Ausable River Camping

The spot is a perfect boat to spot. The hill to get up to the camp site is not terrible but would be rough when it rains because it’s mostly sand and some tree roots that you “climb” but it’s not a bad hill. The camp site itself is perfect for tents and hammocks and the view is spectacular!

I personally enjoy primitive camping because of the peace, quiet and seclusion. This campground is perfect for me, and my dogs love it too.

Visit this location often. Enjoy the peace of rustic camping and the closeness of the AuSable River.

Lovely site for a quick overnight or an extended stay and very friendly for paddle-craft. Quite safe for our toddlers too. Users seem to have been doing a great job keeping human waste contained and inconspicuous. Hope to see this trend continue! We've been using a bucket toilet with sawdust "flush" and it makes carry-in/carry-out unavoidably easy.

Our trip started out rocky. As we were pulling up to our campsite, we noticed the site was already inhibited by other people. Long story short, the other people were on the wrong site and we had to wait two hours for them to move everything and get on their correct site. ADVICE: Always check your reservation and emails PRIOR to arriving. We didnt get on the site until almost dark due to the mix up but the site was a nice distance from the boat launch. We had never boat-in camped and this was a wonderful spot to experience our first trip with. The site was perfectly located and had amazing views. The site itself was very spacious and well kept. There are a lot of pines, which burn very fast so make sure you bring in your own wood. There is also a trail going through the site so expect that you may have a hiker or two hiking through your site. There are also people who hunt out here and have trail cams so be careful of where you go to the bathroom at in the woods. Be careful of the water levels, we did see a lot of people bottoming out in the river.

Favorite place to camp and kayak.

This is a great spot! Plenty of open flat space for tents and some decent trees for hanging hammocks. Pretty much all pines here. Tons of waterfowl honking all hours of the day. Follow the signs to get to the parking spot. The site is about a 10ish minute walk from where you park. The first few hundred feet of trail are down a kinda steep hill, but then the trail levels out the rest of the way.

Water access is a bit sketchy here. The river is accessible, but only by going down an incredibly steep hill with loose dirt, and it turns into more of a pond or marsh here, so expect standing water and algae/reeds in areas. Still fine for a quick dip or cool down. There is a flowing spring at the bottom of the hill near the parking area, which is where I went to get my drinking water.

Mosquitoes got bad at night, so pack plenty of bug spray. Absolutely no phone service with Verizon unless I walked out to the service road you drive in on. If you're feeling adventurous, there are meandering deer trails running for a few miles along the ridge overlooking the shore, then dip down into a bog. I've stayed at like ten spots on the river so far, and this is the first one where I didn't see or hear another person except for the rare passing kayaker.

A solid 7/10 spot.

Nice site at the river's bend. Private area with a nice overlook of the river.

Beautiful location right across from the Loud Pond takeout. Amazing views and multiple trails around the campsite.

The campsite was cleaned up nicely prior to my arrival. Thanks to the crew who did that!