If you want a campsite with a fire pit, Walnut Hills Family Campground in Durand, Michigan, makes it simple: every RV site, every tent site and both camping cabins have their own fire ring and picnic table. The camp store sells firewood and will deliver it to your site, outside firewood isn’t allowed, and quiet hours start at 11 PM so the fire is the loudest thing on your site after dark. Our sister park, The Oaks Campground in Munith, puts a fire pit on every short-term site too.
Here’s what fire-pit camping looks like at Walnut Hills: how the fire rings work, where to get wood, the campfire rules, which sites make the best fire-pit evenings, and a few things our team has learned from watching hundreds of campfires a weekend.
Does every campsite at Walnut Hills have a fire pit?
Yes. There are 201 RV sites, 18 tent sites and 2 camping cabins on 42 acres, and each site has a steel fire ring and a picnic table. There is no “fire pit upgrade” and no shared communal pit you have to wait for. Pull in with a 45-foot fifth wheel on a full-hookup site or pitch a tent on a primitive site; either way, the fire ring is already there.
| Site type | Fire pit | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| RV sites (201) | Fire ring and picnic table on every site | 80 sites are full hookup with 50 amp; the rest are 30-amp water and electric |
| Tent sites (18) | Fire ring and picnic table on every site | 4 sites have electric, near the main bathhouse; the rest are primitive |
| Camping cabins (2) | Fire ring and picnic table outside each cabin | One-room cabins (sites 43 and 46) with A/C, fridge, microwave and a small porch; bring your own linens |
Cabin campers get the same campfire evening as everyone else, which is one reason grandparents without an RV like them for family reunions. See our Michigan campgrounds with cabins guide for the details.
Fire pit tent camping
Tent campers sometimes find that campgrounds reserve the fire rings for RV loops. Not here. All 18 tent sites have a fire ring, and the four electric tent sites sit across the road from RV sites 186 to 193, a short walk from the renovated bathhouse and the north-end entertainment zone with Pavilion 2, the playground and the Kangaroo Jumper. The primitive tent sites are quieter and darker, which is better for a fire and for stars.
A tent-camping tip from our team: the fire ring is your kitchen, your heater and your evening entertainment, so buy wood before the store closes rather than hunting for it at dusk. Firewood delivery to the site is available, and the store stocks the forgotten essentials (lighters, marshmallow forks, s’mores supplies) that tend to get left at home. For tent sites with more trees, our Oaks park has 20 tent sites in their own sections: T1 to T12 and sites 178 and 179 have 20-amp electric, and T13 to T18 are primitive (no electric or water); see tent vs RV camping for how the two compare.
Where do I get firewood, and can I bring my own?
Buy it at the camp store. Walnut Hills sells bundled firewood and will deliver it right to your site, which campers mention as one of the little things they appreciate. Outside firewood isn’t allowed at Walnut Hills or The Oaks, and there’s a good reason: the Michigan DNR asks campers to “leave firewood at home” and buy it where they burn it, because invasive insects and diseases such as emerald ash borer and oak wilt hitch rides on moved wood and have killed millions of Michigan trees. Walnut Hills is full of old-growth trees planted when the campground opened in the 1960s, and we’d like to keep them.
Practical notes:
- Fallen branches stay on the ground, where they feed the woods, so skip gathering wood on the property.
- Keep the ring for firewood only; trash, cardboard and pallets smoke, smell and drift to the neighbors.
- Leftover wood? Leave it for your site’s next camper rather than carrying it to another campground.
Campfire rules at Walnut Hills
The rules are short and the same at both of our Michigan parks:
- Fires in the fire ring only. No ground fires, and no moving the ring.
- Someone stays with the fire. If you head to the Wibit or the pavilion, put it out first. It keeps the old trees, and your neighbors, safe.
- Out cold before bed. Smokey Bear’s method works: drown it with water until the hissing stops, stir the ashes, drown it again, then feel for heat with the back of your hand. “If it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave.”
- Quiet hours 11 PM to 8 AM. A late fire is fine; just keep the conversation low so the kids in the next camper stay asleep. Kids and bikes are back at the site by dusk, and golf carts don’t drive around after dark, so headlights won’t sweep across your campfire.
- No fireworks at any GatherGrounds park, on holidays or otherwise.
- Weather. In a dry stretch the park may restrict fires. Check at the store when you arrive if it’s been a dry week.
Michigan’s wider rules on burn permits and open burning are in our Michigan campfire rules guide, and the full site rules are on the map and rules page.
Which campsites make the best fire-pit evenings?
Any site works, but a few areas stand out, and you can find them on the site map:
- River frontage, sites 27 to 42. Right on the Shiawassee River. A fire with the river moving past is the classic Walnut Hills evening, and the trees run through these sites.
- The back fence line, roughly sites 74 to 170B. No neighbors behind you, a 30-foot band of old-growth trees, and a farm field beyond it where deer graze. Campers on these sites talk about morning coffee at the fire ring as much as the evening fire.
- The north end, sites 132 to 193. Trees throughout the sites and the largest ones in the park, so there’s all-day shade and a wooded feel once the fire is lit.
- The circle by the beach, sites 118 to 131. Open and sunny, with long, wide water-and-electric sites. Groups park sideways around the loop, which our team calls “circling the wagons,” and pool a couple of fire rings in the big open middle for a shared group campfire. There’s nothing else like it in the park.
If you want darkness for stargazing after the fire burns down, you don’t need a special spot. Both of our Michigan parks are remote enough that the sky is dark anywhere on the property, and Walnut Hills keeps a fleet of telescopes for its stargazing event. Our stargazing campgrounds guide has more.
Cooking over a campground fire pit
The fire ring doubles as a stove. The easiest campfire meals at a campground are the ones you’d make at home with foil and a cast-iron pan: foil-packet potatoes and sausage, hot dogs on sticks, grilled cheese in the skillet and s’mores. A folding grill grate that sits over the ring opens up burgers and corn. Keep raw-food coolers closed and clear the table at night, since garbage can’t be left out overnight.
You also don’t have to cook every meal. From Memorial Day through September a food truck is at Walnut Hills every Saturday, often Friday night and Sunday morning too, so plenty of families eat dinner from the truck and save the fire ring for dessert. The events calendar shows which truck is coming.
Fire pits at The Oaks Campground
The Oaks, about an hour south of Walnut Hills near Waterloo Recreation Area, has a fire ring and picnic table on every short-term RV site and every tent site, including the 20 tent sites grouped in their own wooded sections. The Oaks is 155 acres with about 120 acres of forest and grassland trails, so a campfire there comes with more quiet and more woods; sites 22 to 109 are in the old-growth section away from the amenities. Same store-bought firewood, same no-outside-wood rule, same 11 PM quiet hours. For water lovers and full hookups, Walnut Hills; for a quieter fire under more trees, The Oaks.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to reserve a site with a fire pit?
No. Every site at Walnut Hills and every short-term site at The Oaks has one, so you just book the site type you want. RV sites start around the high $40s a night and vary by date and site; see the rates page.
Can I bring a propane fire pit?
Campfires go in the site’s fire ring. If you’d like to use a portable propane fire pit on your site, ask at the store first, since the answer can depend on conditions.
Can kids be around the fire?
Of course, with an adult at the ring. Keep chairs a step back, keep the roasting sticks pointed at the fire and not each other, and have water at hand before you light it. The fire ring is where most families end the day, and one campground employee says that last peaceful hour “makes the parents the real winners.”
Are fire pits allowed at the cabins?
Yes. Each camping cabin has its own fire ring and picnic table outside, plus a small front porch.
