Michigan state park camping reservations going fast for Memorial Day weekend

Campsites at several Michigan state parks and recreation areas are nearly full for Memorial Day Weekend
Statewide, 54% of available sites are booked for the weekend
Campers can sign up for alerts should cancellations occur

The unofficial beginning of summer may look far off, but Michigan state park and recreation area campgrounds are already filling up for Memorial Day weekend.

A little more than half of available sites are booked, and some campgrounds are almost completely full.

Meanwhile, construction will limit the number of sites available for the weekend and other days throughout the summer.

As of Monday, Hartwick Pines State Park and Tawas Point State Park were 98% full for the first Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, May 23. Ludington State Park was nearest to being completely booked, at 99%.

“Things fill up extremely quickly for the weekends,” said Gary Hearing, vice president of Friends of Ludington State Park. “It’s a beautiful park. The beaches are great. We have 25 miles of hiking, we have kayak rentals, we have bicycle paths and there’s just so much activity.”

Ludington State Park was closed for part of the season last year, including Memorial Day weekend, for renovations. Hearing said that could have made booking there this year even more desirable.

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In Michigan, reservable state park and recreation area campgrounds can be booked six months in advance of the first day of a trip. That means slots for Memorial Day weekend starting that Friday became available Nov. 22.

Not too late

If you can’t find a suitable spot for the full weekend at Ludington or another park of your choice, you might not be completely out of luck.

“Keep in mind, people will cancel,” said Jason Fleming, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ chief of resource management for parks and recreation.

Almost full

These Michigan state parks and recreation areas are more than 90% booked on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend as of Tuesday.

99% — Ludington State Park
98% — Hartwick Pines State Park
98% — Tawas Point State Park
97% — Bay City State Park
97% — Mitchell State Park
96% — Holly Recreation Area
95% — Holland State Park
95% — PJ Hoffmaster State Park
92% — Port Crescent State Park
92% — Lakeport State Park
92% — McLain State Park
91% — Hayes State Park
91% — Seven Lakes State Park
90% — Fort Custer Recreation Area

Room to spare

These Michigan state parks and recreation areas are less than 30% booked on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend as of Tuesday.

28% — Wells State Park
23% — Straits State Park
23% — Fayette State Park
22% — Tahquamenon Falls State Park
17% — Baraga State Park
17% — Fort Wilkins Historic State Park
14% — Brimley State Park
13% — Newaygo State Park
0% — Lime Island State Recreation Area
0% — Highland Recreation Area

Fleming said campers can sign up in the online reservation system to get notifications if places become available.

“You can sign up for a park, you can type a weekend, you can type even down to the site that you’re looking for,” he said.

But Fleming wants to make it clear that, across the state, there are still plenty of camping spots available at Michigan state parks and recreation areas.

“At 54%, that still means there’s a lot of sites out there that have not been reserved yet.”

Ten parks are less than 30% booked for the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. That list includes Highland Recreation and Lime Island State Recreation Area, neither of which had any bookings as of Tuesday.

The impact of closures

As of Monday, 5,724 camping reservations had been made for Memorial Day weekend. On the same date last year, 5,960 reservations had been made.

“One reason for the lighter number of reservations has to do with availability,” Fleming said.

A handful of Michigan state parks and recreation areas will be closed Memorial Day weekend, mostly because of grant-funded renovations that needed to happen within a specific timeframe. For Memorial Day weekend 2025, 8,715 stays — or nights per site— were not available because of closures. This year, 10,803 stays will not be available because of closures.

State parks and recreation areas that will be fully or partially closed during Memorial Day weekend include Cheboygan State Park, Clear Lake State Park, Fort Wilkins Historic State Park, Hoeft State Park, Lake Gogebic State Park, Orchard Beach State Park, Otsego Lake State Park, Indian Lake State Park, Pinckney Recreation Area, Pontiac Lake Recreation Area, Keith J. Charters Traverse City State Park, Twin Lakes State Park and Van Buren State Park.

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