Van Riper State Park

About this park

Van Riper State Park, established in 1956, covers roughly 1,100 acres in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, 35 miles west of Marquette, with about 1.5 miles of waterfront on both Lake Michigamme and the Peshekee River. The park sits just a few miles east of the site where iron ore was first discovered in the Lake Superior region back in 1845, placing it within a landscape still shaped by the Upper Peninsula's long mining history. A fine sandy beach on Lake Michigamme anchors the park's summer recreation, while the Peshekee River frontage offers quieter paddling and fishing away from the main lake. Visitors driving slowly through the park's northern reaches are occasionally rewarded with sightings of moose, one of the more genuinely wild wildlife encounters available in a developed Michigan state park campground setting. With 147 modern campsites plus additional rustic sites and a riverside rustic cabin, Van Riper offers a substantial camping base for exploring the broader central Upper Peninsula, and it serves as the gateway and campground office for the much more remote, primitive Craig Lake State Park nearby. The nearby Blueberry Ridge Pathway in Marquette, a popular cross-country ski and hiking trail system, gives Van Riper visitors an easy day-trip option beyond the park's own grounds.