Waterloo Recreation Area

Beautiful park interspersed with public roads and private farmsteads and homes. Visited for the afternoon only, and I look forward to checking out the Eddy Discovery Center. I learned there’s a 46-​mile trail connecting Waterloo and Pinckney Rec, and that this is the largest state park in the Lower Peninsula (third largest in MI, behind Porcupine Mountains SP and Tahquamenon Falls SP). I look forward to countless hours on the trails and lakes of Waterloo Rec, a hidden gem I’m sure!

I am rating this park as a day visitor. Every year since 1993, my dog breed club has held a fun match, which is like a field day for dogs and their handlers. Lots of fun games and involvement for the kids and of course the dog show stuff. Stand still and look pretty for the judge…
For the last few years, we have held our annual fun match at the picnic shelter near the Portage Lake Campground. We also hold a «draft test» about a month later, where dogs earn an AKC title for pulling their carts with precision.
The site is very comfortable for us and our dogs. There is a picnic shelter that we rent. We get the park caretakers to bring over extra picnic tables for our large group. The shelter has men’s and women’s bathrooms, charcoal grills and electricity. The lawn is flat, with no holes. There are posts for a volleyball net.
There are some large oak trees in the open area. To the west, there is a thick forest which casts shade — very important, because our dogs are mostly black with thick fur. They can overheat from prolonged exposure to direct sun, even on a relatively cool day. So there is plenty of room for the dogs to wait in the shade until it is their turn in the ring.
There is a bigger shelter over by Portage Lake, with larger restrooms and vending machines. The beach is nice. No dogs are allowed over there. Dogs may swim at the boat launch, which is to the northwest of the picnic shelter, across a big parking lot.
This is a great place to hold our all-​day dog events. If you have a big group such as a family reunion, you will like this place. It is within walking distance of the campground, so folks from far away can come early and stay in tents or campers, and not have to drive home at night.
As one reviewer noted, the campsites at the campground are not very secluded. It’s more like being in the suburbs, as camping goes. Just enough footprint for a camper, and you’re close to your neighbor, but if everyone’s tired at the end of the day, you’ll all settle down and sleep.
I have not stayed overnight at the campground, so I cannot say much about that.

We rented South Fork Cabin last month. We were super excited to have a hike-​in cabin. Sounds private, right? It’s located inside the giant Waterloo Recreation area, but the cabin itself is on a residential road. The first night we were there, we spent our entire relaxing time around the campfire listening to some family’s dog bark non-​stop and the continuous banging from another neighbor’s home renovation. It’s also right behind a riding stable, with paths coming pretty close to the cabin.
Portage Lake was disgusting. The playgrounds and bathrooms were nice, but the lake itself was hideous. Silver Lake in Dexter is so much nicer. Portage Lake was mucky, dark and weedy. My son lost a flip flop in the muck, and we never found it. We liked Crooked Lake for both swimming and fishing.
Overall, it was just okay,

I went to visit this campground today to see if I should camp there this summer. The answer is NO WAY. The only way you could get privacy at this campground is if you are the only one camping there. I checked out the description of the camp sites before making the drive out there and I was particularly interested in site #114. The description says this site is secluded and private. This might be the best site of the entire campground, but I would still never consider it secluded or private. I definitely agree with the other reviewer that this campground is like camping in a parking lot with grass and trees. That is not an exaggeration.

This place may be a 3+ star or so if you have an RV (preferably one of those so big it feels like you’re driving around in your apartment). As someone we were with said, «It’s like camping in a parking lot with grass and trees.» Dead on. You’re kind of duped driving from the main office area to the campground because you travel on a dirt road with everything around you appearing so thick and ‘forest-​y’ for a long while. All of a sudden, once you get past the check-​in, you come upon just about the opposite of all of that über-​nature.
The Waterloo State Recreation has 2 main campgrounds/​lakes (Portage and Sugarloaf). Sugarloaf is fairly large with 164 sites with a beach, boat launch and playground. Check-​in is at 1pm, check-​out is at 3pm.
Some details:
–There’s a building with several individual showers, bathrooms (with a fair amount of outlets for the ladies) that also has a few vending machines: drink, ice cream and snack.
–Camping spots are spacey with an electric outlet post (bring an extension cord that with allow you to plug in a few extra things). This was awesome because it allowed us to bring a thin box fan to battle the heat in the tent, a small vac to take care of the dirt on the floor and charge our cell phones and batteries. I love it when I can flat iron my hair in the wilderness too. ;-)
–No sanitation or water hook-​ups are available for RV’s at the campsites. Those are located near the campground check-​in office. Dumpster is located here too. There are no garbage receptacles anywhere outside, so you must bring your own garbage bags or cans.
–A decent amount of water spigot stations are located a short walk away from most camping spots.
–You can bring Fido here (on a 6 foot leash and one of those ground stakes that come with a longer leash are helpful) and he/​she can’t be unattended. We brought one of ours and so did just about everyone else. Dog heaven.
–Each camping spot has a round concrete firepit reinforced with metal 4′-5′ in diameter and 2′ or so high. No grills available, bring your own or a large grate at the very least). On this trip I discovered the amazing and delicious possibilities of hobo food that a simple pie iron can create. Why have I never seen one of these things in all of my life until now? I am officially obsessed.
–Camping office sells ice (small and large bags) and firewood that will last for a meal or two or a large bonfire for just for $ 5. A single Duraflame log seems to work well for strictly bonfire purposes, supplemented by a little firewood (though I wouldn’t cook over it).
–Beach is small, not much sand area. Water is not crazy clear and sand is kinda dark. I’ll admit, I became spoiled and snotty coming from awesome Florida Gulf waters where the 2011 #1 beach in the country exists (all hail Siesta Key in Sarasota!) so nothing could ever compare. Lake water in general skeeves me out anyhow.
–Playground is nothing much to look at. Pretty basic and only for kids 2 – 5 (weird age restriction limitation) and located next to the beach. Especially considering kids of all ages are all OVER the place here riding around on bikes, Razors, skateboards, etc.
–There is a camp host (a retired couple) in the middle of the park that keeps an eye on the joint and offers info and sets up crafts for kids at 3pm underneath covered picnic table. They also put out coffee, hot chocolate and donuts at 8am on the weekends, but you can’t bring your dog up to the tables with you.? They take can and bottle returnable donations at their spot to fund these things.
–If you want more privacy and greenery reserve a spot along the perimeter of the campground edges of the park and/​or to the north of the bathrooms and showers.
–This campground, despite it being jammed-​packed the weekend we went, actually remained pretty clean. Bathrooms weren’t as atrocious as one would expect either. Although, you gotta admit, communal baths are still undeniably quite icky.
–There is a very shady looping one mile trail that near the campground office/​sanitation area that takes about 15 minutes to walk and other hiking is available throughout the park.
–Pricing ran about $ 25 a night for a spot w/​electric. Recreation Passport /​entrance fees apply (get one cheap when you renew your vehicle registration). Quiet hours are from 11pm — 7am (most people actually play by the rules here). Stay is limited to no more than 15 straight days. Reservations are strongly recommended as spaces fill up quickly. There’s also a Discovery Center offsite that features year-​round exhibits and nature programs.