat parking is amongst the best I've seen for a campgrounds. read more

I went to the park during Harvest Festival. The sites were all full (over 400!) and almost every site was decorated for Halloween. There were tons of adorable families Trick-or-Treating and the campers passed out candy. The staff at the office were so nice AND they were dressed up too. Really fun time. read more

I love that the water is really close on the campgrounds. It's really gorgeous and I've been there twice now. We loved waking up and taking a walk down by the lake first thing in the morning and walking down there around sunset. Have a lot of nice photos from this place. The park area by the store is a wonderful place to walk around and take pictures as well. My only complaint is that the campsites are a bit open and very close to each other. read more

I've been going to S.Higgins Lake state park for 42 years now and will be going again. However the last few years have not been as enjoyable as before. The swimmers itch is still there. And the barking dogs were horrible.Getting jolted awake at 6 and 7 in the morning by barking dogs and their irresponsible owners is getting worse each year.The grandkids get awakened by them and it makes for an unhappy morning. When walking to the restrooms and getting growled at or barked at is not a pleasant experience either.I understand that the dogs are out of their environment but please dog owners put them in a kennel for a week or stay with them to keep the barking down a bit. This year we had the campers across from us take off early in the morning locking up their three dogs in the camper and they continually barked for hours.UGH read more

Stayed there for a couple of days.. It was great we rented a pontoon boat from Houghton Lk Marina which they delivered It right to us and had the time of our lives recommend both the marina and the camp grounds read more