Finding a place to camp near Marquette can be quite a challenge. There aren’t very many options if you want to be close to the city. There is, however, the Marquette Tourist Campground.
This campground is located in a nicely wooded park on the Dead River. It has 110 camping sites, with 100 sites providing electrical hookups. Each campsite has a picnic table and fire pit. The more “modern” sites have water and sewer service. Hot showers and restrooms are also available.
My mom and I were looking for an easy stop for the night on our way to Copper Harbor and decided to give Marquette Tourist Park a shot.
Experience
We rented a site in the primitive tent area and were quite confused by the site setups. First, we were told to park in the parking lot and walk into our site, about 100 feet away. We noticed that other people were driving their vehicles in so we ended up doing that instead of having to lug everything around.
The second issue we had was the sites in this section were set up so close together and arrange so strangely that we had to walk through someone else’s campground to get to the main road. Luckily, they weren’t fully booked while we were there and this didn’t become an issue. This also makes privacy a bit of an issue.
After setting up, we explored the facilities. There are three bath house options. The first is up at the front of the campground, which was extremely dirty. The other two were better, but still lacked the cleanliness we typically see in more modern campgrounds.
One thing we really did like about this campground was the view of the Dead River. Our campsite was set up right on the river. There is a small swimming area just before the dam which has a nice beach area. The park is also in a great location with a lot of things to do, including being close to Noquemanon Trail Network.
Cost
As of 2018, it costs $18 for a primitive/tent site, $30 for an electric site, and $35 for a full hook up.
Overall
If you have some sort of RV or don’t mind having close neighbors, this campground would be a good option for you. Especially if you’re looking for the convenience of being close to town. If you’re like us who prefer rustic campgrounds with more nature than people, you may want to reconsider. We will not be returning to this one.
So weird to see Tourist Lake full! Thanks for the thorough review.
Has it not been in the past? This was my first time there.