Algonac State Park

A smaller state park with a two camping sections. The large one by the road is mostly unshaded and noise from the road that seperates the park and the river may be a problem. The river is mostly a view with a small beach and some pole fishing opportunities. The wagon wheel campground is party central with many locals using it as a party place. Our «neighbors» for the one night festival rented six campsites under different names, set up a portable garage for a party tent and after the drunken fights, driving, yelling, and even a gun drawn finally settled down around 4:00 in the morning. Park staff, «mostly youth» and the local police were totally useless.
During the day the trap range is about two hundred feet away through the woods and lasts all day with many locals using it for leagues, «not exactly peaceful camping serenity».
Homeless folks also wander around if you have a kind heart and some extra food.
Even without the party palace, I cannot recommend this park.

I’ll start from the beginning with this park. I have been coming to Algonac since I was young. Growing up my parents owned a motor home, and if we were looking for a quick short drive to get away for the weekend it worked out great. They have nice playgrounds for kids, short but nice walking trails, a shooting range (if your interested), a beach across the road off the river, and showers. Like I said it was great when we had a motor home and I was younger. The motor home helped to quiet the traffic and the boats at night. I should also mention that it seems like almost everyone there has motor homes or campers of some type, so there are always generators running to add to the noise.
Skip ahead to now… My fiancé and I now tent camp a lot, we went back there with my parents a few years ago and were unable to sleep at night due to the loud sounds of traffic, generators, and ships with fog horns. Also, we were one of the only people there in a tent. I would call it one of your more typical «parking lot» campgrounds. They are good if you like that kind of thing, there’s nothing wrong with that kind of camping if that’s what your into, we just like to be much more secluded when camping. We have a lot of neighbors at home, we don’t want them even closer when were camping.
If you want to go there for a day trip they have a lot to offer. Like I mentioned above, they have a beach, walking trails, and a shooting range. They also have a large picnic area with grills if you want to bring a picnic for the day. We do this a lot during the summer, because they are one of the only beaches that allow dogs on the beach! **As a side note, if you bring your dog to the beach, please clean up after it and don’t be the person that ruins it for everyone else. Please and Thanks!***

You have only yourself to blame!
Panning Alognac State Park tenting grounds seems to be fashionable, while it only reveals that camping reviewers must be disgusted with their own lives so much, they must throw darts at everything in their world. I wonder, do they give Santa Claus the finger?
I’ve read:
–There are five to ten trees scattered across the campground. Not true. There are more than 75.
–There is not much room. Not true. There is ample, even generous, room for your tent, two vehicles, picnic table, & an awesome fire pit.
There is no beach. Not true. There is a forty-​foot stretch of sand that fronts the St. Clair River (which some refer to as a ‘strait,’ carrying more freighter traffic than the Suez & Panama canals COMBINED) It is not meant to be Jones Beach, but a place to comfortably get closer to the ships.
–There is a firing range. True. For me this became (intermittent) white noise.
There are two campgrounds; Riverview, which fronts the river. M-​29, a two lane highway, separates Riverview campground from the river. And, there is Wagon Wheel Campground, a secluded spot away from the river, but not the noise of the firing range, in the oak savannah.
The only sure fire down side is traffic noise. Arriving on a beautiful sunny August Sunday in the seventies while motorcyclists from sixty states wasn’t the greatest idea – with a schnoodle and a cairn terrier along. Riverview campground became Algonac Bark Park. I will never attest to not being well defended.
And, there seems to be (as confirmed by some locals) a tradition that when you drive the River Road after dark, you must honk. Some motorists take this tradition very seriously.
One upside. It’s minutes from New Baltimore in Macomb County. Far enough away to not be Metro Detroit while you’re still in Metro Detroit.
For the whiners that there is little shade: Don’t go back. We don’t want you. You only have yourself to blame. I imagine you’d find something wrong with Yellowstone or Rocky Mountain National Park. For others, if you’re dubious, let me help. Reservations may be made SIX MONTHS IN ADVANCE.
Here is an incomplete list of the sites with COMLPETE SHADE: 20, 22, 23, 64, 65, 66, 79, 81, 84 89, 90, 92, 95
You have only yourself to blame if you get stuck in the sun.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resourses felled more than 700 ash trees that suffered from the emerald ash borer, now one of the most destructive non-​native insects in the United States. The little guy is a half-​inch long and an eighth inch wide. And, it devastated most of the arbor on the Riverview campground. Don’t let some other big human guy reviewer who may be six foot, two hundred pounds who likes to whine of the sun keep you away.
I got curious about one freighter and googled it:
The Joseph H Thompson, built for WWII in Chester, PA, is powered by a 9900 HP GE steam turbine. Relegated «merely’» to Great Lakes service today, the Thompson crossed the Atlantic during the war. Its presence at Normandy in D-​Day was only the beginning of 68 years of service. I imagined it sailing north on the St Clair River to Port Huron for a stop @ McDonald’s.
Watching freighters pass up and down the St. Clair River from your tent at Riverview Campground is like listening to a Beatles album: it never seems like a good idea until someone else puts you up to it.