Van Riper State Park

Possibly my favorite Michigan State Park! Its location makes it convenient to many of the harder to reach places in the central UP. It is beautiful, sites are spacious, the whole part is beautifully maintained. Restrooms are clean, showers are hot. There’s a lovely, peaceful, beach area, including a picnic pavilion and playground. If there’s any drawback, it would be it’s nearness to the highway. During the day there is some street noise, but the evenings are very quiet.

Clean campsites. Good size sites. Clean restrooms and showers. Friendly helpful staff. I had to move sites after work, when I was due or at 1 and couldn't get moved until 230. Awesome stay. Harvest festival was fun.

Nice park. We stayed in the overflow park at Peshekee river in a dry cabin . Nice set up,and quick access to overlook trail on the river. It's worth the hike. Great piece of scenery Cabin was quiet,that's good because theirs lots of traffic near by. Cabins are dark so bring headlamps and lanterns

Nice campground and beach. Had site 40 under a huge three and thank god it was a blessing with the crazy heat! Also super close to the beach stairs. Overall a nice place, quiet and well maintained with some trails across the street but not the best trails, narrow, bushy and signa and benches falling apart. I am giving 4 stars and not 5 for 2 main reasons apart from the trails: 1) There is a laundry room in the facility in front of the beach but impossible to get quarters to use the washing machine and the dryer (2$ each). The concession there has a policy of not giving any change and the rangers at the gate don’t have change. You have to go very far to get any change….there is no store in Champion… 2) There are nice showers but not a single drop of hot water…not clear whether it is an ad

We camped here for 3 nights. The camp hosts were super friendly even had homemade donuts along with coffee and hot chocolate on the weekends. The grounds were tidy. It is less than 30 miles to Marquette and there is so much to do. We didn't get out on the lake any but it looked nice. Would stay here again.