Gitche Gumee RV Park & Campground

tains the structures and yard art that you'll see around the main buildings. The Red Pine Brewery, a beer sampling room, is a great example of structured that Jeffery built. It's a wonderful spot to meet fellow campers from across the globe and sample their local brew. (Its open from 7pm to 9pm.) I was amazed at how many new acquaintances that I made within a few hours of arriving.

The campground makes a nod to the National Park system. The office is referred to as the Ranger Headquarters. The sites are nestled in around the trees like you would see in national park campgrounds. Just that there are 50 amp full hookup sites. The roads and site pads are a thin levrl of gravel over dirt. Typical if what I see a lot of in upper Michigan and the arrowhead of Minnesota.

The campground is old, so be prepared for well used picnic tables and fire pits. The laundry room and bathrooms are old, BUT are well maintained and clean. COVID and some health issues resulted in some poor reviews in the past years. Jeffrey's daughter and son inlaw have joined the team to help out. And things appeared to be running quite smoothly.

The location is convenient to both Marquette and Munising. There is beach access at a state park location right across the road from the campground. We camped at Gitche Gumee RV Park in a Motorhome.

This was our second stay at Gitche Gummee. It is a one of a kind camp ground. Level wooded sites and across the road to the shore of Lake Superior. This is a very eclectic campground. It has old buildings and is quite rustic with quirky sculptures and structures. Since our first visit several years ago they have added a brewery. This is the only campground I have ever visited with it’s own onsite brewery - great beer too. Gitche Gummee is conveniently located to Marquette, Munising and local sights.

Started off ok. Pulled in and navigated to office despite rough, muddy, dirt roads. Went to check in and the owner welcomed us and began searching through little white squares of paper staples to receipts that were taped on wall, desk, and in floor before finally finding our reservation. That’s fine we can appreciate the charm of doing things the old fashioned way. When he confirmed our departure date I corrected him we were leaving a day before what he has written down. He apologized and said he would refund that night right away. Mind you one night was $65! Our site was good enough, woodsy. The campground had absolutely no extra amenities. Everything was no longer in operation. Looked like a fun place about 30 years ago. Long story short we stayed 4 nights and despite friendly reminders throughout our stay where he assured us he would refund us the extra night he mistakenly charged, he never did. We ended up calling a couple days after we left to again kindly remind him. This time he was so rude going off on us for no reason and finally ended up hanging up on us! We never did get refunded the extra night he charged us and his reservation system is so archaic that I didn’t have enough documentation to win a charge dispute with my credit card company. Truly unbelievable he got away with this. First time we’ve ever had such a blatant injustice at an RV park.

It’s not totally updated, it’s expensive and the water comes from a well but it’s full of beautiful mature trees and it’s in a great location. My sight was level, electric/sewer was good, we had a big fire pit, a solid picnic table and the camp wi-fi worked for streaming movies at night. The next time we are in the area, we will stay again.

This is the most repulsive rv park we've ever been to. It is advertised as green grass, beach front property, well maintained. It has been a disaster! Nothing but dirt and gravel, dead birds and animals everywhere, the Ranger as he calls himself charges different amounts to different people. We paid over 200.00 for three nights. Cable tv does not work ( we don't watch tv anyway) the private beachfront is an overlook on the highway with no beach access, unless you climb over the fence and go down a steep bluff. There are no amenities here whatsoever. We will never come back to this place ever. The owner is a fraud!

We are back for a second time now at this gem of a park in the Marquette, MI.

Please read for a full description of the Park and what to expect.
Try not to compare this RV experience on price as up here in the UP the camping season is only about 4 good months so pricing will be a little higher than what you are used. Also, don't expect much as far as amenities go as again this an experience to be up here and enjoy the simple majestic views the area has to offer.
If are looking for a cookie cutter type RV place try getting into Country Village near Ishpeming.
More likely they will be full so this is your next best option to being close to Marquette and all of its beauty.

I will be posting this same review on other sites to help the owner who is seriously a one man show.
Rates are around $50 a night and he will work with you for weekly and monthly stays.

This is still one of our favorite parks after full time traveling for the past 7 years. It is connected to Mountain Bike / ORV trails from the back of the campground. Plenty of tree foliage throughout the park to have some shade and not so tight next to your neighbors. Across the street is a road pull off stock to view the lake. Steps leading down taking out by storms. You can still access at your own risk for a nice beach side to enjoy the water.

