Ottawa Lake Amphitheater

Ottawa Lake is quickly becoming a favorite destination for our family. It started with one of our first camping experiences with our new-to-us vintage motorhome. We loved our stay here, and assumed that all state park campgrounds had the same great set-up. Since then, we have found this not to be true. Ottawa Lake has a huge, sandy beach with almost NO rocks. It's shallow enough in the whole swimming area that you can relax and let your kids have fun. There are plenty of picnic tables at and near the beach. You can still find a spot when it gets crowded, and there are even more tables off to the side if you want more privacy. The campsites are a short walk away, past a playground and small amphitheater (who knew how much fun the kids would find that!?) Another great thing about Ottawa Lake campground is the privacy of the sites. Many of the other state park camp grounds we've been to are wide open, but Ottawa Lake has dense trees and undergrowth separating most of their sites. Clean bathrooms, hot showers, freshwater pumps round out the amenities. About the only con I see is that the dog area was quite a ways away, on the other side of the boat launch. There are picnic tables there, too, and plenty of fish off the pier.

It's our first camping out! And we will be back again. It seems that the campground is great for beginner campers without kids. Being first-time campers, we sure appreciated the flush toilet, hot shower and water fountain located near our tent. At $17 per night, we were surprised to see it so well maintained. There does not seem to be much to do for kids (except a small playground near the beach) and no food service for sure. (We didn't have kids, so that was not a problem.) Outside firewood is not allowed due to state park regulation. There is a host site in the middle that sells ice and firewood. We didn't buy any but cooked with a gas stove. So cannot tell you how they are priced.

The campground is clean and the staff is very nice. Our campsite was so close and open to the site next to us that it felt like we were camping with them. Our site also had such an open area to the street that it didn't really feel like camping. Our friends rented the site on the other side of us (not the one we could see/hear) and theirs was much more secluded and you couldn't see any of the neighbors and barely saw the street - so we hung out at theirs the whole time and it was really nice. I guess it's just luck of the draw if you get a more secluded site, or one that is open to other campers. Overall it was good, but I'd suggest you do a little research on which campsites have what you want/need before you reserve one.

I have been going here a lot this summer for swimming, fishing, and camping. There are also many hiking trails around here to explore. The swimming area is nice there are no gas powered boats allowed on the lake so its very clean. The fishing pier is a nice area to fish all though so far all I have caught are small bluegill (I'm not much of a fisherman). I just recently camped at the pinewoods campground down the road you have to register here at Ottawa for that. The camp ground was beautiful, clean, and quiet. I have some of the trails around here they range from very easy to very hard with dense forests and hilly terrain.

We love camping here so close to home. The grounds are very clean and the nicest hosts anywhere! Nice to have plenty of foliage between sites so you don't feel like you are camping in a parking lot!