Campground Review: Yankee Springs State Recreation Area Middleville, MI

After the blowout 86th birthday party for my Dad my brother and I traveled to Soaring Eagle Casino in nearby Mt. Pleasant where I stayed a night for free in their RV parking.

These folks can party!

After doing some online research I selected Yankee Springs rec area as a place to spend a few days, it was about 95 miles southwest of Mt. Pleasant.  Yankee Springs is built around the southern portion of Gun Lake, it's huge, at least 20 square miles which makes me wonder why they squeezed the campers together so tightly?

You can see THREE campsites in this picture...cozy!

The State charges $24 a night for a site with electrical hookups, no water or sewer but there are four dump stations on the way out of the park.  In the area I stayed there were 198 sites, most of them occupied with families getting a last camping trip in before school starts.  My site backed up to a heavily wooded area, just down the road were about 25 sites on the water which must get reserved weeks in advance because none showed available on the State's reservation website. There is a well kept bathroom/shower facility within about 100 yards of my site.  The sites are fairly level with the grass somewhat worn away after a long camp season.  Millenicom (Verizon) internet came in at 2 out of 4 bars.

Southern Gun Lake

There are over 10 miles of walking and biking paths through the wooded area of the park.  A really nice grassy lakeside mini-park was about a quarter mile from my site.

The campsites are shaded so a lot of people came here for sun.

Next to the little park was the Yankee Springs beach area.  It was only 71 degrees when I took this so there weren't many brave souls venturing out into Gun Lake.

Beach on Gun Lake.

I'll give Yankee Springs a 4 star rating (out of 5).  It was nice but the curiously closely spaced campsites would probably preclude me from coming back. I check out tomorrow and am planning on hitting the Anytime Fitness just down the road in Portage then find somewhere else to camp in the general area.

Thanks for reading!