Waterloo State Recreation Area in
Chelsea (MI)

We came just after the season ended, so the beach was closed and the picnic tables were stored at the Portage Lake area, but the nature was gorgeous, everything but the (privately owned) vending machines was well maintained. We're definitely planning a return trip! The disc golf course could use a bit of variety though. Every hole is a tunnel through the forest with a dogleg to the basket, the only differences being the width of the tunnel and the severity and direction of the dogleg.

A very nice, adventurous, wonderful trip. Clean bathrooms Clean cabins, quiet place to stay. Lots of chipmunks.

I attended The Great Lakes Herb Faire in Chelsea, Michigan in September to revisit with many herbalist. It's a fun family and informative annual event. If you want to learn more about herbalism, this event is the go to event!

Not busy end of August. Lots of campsites available. Also renting tiny houses

Deer are now experiencing ED or Another midge infecting disease. Found seven dead in the last few days. Four on the same body of water.Hunting and hiking are fun. trails not groomed. A lot of horses

We camped at Sugarloaf Lake Modern Campground. Great campsites. I didn't catch any BIG fish but had a blast catching more little blue gills than I could count.

My wife and I have been camping here for years. The spots are either grassy or paved. They have some pull through, but most are back in. The beach is amazing. The bathrooms were clean. The office has firewood, and ice for sale. The workers are friendly and helpful. Would like to mention the Host Blake did an amazing job! Definitely stop by and see! Very close to my home.

We camped at the Portage Lake campground. Large sites, lots of trees, very clean restrooms, great beach, 2 kids playgrounds boat launch, new fishing pier.

One of my favorite places to hike in Michigan, full of beautiful forests and wetlands. The Waterloo-Pinckney trail is the main trail in a vast network of trails. You could wander the woods for days.

Lovely campground although the sites are not the most level. The lake is beautiful, the play area for the kids is great, and the boat launch is nice and has ample parking.

Very nice with 2 camping areas. Open year round but only on weekends in winter. Beauty trail system and nice sand beach on a fully recreation lake. Boat slip and canoes available. Bathrooms and showers top notch. Check out the site but you can't go wrong staying here.

Nice place to stop and take a little walk! It can get pretty wet on/around the trails here in the spring. Also be cognizant of horses passing by!

Went here specifically to see the Black Spruce Kettle Bog - It is magical! We're outdoorsy folk, and are considering another trip (from Indiana) when we can see different plants and critters, later in the season. One tip: Use the EDDY DISCOVERY CENTER ADDRESS to find it!

Great little fishing pier, water is kind of shallow and water was still super cold, didn't get any bites!

Campsite at Green Lake was nice and peaceful. The lake, however, was overgrown and had a film. Beautiful views. Needs some love, but I would camp again.

Close to I-94. Easy check in. We did not have a reservation but the park wasn’t full since it was a week day in mid May. Nice lake with a beach and swimming available. Very nice shower and restroom facilities. The park was very clean. Decent cell signal so we were able to stream our shows at night. Lots of hiking trails in the area. We took a two mile hike around the park. Quiet time after 10 pm and all of the campers adhered to that. Overall, a very nice place to camp. We will keep it in our good list for future travels.

This place, the Portage Lake Campground was an awesome camp spot. Water was available at the bathhouse and I had a 50 amp back-in site with electricity. There is a beach, plenty to do and many campsites to camp in.

I did a 13 mile hike with 9 friends. This was my first time on this end of the Waterloo-Pinckney Trail. There are a variety of trails. On this day, we followed mostly the equine trails, which were in pretty good condition. We lucked out in that the weather was great (30°F with a light snow and no wind). There were very few people and horses on the trail, so we pretty much had them to ourselves.

Love the beach here. Very clean, well kept. Dog friendly, concessions, paddle board & other rentals. Sandy areas, lawn areas, grills, ample space. Plenty of parking but it is a short walk to the beach down a hill (with a paved path). I highly recommend using a wagon if you have one.

We camped at Portage campground which has a short paved trail to a playground near the beach. It has a mixture of paved & grassy campsites for campers or tents. Be sure you check out the sites before you reserve to fit your needs. Has great views of the lake. We are planning on coming back next year.

We camped for 2 nights at the Mill Lake Rustic cabins inside Waterloo State Recreation Area. The area was really natural, lots of trees, dirt roads. You definitely need to make sure that you are prepared. There was a water pump within walking distance of the cabin. There was a vault toilet, which I found was not cleaned, lots of flies and spiderwebs everywhere. I sprayed for bugs, lysol wiped, and swept in there myself to make sure that it was clean enough for my family. The cabin was clean, had lots if screened windows, and the beds were actually pretty comfortable. We brought an air mattress that we ended up not even using. There are lots of electric heaters built in and we stayed warm at night. Plenty of outlets conveniently placed. We brought a mini fridge and were able to power up all our phones (which we did have good service on there), and electronic cookers. The cabin was well lit, with plenty of room to accommodate our family of 6. Mill lake was accessible on foot via a short trail walk. The cabins didn't have a view of the lake though. The Discovery center was a short drive away and the kids loved it. There were no showers at the Mill Lake cabins, you can go to the Sugarloaf campground to shower at a cost of $5 per person. There were lots of trails to walk. If you have a boat there is a boat access for Mill lake. We let the kids fish from the shore. They enjoyed watching the little minnows and butterflies around the marshy shoreline. I think if we camp at Waterloo again I would like to be near modern bathrooms and a shower, because we have 4 kids. Ii did like the natural wooded area that were at though. It didn't feel like we were too close to lots of other people, or like it was a parking lot. The local DNR was friendly and helpful, and didn't bother us. It was a good experience overall; we will be camping at Waterloo again next year in a different camping area.

Great camping spot even in the winter time. So quiet and clean. Had a great spot not far from the water. Will definitely come back in the summer.

A wonderful spot! The one downside is there is only one straight/long hiking path where we went by the boat launch so we just walked out and back. But it was a well kept path and it was nice to have mole markers. I would definitely recommend it and we look forward to returning.

Good for us so our grandkids can come and with the lake/playground gives them a lot to do. Very family friendly. Close to home but still a nice little get away. The people working there are very friendly and helpful.

We visited the South Fork rustic cabin on a chilly weekend in March. It was lovely and secluded. The wood stove is wonderful and it was very warm during the day but we had to get up multiple times and refill it during the night to stay warm. There was an amazing amount of bird species in the area , and we heard coyotes the first night. Many hiking trails close to the cabin. Quite roomy inside, with a picnic table that was excellent for family games. Be sure to grab a trail map before you come, as there was none in the cabin. Likewise matches for the wood stove, we were lucky that we had some in the car as we've had forgotten to bring any with us. There was ample wood for the wood stove although if you want an outside fire you need to bring your own wood. Lovely time had by all.

Great park. Headquarters was super friendly and helpful. Really great place for small loop hikes. I would personally park and start at the discovery center. Nothing more than 5 miles unless you continue on the Waterloo-Pinckney Trail. Very nice trail by the way.

Rented a small cabin on Portage Lake for the weekend. The view was great and the cabin was warm. No indoor bathroom but had a clean outhouse right out back. Modern living it was not but it was cozy and just what I was looking for. It could have been a little cleaner but it was nothing a few sanitary wipes and 10 minutes couldn't fix. Great place to get away to and I'm already looking forward to going back!