The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced on Monday, August 1, that all of 22 Craig Lake State Park‘s backcountry campsites will change into reservation-only sites starting with the 2023 camping season.
According to the DNR, this transition is intended to prevent the park from degrading and help to locate campers easily in emergencies.
Annual visits to Craig Lake State Park have continued to increase over the last few years, with just shy of 69,000 visitors in 2021, according to the DNR, raising concerns about dispersed camping in unauthorized areas.
“These changes will help to alleviate some of the natural resource degradation issues that are tied closely to unauthorized, dispersed camping,” said Debra Gill, Craig Lake State Park supervisor.
“By visitors being able to reserve the campsites in advance, they can plan their trips and see what sites are, or are not, available. We are hopeful that this will help eliminate the unauthorized dispersed camping we are seeing when campsites are full.
Gill explained that the transition would let staff look up visitor information before entering the field, allowing a faster emergency response.
Because of the remote location of Craig Lake State Park, time is everything when someone needs help, and this will help staff and visitors immensely,” Gill said.
As per Pure Michigan, Craig Lake State Park is the most remote state park in the system. There are two cabins for rent and one yurt just a two-mile hike from the parking area.
This story originally appeared on Michigan Live.