Mackinaw City Vacation: Part I - Mackinaw Mill Creek Camping

It's a lazy Sunday afternoon and I'm finally able to write about our recent camping trip to Mackinaw City. It was a terrific vacation, with great day trips to Mackinac Island, Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore and Old Mill Creek State Park.

I'll write about this trip in three posts, with today's being about Mackinaw Mill Creek Camping.

Normally, we stay at state parks. However, for this vacation we searched the Internet and found Mackinaw Mill Creek Camping. It wasn't without is drawbacks, but we're glad to have stayed there and we'd happily return.

Mackinaw Mill Creek Camping is located on U.S. 23, just two miles south of the Mackinaw Bridge. It has one mile of shoreline along Lake Huron and overlooks the Straits of Mackinaw, including (from west to east) Mackinaw City, Mackinac Bridge, St. Ignace, Mackinac Island, Round Island and Bois Blanc Island.

The 200-acre campground has about 750 campsites, plus about 80 cabins.Campsites range from rustic to 50amp full hookup. Cabins range from a two person shed to a four-bedroom, two-story cottage. Many campsites and cabins are waterfront, and nearly all are within a short 5-minute walk.

Our campsite, #199, was about 50 yards from the water. It was a 30-amp full hookup (we opt for full hookup on our longer camping stays), pretty much level and was on gravel/grass.

One of the two drawbacks to our campsite was that it was in a section of the campground where all sites
were very narrow, ours included. We backed in our camper as close to one side of the site as we could, extended the awning and pretty much reached the other side of the site. It wasn't bad when we didn't have neighbors, but by Wednesday night we were surrounded. And we very much felt boxed in.

The other drawback was that our campsite, like others in our cramped section, did not come with a fire pit. Instead, we were given a metal pan about the size of a large deep dish. Our fire needed to be contained within the pan.

Now, we're not the type of campers who needs a huge bonfire, but we felt this small fire pan limited our campfire enjoyment. Although, we were able to cook s'mores and hobo pies, so maybe I just needed to readjust our expectations.

Those were the only two drawbacks. The rest of Mackinaw Mill Creek Camping was very nice. The numerous staff was very friendly and helped keep the campground very clean and orderly.

Amenities included a

• well-stocked camp store 
• small kitchen that served pizza, ice cream and other snacks
• clean restrooms
• clean shower facilities
• large arcade
• mini-golf
• heated swimming pool
• dump station
• basketball court
• several playgrounds

A quick word about the shower facilities. The restroom had showers as well as the separate bathhouse. Each day, the boys and I were able to use three showers at the same time, all next to each other so we can share shampoo and soap, without ever having to wait.