Van Riper State Park
Van Riper State Park offers a welcoming and well-maintained campground ideal for families with kids and dogs. The park features a large beach area, playgrounds, picnic facilities, and hiking trails. While the trails themselves may be narrow and less maintained, the park is praised for its cleanliness, spacious campsites, and beautiful natural surroundings including large trees and a skate park. Amenities include barbecue grills, restroom facilities, and a small camp store near the beach. The park is accessible for visitors with disabilities, provides various activities, and accepts multiple payment methods. Though laundry facilities may be inconveniently serviced and hot water availability in showers varies, the overall experience is positive with friendly rangers and a great atmosphere for relaxation and outdoor fun.
Reviews
A beautiful peaceful campground. There is a lot of beach! With swings by the water and a big playground, plus a nice skate park! Bathrooms and showers were clean, water was nice and warm.
There is a small camp store by the beach for ice cream/ice/firewood/snacks. There is also a restaurant not far from the campground. We definitely enjoyed our time here relaxing by the fire and on the beach!
Lots of trails nearby. Huge lake with a nice beach and big playground. Nice concession stand. Bathrooms were very good with two sides so that you could still use them while one side was being cleaned. Awesome bump tracks for bikes too.
Very nice Campground. Sites are close together but the trees are beautiful. Really nice bath house with nine showers. There are not any laundry machines when we were there. Lake and swimming area is super nice. Plenty of playgrounds for the kids.
Van Riper was absolutely amazing!! We stayed here June 22-28th with our 4 kids (15,12,10,5) The campground has very large site, I see people comment on how your on top of eachother but it honestly didn’t feel like that! The people who stay here are amazing, we met an amazing couple and other families and hope that we run into each other next time we visit! I highly recommend Van Riper, its perfect home base for your daily adventures. Bond Falls/ Porkies / Copper Harbor ALL fun day trips to do if staying here! They also keep the park extremely clean and maintained!
Nice campground and beach. Had site 40 under a huge three and thank god it was a blessing with the crazy heat! Also super close to the beach stairs. Overall a nice place, quiet and well maintained with some trails across the street but not the best trails, narrow, bushy and signa and benches falling apart.
I am giving 4 stars and not 5 for 2 main reasons apart from the trails:
1) There is a laundry room in the facility in front of the beach but impossible to get quarters to use the washing machine and the dryer (2$ each). The concession there has a policy of not giving any change and the rangers at the gate don’t have change. You have to go very far to get any change….there is no store in Champion…
2) There are nice showers but not a single drop of hot water…not clear whether it is an ad hoc issue or a permanent thing. Water is not even lukewarm but icy cold…not great.
Rangers are nice folks but clueless…and no camp host to help.
PS May want to buy wood in Champion by the side of the road (5$) as the Park did not have any but was expecting some in the coming week or so.