The Good:
Downtown Marquette. (11 miles away)
Pictured Rocks Tours. (32 miles away)
Full hookups 30/50 Amp service.
Large even sites. (gravel / dirt) Lots of trees.
Fun rec room and movie room. Lots of hand stone carvings.
Brewery in the works. Laundry on site.
Across the road is Lake Superior with a walk down beach, stair down have been removed due to storms.

The Bad:
Water is well, so be mindful of that.
Pressure was low so fill your fresh fill when you can and pump from there.
We didn't use their bathhouse or showers so no review.

We worked fine from our RV using Verizon and a booster and this time we are finding that our AT&T is having better success on 3G for reliability. Park has Wifi, but spotty so I wouldn't rely on it.

I know he could use a good work camper during the summer months, so if you get a chance and are interested it never hurts to ask. .

Gitche Gumee RV Park sits almost on Lake Superior but there is no way to easily access the beach because of steep cliffs. The lake is not viewable from most of the sights.

We called ahead and informed the owner/operator we would arrive a day late due to a rig issued and we had no problem because we were charged for every day booked with no exception.

Here is my summary of the plus and minus of Gitche Gumee RV Park.

The good:
1. Lots of surrounding woods.
2. Many sites are pull throughs and can accommodate big rigs.
3. Every full-hookup site has two blackwater locations, one in the back of the site and one in the front. Very odd but could come in handy if you want to change the direction your RV faces.

The bad:
1 The internet is spotty at best and goes down every few minutes requiring a reboot.
2. Cell service is 3-G. The best our T-Mobile or Google FI phones could do was two bars . 3. As expected calls are frequent dropped.
4. The portable/drinking water has major issues. I inadvertently left a jug of water with its cap on out overnight. In the morning I noticed it looked like urine (pale yellow). I could not drink it and did not fill my tank water with this "potable" water. I had read about this problem in another review but minimized the issue. My mistake.
5. This is literally a one man show. The owner/operator has no help.
6. Not all but some of the sites are constructed so the RV's are right on top of one another. Even more problematic is the sites are laid out at angles which put your window in a direct line of sight with your neighbors window. The distance between these windows was no more than ten feet.
6. The site pads and roads are mostly dirt with limited stone. Not unusual in $30 to $35 dollar per night campgrounds but unusual for a $60 a night campground.
7. Overflowing trash. I only found one bin and it was beyond overflowing. The pile was at least three feet above the top of the bin. Some bags on the ground.

Summary:
For a campground to have very limited amenities, muddy roads and pads, bad water and charge $59/night (no refunds for any reason) for a full hookup feels like a ripoff. I have stayed in many campgrounds in the $30 to $40 range with much better facilities. I have also stayed in campgrounds in the $50-$60 per night range that were hands down far superior to Gitche Gumee RV Park and Campground. My advice, if your are stuck for a night go ahead and stay but if you want to spend a week taking in all that Lake Superior has to offers keep on moving down the road.

We stayed for 35 days so our monthly rate was pretty affordable compared to the nightly rate.
During season and special events price could be closer to $50.00 a day with weekly and monthly discounts available. For us this ended up being one of our favorite parks as it suited us well with access to Mountain Bike, Dirt Bike and ORV trails from the back of the park. It was also very pet friendly with lots of room for our cats to safely roam close by with a good amount of privacy between sites.

The Good:
Close to downtown Marquette (11 miles away)
Full hookups 30/50 Amp service
Large even sites. (gravel / dirt)
Lots of trees
Fun rec room and movie room. Lots of hand stone carvings.
Across the road is Lake Superior with a walk down beach.
Laundry on site.

The Bad:
Water is well, so be mindful of that.
Pressure was low so we filled up our 100 gallon fresh tank and pumped from there.
We didn't use their bathhouse or showers so no review.

We worked fine from our RV using Verizon and a booster with download speeds of 10+Mbps and 3+ Mbps up consistently. Park has Wifi, however we did not test.

We even liked the park so much that we helped the owner out for free with his old flash site and did a simple responsive site to get him up to date.

I know he could use a good work camper during the summer months, so if you get a chance and are interested it never hurts to ask. Feel free to name drop us as well as he did take a liking to us.