Holly Recreation Area

"This place is ideal for a family day out. Admission is free and it has different areas to enjoy the outdoors. It's perfect for a family picnic, as there are picnic tables and charcoal grills. The views are beautiful and there's plenty of green space to run and play. There are also areas designed for children and a lake where you can rent boats for family fun. The setting is peaceful and relaxing, making it perfect for disconnecting from your daily routine and enjoying nature. It's definitely a place that offers many options for fun and relaxation in a natural setting. Highly recommended for families and nature lovers!"

While the teens of ours were on the Whoa Zone obstacle course- we took a walk on one of the trails and came across a table in the water! It was a nice pit stop and place for the pup to get a little wet- without disturbing others! Plenty to do and see here just didn’t get many photos!

Bathrooms showers camping basketball Paddleboard kayak rentals blow up water bounce fun nature trails fishing dog friendly

Beautiful serene lake. Great for swimming and nice beach.

Great place to camp, lots of trails and space to ride your bike. Their is a giant inflatable obstacle course in the lake which I don't think should be at a state park but it sure is cool! They also have all kinds of Ice-cream at the beach including ice-cream nachos. Many playgrounds suitable for children of all ages!

Holly Recreation Area is such a hidden gem. The trails are beautiful and actually have a bit of elevation which is rare for Michigan. It feels super peaceful and nature-filled without being overly maintained and I love that they keep the trails as natural as possible. Definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for a scenic hike or a quiet spot to get outside.

Holly Recreation Area and Campground was a perfect place for our entire extended family to enjoy a long week camping. The campsites are spacious and surrounded by plenty of trees, offering privacy and shade on almost every site. The lake is perfect for swimming, fishing, and boating, with a boat launch and fishing pier available for easy access.

Once we actually found where to park in this large state park we enjoyed our hike around Wildwood Lake, but good luck finding your way there by GPS if you search for Holly Recreation Area. We got sent twice to a spot on different dirt roads with no trail access whatsoever. Do a search for Wildwood Lake instead. The trail markers also were poorly maintained or vandalized (see photos) but the trail itself was very enjoyable. We saw several sandhill cranes, and our first bluebirds of the year were a thrill. Also got to see a red-bellied woodpecker working on cracking a big nut. Lots of new plants sprouting up including skunk cabbage and marsh mallow, lots of mosses, lichen and fungi. Overall, it was a lot of trouble compared to other state parks to find our way there and then find our way around, but it was well worth it!

terrible and rude staff working here name is jan at front office. this camp ground is dirty and broken glass all along the beach . not worth the trip

The beach area on the lake is really fun! The campgrounds are fun to bike around with the hills. The bathrooms are nice too.

Haven't been camping in 10 years, but came from South Carolina for a family reunion. We stayed in the Trillium Loop and the spaces were well shaded with old growth trees. Definitely need to see the pictures online to make sure you get a site that will work for you. All sites in the loop set up for campers, not all have room for tents. The restrooms were clean and had showers available. The only downside is the beach isn't in walking distance. You need to drive, or ride a bicycle.

Extremely boijy campsite definitely do not recommend way too expensive you have to pay for each activity the trampoline is quite fun but the staff is incredibly rude and you can't bring ur own fire wood and I just do not recommend it

I love the beach area... I would rate if there were shading available but they are plenty of tables. Even though I didn't go swimming I had friends that enjoyed their selves but they said beyond the markers in the water it's very weedy. Eww! I think I'll explore this place alone one day - I was told there's bike trails as well. Very pleased! Please note - recreation passport required for admission.

We camped here once, just a few weeks ago. Overall it was great! The woman in the office was very friendly and helpful and clearly enjoys her job and interacting with people. That's always nice! We chose a site next to the playground, which was nice for the kids. There was an adorable young raccoon that hung around snatching food when we would leave anything unattended, but he was cute so we didn't care. The only downside is no dump station. That needs to be resolved or some sort of agreement for use needs to be worked out with Seven Lakes.

i was at the beach with my girlfriends just enjoying the floats. During our session, we were having fun and slipping around. Then the lifeguards suddenly started yelling at us to get out. They stated that we were given warnings prior to our kicking out. When we got to shore, we spoke to the manager and he proceeded to lie and say that he also came out of his booth to yell at us. This never happened and he lied. I am very upset about this because I just wanted to have some fun with my friends. I am upset with the amount of lies being spread by the own manager.

The sites run fairly small here with absolutely no demarcation of the dividing line between one side and another. Our site had a long driveway, a rocky area in the back, firepit and picnic table area, and a very small grassy area that seemingly was the only grassy space for both our campsite and the one next to us. Fortunately the weirdos and the neighboring campsite never got out of their gigantor RV (seriously it was so humungous I seriously expected it to morph into a Transformer), so we at least had the very small place to ourselves. I camped in my campervan but my friend who brought her tent had the option of setting up underneath a tree on rocky ground or being on the grass right next to the road. No bueno. I've definitely gotten spoiled on some other Michigan state campgrounds that offer much better privacy and demarcation between sites. The reservation system for the state campgrounds is also unideal. You have to pay an $8 registration fee for every single online registration you make, or pay a fee by phone, and if you call because a weather emergency may impact your trip, the folks at the office are completely unhelpful. The experience of making the reservation just always makes me feel like I'm getting ripped off.

Very friendly staff and the bathrooms are spotlessly clean, although it can be a hike to get to them. Nice wooded sites and I was pleasantly surprised by the few numbers of mosquitoes.

