Paulding Campgrounds

BOND LAKE COUNTY PARK/ Ontonagon County
(906) 827-3235 (in season). Check in at camp office by The Outpost at Bond Falls. No reservations.
What with selling off some land around Bond Falls Flowage to Naterra Land, the primitive campgrounds have been relocated in part and expanded from 36 to 47 primitive sites (no electricity, water, or flush toilets). Gone are the remote sites away from the road.
Still, campers will have access to the Bond Falls Flowage, with a swimming beach and trout fishing. And there'll still be the Outpost camp store with ice cream, and the hiking trail along the river to nearby Bond Falls.
Sites at the 22-site east campground are mostly on the water and tend to be open. The 25-site west campground, which has a water pump, is partly on water and up a hill in the pines.
Decades ago, UPPCO (Upper Peninsula Power Company) developed the Bond Falls Flowage as a source of waterpower and electricity. It bought extra land not needed to generate energy, and paid full taxes on that land. Then in 2006 UPPCO sold to Naterra Land much of the shoreline area of this and other impoundments, to be subdivided for residential use. Nowhere has the opposition been more vehement than around Bond Falls, though there are also local residents who welcome the boost to the local tax base. (—April, 2008)

ROBBINS POND CAMPGROUND/ Ottawa National Forest
(906) 358-4551
This quiet, 3-site primitive campground is on a small impoundment that's good for fishing. It's in a shady area of mixed conifers, aspen, and birch. In season the campground and day use area is popular with hunters. No water on site.

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