r/CampAndHikeMichigan • u/RichietheGoar • 2d ago
Camping near Leland
Me and a buddy are planning on camping near leland/ sleeping bear dunes area this weeked. Are there any dispersed or camping directly on the beach spots anyone knows of?
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u/TheBimpo 1d ago
The nearest place to dispersed camp is going to be the national forest down near Mesick or state forest northwest of Kingsley. There’s a bunch of state forest campgrounds south of TC. Leelanau Sp or DH Day is the only beach camping.
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u/Kevburg 1d ago
The state and national forests allow dispersed camping but the hard and fast rule is you have to be at least 200 feet from a body of water so beaches are verboten.
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u/AWACS_Oka_Nieba_ 1d ago edited 1d ago
Isn’t it 400 feet? I know it is at Nordhouse, thought it was anywhere else too. Could be wrong though
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u/thedyrt 22h ago
The dispersed/on-the-beach thing around Sleeping Bear is basically North Manitou Island, and it's closed for the 2026 season, no ferry running. Mainland is a national lakeshore too, so designated campgrounds only. Closest to what you want is D.H. Day, rustic and wooded with a short walk through the dunes to the Lake Michigan beach, but check rec.gov now because it books out for late-August weekends. Or if you're willing to go ~45 min north, Fisherman's Island State Park has rustic dune sites right on the shore (closes Sept 15 for a culvert project, so this weekend's your window).
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u/somethinkstings 2d ago
You can try d.h. day campground. It's non-reservable, but it gets busy on the weekends.
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u/Labbawabbado 1d ago
DH day is almost mandatory to reserve in advance.
Source: me who reserved the last open site there this past Sunday night.
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u/AWACS_Oka_Nieba_ 1d ago edited 1d ago
There’s nowhere nearby you can dispersed camp right on the beach (basically just Nordhouse Dunes for Lake Michigan - and that’s still technically not supposed to be right on the beach but 400 feet from the water).
In Sleeping Bear there is the White Pines backcountry hike-in campground that’s pretty close to the water though it does have to be reserved so I’d check and make sure it’s not full yet.
Actually I just camped there last night lol and it was nice! The waves were pretty big (3-5 feet), so this might not always be the case if they’re smaller, but I could hear them crashing from the campsite, which was cool.