Holly Recreation Area is a great place to go camping but only if you do your research first! This is why I am writing this review. Absolutely do not camp in the Maple or Oak loops unless you don't mind having no privacy whatsoever. I recommend Trillium or Hickory loops but if you reserve your space early enough you should definitely shoot for the Hickory loop spot numbers 134, 135, or 136. These spots are heavily wooded and secluded and not easy to find in a Michigan State Park when you want to go car camping. This campground does have a lot of mosquitos and raccoons, but nothing more than what you would expect when you go camping. There is no swimming within walking distance but you can take a 5 minute drive to Heron Lake which is awesome. The campground also has a lot of trails for hiking and mountain biking.

Nature at its best! Holly Rec Area is a great retreat for every day, but truly, this place has a little bit of everything for every visitor. We came here with some friends a while ago to BBQ and relax on the beach. The weather was gorgeous that day, and everybody was out, and there were plenty of grills available. We saw plenty of families enjoying the water, and eating to their hearts content. Parking is plentiful, but if you do not have a parks pass, you will need to pay $5 at the entrance. It's totally worth it though. I love that this place has hiking trails, campgrounds, a lovely beach, and just lots of places to roam freely. It covers such a large area that you could easily get lost, so don't travel alone! Overall, I loved our time spent here, and feel fortunate enough to have this relatively close to home. Definitely a must to check out if you're in the Holly/Clarkston area. :)

The surrounding areas of campsite over grown and infested with mosquitoes. Description of our site not accurate (stated partial shade but was full sun). Trash over flowing on dumpster. We have camped in many state parks around Michigan and unfortunately this site was disappointing.

Terrible rude staff . The park ,lakes & campgrounds are unkempt. Lake water is nasty. Much better parks & campgrounds to go to in Michigan. The staff is truly a bunch of children on a power trip I guess. But there are many great campgrounds and parks all around Michigan.

This is the best campground! The area is a little more rustic which is nice if you have a dog that barks. There is a lake to swim in or rent a canoe/row boat. There are also playgrounds, cabins and group camp sites.

My husband and I reserved Hickory Loop #134 (per the recommendation from one of the other reviewers), and we were very pleased with our site. We were tent camping. Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived, we were told to seek shelter due to a great thunderstorm. It rained our first night, but thankfully our tent kept us dry. We camped during the month of June, and the mosquitoes were almost unbearable! Serious bug spray is a MUST-BRING! I didn't take off my hooded raincoat for one minute! Now that I think of it, mosquito nets would have been nice to have. The nice part about #134 is that there is a vault toilet (outhouse) and a water spigot just a few steps away from the site. There are electrical hook-ups. We hooked up an extension cord and were able to use that to blow up our air mattress and I even used my hair dryer. The fire pit is raised off the ground and very wide. You will probably want to bring a large grate of some sort to cook over it unless you want to put your pots directly into the coals. The bathhouses were just a short drive from our site (we could have walked, but the mosquitoes were that bad). The showers and toilets are very nice and new (as of 2014). We took hot showers before bed every night before sundown. There are several trails you can walk or bike. We chose to take the lakefront trail, which was 2.5 miles long. After all the heavy rain, the trail was quite soggy in places and there were some fallen branches. The trail is narrow to begin with (should be called a deer trail). We saw two harmless snakes. The trail did seem a lot longer than 2.5 miles, also. Took the two of us twenty-somethings about an hour and 15 minutes to complete it. I think we paid $16/night for reservations and an $8 registration fee. (We camped on a weekday. It's a little bit more costly to camp on a weekend.) You can buy bags of ice ($2) and bundles of local firewood ($5) at the welcome office. We also had to pay $11 for a Michigan State Park Passport for our car. If your car is not registered in Michigan, you will have to pay more ($9/day, I think.) We had intentions to rent kayaks at Heron Lake, but due to the rain, we never got around to doing it. The rentals are $8/hour. They also have a camp store at the Heron Lake beachfront. I imagine you can purchase the usual camping necessities there. All in all, we had a great time and we would recommend Holly Rec Area and Hickory Loop #134! Don't forget your bug repellant!

i was pretty disappointed with the staff. we had reserved two camp sites. friends of the family were coming up late Saturday for the evening. the office sold them day passes, $10.00 a piece at around 7:45 pm not telling them they were only good until nine. at 9:00 they had someone drive out to the site and tell us our guest had to leave. visiting hours were over, as if the park is a prison or a hospital. what they could have done is allowed our guests to register their vehicles, which is only $5.00, as you are allowed to have two vehicles per campsite. then they could have stayed the entire weekend if they so chose as at the time each site we reserved only had one vehicle and three people staying at each site. instead, she called a ranger, who came out to the camp with an aggressive attitude and told our two guest to get out. we requested to speak with a supervisor, who never came, someone else arrived who said they could have done a vehicle registration and they would have been permitted to stay, but it was too late, the office was closed and they had to leave. they also suggested they leave, park their cars down at the 1-75 park n go, someone could come pick them up and bring them back. ridiculous. instead they packed up their things and left slightly over an hour after arriving. it was handled so inappropriately it's was disturbing. we were a family of three on one site and a family of two adults, and a child on the other. there was no noise, drinking etc. it was inexcusable the way they handled the situation. ruined an evening for everyone. Long story short, the campground did call and the supervisor apologized and said had he known what was going on it would have been handled differently. he said the employees and the ranger all handled the situation incorrectly and that our guests should have been allowed to stay. we will never be camping here again.