June 12 - 15, 2008
Diamond Lake Campground

Well, we set out this year to try some new campgrounds. We wanted to experience more things and see what else was out there. Our first try at White River was a success, so the next new campground on our agenda was Diamond Lake Campground.

Diamond Lake was formerly owned by Steelcase and was run as a private campground for their employees for many years. Newaygo County recently took it over and it is open to the public. It looked like a nice little campground on a small lake where the kids could swim.

Well, needless to say we had a great time, but we probably won't return. The playground was very old and we weren't really comfortable letting the kids play on it. The roads were paved but quite hilly so it wasn't great for the kids to ride their bikes. If you camped in the back section I think you would get carries away by the mosquitos. We were in the middle section which was basically a small field with campsites on both outside edges and a bathhouse on the back edge. The one nice thing was that we were alone the first day and the kids basically had free reign of the entire field area, to play, ride bikes down the hill behind our trailer, catch butterflies etc.

The kids enjoyed the swimming and were able to build a few sandcastles in the sand. We took an afternoon to drive over to Newaygo State Park for some hiking along the river and to see the Croton Hardy Dam. We stopped at another Newaygo County Park called Sandy Beach to check it out, as some friends of ours recommended it. We had lunch there along the river, and then the kids played on the playground for a little while.

I must admit, that even though the accomodations of the campground weren't that grand, we had a great time together.