Interlochen State Park

Growing up 15 minutes away, it was the place we went to swim for a day, school picnics, and visit family when they camped. We always had a fun time. Now that I have my own children I appreciate it even more. Plenty of camp sites, including cabin rental, boat launch, lake, couple play grounds, adequate day pass parking, plenty of picnic tables and pavilions.
Yes, swimmers itch is a problem, but we purchased this Itch Guard a few years back that we found to work really well, and we continue to use.
Highly recommend this park for a day, a weekend, or even longer.

Nice surprise, planned on a relatively short notice trip, hadn’t been there before. Stayed Wednesday-​Sunday. As mentioned on another post, you’ll find music echoing across the lake pretty consistently, from the camp across the road. Happened to have an outside lot with a little trail to the lake. It was great, I’d love to go back to the exact same site. To the details, the staff were very friendly also. Didn’t want to leave when it was time to pack up.

Great place to camp. Allow motorcycles. Clean modern bath house. Lots of things to do and very reasonably priced.

A cool campground, it had a lot of accomodations within walking distance inside the park and everything outside the park was relatively close for a short drive.
I would recommend this location for anyone camping in the Traverse City area.

First off, I love this place. It’s gorgeous, in the middle of two large, beautiful lakes, and near the world class Interlochen Center for the Arts.
So why three stars? Because the Swimmer’s Itch problem in the two lakes — Green and Duck — is out of control. After being there for four days and swimming in Green Lake on three of those days, I have over 120 «bites» all over my body, each one about as itch as a mosquito bite.
Before you go, read up on Swimmer’s Itch and how to avoid it — it’s not to be messed with. I would include one very important pointer that’s not readily available elsewhere but I did find deep inside a Michigan DNR booklet — avoid swimming on whichever side of the lake the wind is blowing the water into, which is usually the east and south sides of the lakes, as the parasites that cause Swimmer’s Itch get carried by the wind and current. We were swimming on the east side of Green Lake and all three days there was a light west wind. Big, big mistake.
Go but be educated and beware.

The great thing about Interlochen State Park and Campground is that there’s often music playing in the background, a short walk across the street at Interlochen Center for the Arts. The mostly shaded sites are large, and the bathrooms/​showers are monitored regularly and kept relatively clean. It’s not far to Platte River canoeing, Empire, Sleeping Bear Dunes, or Traverse City. If you don’t feel like driving to water, you can relax on or near Duck Lake. There are some shops in the Village of Interlochen, and a couple good-​sized grocery stores about a mile north of the campground.