Craig Lake State Park

About this park

Craig Lake State Park is Michigan's most rugged and undeveloped state park, reached via an eight-mile unpaved road off Craig Lake Road that the Michigan DNR itself warns requires a high-ground-clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicle due to genuinely rocky, difficult conditions. That remoteness is entirely intentional: the park was specifically preserved to offer a true wilderness experience, with no modern facilities, no electricity, and no cell service anywhere within its boundaries. The park centers on Craig Lake itself and several smaller surrounding lakes, reachable only by foot trail or canoe portage, and all 22 campsites are backcountry or paddle-in-only, including two remote sites more than a mile and a half from the main trailhead by water. Visitors must filter, boil, or chemically treat lake water before drinking it, since Craig Lake is the only water source available anywhere in the park, underscoring just how far this property sits from conventional state park infrastructure. Managed from the Van Riper State Park office several miles away, Craig Lake draws a genuinely self-selecting group of experienced backcountry campers, canoeists, and anglers specifically seeking an undeveloped Upper Peninsula wilderness experience rather than a standard car-camping trip. Its combination of difficult access, minimal development, and genuine isolation makes it one of the quietest and least-visited properties in the entire Michigan state park system.