Pioneer Trail Park is not a place for Glampers, but it's a great place to park your trailer or tent to unwind a bit, stop for the night, or use as a home base for fishing, paddling, or hiking in the area. The grounds and most notably the shower facilities were very clean. The staff was friendly, and I had no noisy neighbors.
I camped in the primitive section, as I didn't need water or electricity at the site, though the sites in the more developed section had those. That section was much more full than the primitive area where I was. For my site I paid just 15$ a night, less than some state or national forest campgrounds that don't have showers or flushing loos. My camp overlooked a side channel of the Escanaba River. A large marsh dividing that channel from the main flow gave me concerns about mosquitos, but I saw very few.
The tradeoff for this is some ambient noise. The highway is nearby, and there are some industrial facilities in the area from which you can hear some rumbling and clanking throughout the day. Escanaba seems to have a lot of train traffic, since I don't think I went 5 minutes without hearing a train whistle somewhere in the distance. There is actually a track running directly along the primitive camping section, though only a couple of short trains went by on it while I was there.
Not a place for solitude and silence, though there are plenty of those available in the UP. If you want a few more amenities and proximity to some city pleasures, this is a great place to stay. read more