Newaygo State Park

I’m torn: The park itself is beautiful and rustic and the campsites are very private, with 20ft of woods in between each one. However, if you’re not a boater, the campground doesn’t have much to offer. There is nowhere to fish on site (you have to drive 15 minutes away) and the beach is well beyond disappointing. They have nice hiking trails and geocaching (if you’re into that) but the trails are pretty bland.
This campground is RUSTIC, so all of your visions of passionate sex in a tent will go out the window after a day of sweat and no showering. As mentioned before, there is a beach, but it is so small that you might walk right past it without noticing. The water was embarrassingly dirty. They even post notices nearby stating that they do not test the quality of the water. Needless to say, we didn’t go near it.
There is a nice gas station with ice cream nearby, which is a plus if you forgot something.
They do have vault toilets on site – think porta-​potty but bigger, with an endless well of waste and toilet paper and clusters of flies. It was pretty nasty.
I’ve been to rustic campgrounds before, but this one just wasn’t for me.

I had an overall good experience camping at Newaygo State Park. When a person car-​camps in a Michigan State Park it is difficult to find a secluded campground unless you can travel to the U.P. Unfortunately, I would not say this campsite is very secluded. Unless you are able to camp during the off season I would expect to get used to the sights and sounds of your neighbors. There is a good amount of trees in between some sights, but not all. I camped at site #9 which was fairly decent. The best thing about this campground is the frisbee golf course, and the swimming area in the Hardy Dam Pond. I would also strongly encourage anyone who visits the area to go on the Hardy Dam Trail. You can definitely find some peace and quiet on the trail.

Newaygo State Park is a hidden gem. The camp sites are awesome, with 10 – 20 ft of trees between each campsite, there is no worries of annoying campers next door, as there is plenty of space between each site. The only other campsites you can see are the ones semi-​across from you.
Be aware that this is a rustic campground, no toilets and no showers.
But the real secret to the greatness of Newaygo is the Geocaching. Hidden in the woods of this park is some of the coolest contraptions you will ever see. There is a 10 stage pirate themed Multi-​cache, a giant mousetrap, a lamppost in the woods just like Narnia, and the list goes on and on. Not only that, but not 1 but 2 night caches for the brave!