Bay Furnace Campground

Quiet, clean, and gorgeous. The host campers were excellent and the pit toilets were always spotless. The road in has lots of bad potholes. Hopefully they will be fixed soon.

Great Boondocking campground. The sites are spaced far apart and plenty of shade. Didn't try the pit toilets as we are self-contained. Tall pines in a forest/beach area. Some sites have trails to the beach, if yours doesn't, then there is a trail located next to the Camp Host's site. Really beautiful area and we would come back if the weather was cool. There were a few mosquitos in the evening.

I stayed at a site with a view of the lake and it was very beautiful! However, my site got a lot of noise from people and kids playing on the small beach below the site. There is a small historic site within a short walk of the campground. The campground is near some restaurants and is also close to Munising for some of the activities at Pictured Rocks.

BOOKING: We stayed at Bay Furnace at the beginning of June 2022. I was lucky enough to book campsite 10 in December of 2021, because I was eager to get the site directly on the water.

CAMPSITE: This campsite is extremely clean. There are dumpsters, water spigots, and vault toilets. Even without showers, electricity, or running water, it is one of the cleanest sites I've been to. The toilets did not smell and there were no flies. I saw the host clean them every single day (and replace the deodorizer!). It was quiet aside from a few generators. Our campsite had direct access to the beach - the grassy and dirt lot opened up right on to the sand. It was tree-covered and quite private. We hardly saw other people on the beach in front of our site.

WEATHER: The weather hovered between 30º and 70º, but it was very temperamental right on the lake. If clouds moved in, the temperature dropped sharply. Being directly in the sun was unbearably hot after layering up! I would go from a long sleeve with a hoodie and pants to in my sports bra and shorts within a few minutes. The wind forced us to leave a day early, and we had rain on day 2. The lake/bay was much too cold to jump in this early in the season. We brought our snowboarding layers to wear at night, when it was 36º.

BUGS AND RODENTS: The bugs stayed away while it rained and when it was windy. Immediately after, it became extremely buggy. We had 2 citronella candles, 2 mosquito coils, bug spray, and a fire lit at all times - these bugs DID NOT CARE. They were not deterred at all. My boyfriend got bitten by a horsefly in 3 or 4 spots, causing huge swelling and redness where he got bit. Benadryl did not help, but Advil helped the swelling go down. There were no raccoons, rodents, or snakes.

OTHER: The sunsets were my favorite I've ever seen. It doesn't get dark until after 9 PM this time of year! There is not much to do indoors in the surrounding towns.

5/5 would recommend BUT this was a very challenging camp!

Nice area
Lots to do and see

This was an incredible campsite. We loved the location. Would stay here again in a heartbeat. The sunset from the bay was stellar. Now I want to come back and stay in one of the spots by the water. Magical

For never being there before, the site was good. Real close to drinking water and restroom. After being there there were other sites that were really nice. Ours was good but in lower land and sandy. Using a tent one of the sites with grass would have been nicer. But still a good place to camp. Rain drove us out a day early.

The site was nice. They’re close together, but privacy wasn’t an issue.

Really enjoyable!!

The road coming into the campground had many deep potholes, capable of causing damage, so take it very slow! Once in, the sites were spacious with brush between to screen the view into the next site. There are multiple water spigots around the campground as well as fresh water and rinse water spigots, with threaded connections, at the dump station. Vault toilets only with no showers which was not a problem for us since we use our own facilities. Traffic noise from Hwy 28 is persistent and at times significant.

It’s just a short walk to the lakeshore and an interpretive site of the ruins of the historic Bay Furnace. It was very cool along the lakeshore in mid-September but this would be a great location to escape the heat of summer. Just a short drive to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore park/overlooks and beautiful hikes.