Campground Review: Whiting Park Advance, MI

People familiar with vacationing in Michigan's lower peninsula generally recognize the Charlevoix area as one of the most desireable camping/vacationing destinations in the state.  Specifically, anywhere on beautiful Lake Charlevoix.

Lovely Lake Charlevoix.

During my previous camping itineraries I had purposely avoided the Charlevoix area due to crowding and high priced campgrounds, the most desirable area equals the highest pricing, or so I thought.  This year three college buddies and I were planning on spending five days at a lake side house and being in the area three days early I ventured to Whiting Park, a county park on the southeast side of Lake Charlevoix.

The park sits on both sides of the lakefront road.

 I expected to pay through the nose for the privilege of camping on Lake Charlevoix during the height of the season but was pleasantly surprised at the reasonable rate of $25 per night.

Here's the data sheet on Whiting Park:

Hookups:                                             20, 30 Amp                                                                

Fire ring:                                              Yes                                                     

Water Access:                                     Yes                                         

Fresh Water:                                       Yes                             

Trash Service:                                     Yes                             

Toilets:                                                 Yes                             

Showers:                                             Yes                                                     

Dump station:                                      Yes                             

WiFi:                                                    No                                          

Level sites:                                          No                                          

Laundry:                                              No                                                      

Store:                                                  No                                                                  

Pool:                                                    No                                          

Shade:                                                Yes                                                     

Verizon reception:                               4G, 3 bars                                           

Internet reception                                3 of 5 bars

Cost:                                        $25 per night

You get electric hookups at Whiting Park but no water or sewer although fresh water is available at the dump station or the bath house.

The Whiting Park bath house.

The campsites themselves all have a rather pronounced slant towards Lake Charlevoix so be prepared to work on leveling your RV.

I had to add blocks under the front jack to reach level due to the slope.

For me, the best feature of Whiting Park was the miles of forest trails traversing it's 136 acres, I got my steps in every day on really great hiking trails.

A sunlit trail in Whiting Park.

For most people though the sandy beach on Lake Charlevoix is the premiere attraction at the park.

A section of the large sandy beach at Whiting Park.

Given the high demand area Whiting Park is in $25 per night during peak season is a pretty good value!  The hiking trails alone would probably get me back next year.  Sometimes I need to challenge my pricing assumptions about camping locations and Whiting Park was definitely one of them.

Thanks for reading!