Mesick, a village in Michigan's Wexford County set amid rolling, mostly rural terrain and nearby parks and forests, is perhaps most known for the annual Mesick Mushroom Festival. Each Mother's Day weekend since 1959, crowds have gathered to pick and devour the area's plump morel mushrooms and participate in other activities such as a parade, flea market, car show and mud bog. Campers who visit during the festival or any time of year will find several state-owned campgrounds within a 30-minute drive.
Healy Lake
- Healy Lake State Forest Campground (michigandnr.com), approximately 15 miles west of Mesick in Springdale Township, has 24 rustic campsites for tents and small trailers available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The campground includes vault toilets and potable water. Activities for campers include fishing for bluegill, perch and bass on the namesake lake, a boat launch and nearby hiking and mountain biking along the Betsie River.
Baxter Bridge
- Baxter Bridge State Forest Campground (michigandnr.com), set on the banks of the Manistee River in Greenwood Township, about 15 miles north of Mesick, provides 25 rustic sites for tents and small trailers. Three campsites accommodate trailers or RVs up to 40 feet in length. The campground includes vault toilets, potable water and a variety of recreational activities, including boating, canoeing and fishing for brown and rainbow trout, bass and walleye on the Manistee River. For hikers, the campground provides nearby access to the 4,600-mile North Country National Scenic Trail (nps.gov), nearly a third of which is in Michigan.
William Mitchell
- William Mitchell State Park (michigandnr.com), set between Lake Mitchell and Lake Cadillac, approximately 18 miles southeast of Mesick, has a large developed campground with more than 220 campsites for tents, trailers and RVs; some have 50-amp electrical hookups. The campground also has a mini-cabin that sleeps four, a camper cabin that sleeps six, modern restrooms and an RV dump station. A boat launch, swimming beach and playground are within walking distance of campsites, and the park also includes a picnic area with shelters, a hunting and fishing center, and a 2.5-mile nature trail that includes bridges and boardwalks. Anglers can target fish such as walleye, perch, panfish, bass and bullhead in the lakes and the historic canal that connects them.
Interlochen
- Interlochen State Park (michigandnr.com), about 18 miles north of Mesick, also lies between two bodies of water: Duck Lake and Green Lake. Interlochen, designated as Michigan's first state park in 1917, has 480 total campsites, more than 420 of which are in a large modern campground along the shores of Duck Lake, and three camper cabins. The large campground provides sites with 20-, 30- and 50-amp electrical hookups, plus modern restrooms, two RV dump stations and tents available for rent. The park also has a rustic campground along Green Lake with 59 campsites, vault toilets and water pumps. Recreational options include a swimming beach, three boat launches, rowboat and canoe rentals, a picnic area with shelter, 1-mile nature trail and fishing on both lakes for bass, bluegill and pike.
