Camping in Upper Pennisula of Michigan

Straits state park in St. Ignace is a great park to stay at while visiting Mackinac Island. Tahquahmenon falls park is a must see and a nice campground. I'd also recommend Bay Furnace campground in Christmas, Mi. It's near Munising which is another must see with all its waterfall attractions and of course Lake Superior. It's a National forest campground with no hookups but you can run a generator. My opinion is that it's a much cozier, quieter place to stay than Munising tourist park.

I will say, while there are certainly lots of camp grounds in the UP, we had one heck of a time findings spots available in late July and early August.

Good luck.

rbpru,

Yes, that happens as that's the very busy time of the year for the UP and the LP as well and because Michigan is so popular for camping, RV'ing, boating, and tourism. On the west side of the LP, even though it has so many CG's, can be hard to find open sites in most of the desirable CG's and especially along or close to Lake Michigan all summer long.

We sure do know as we have lived right on the LP shoreline for over 75 years now and in our 53rd year of RV'ing. In total, there are approx 350,000 total campsites in the state, so you can usually find a site somewhere but it may not be the exact one you wanted.

The early bird gets the worm, but for some, the early worm gets the bird!

However, the OP was talking about the UP in September which is after kids are home and back in school again and their parent's are at home too except for on weekends. That's only 2 days out of a 7 day week.

azdryheat wrote:
Auen-Osborn campground in Sault Ste Marie. Not a fancy place but it's right on the water with those huge lake freighters sailing by. We had a great time there.

This is a nice park, but I prefer The Soo Locks Campground, whichever you can get into is nice. I could watch the freighters all day. Oh yeah, I do!

Happy Trails, Forrest

2 years ago we stayed at the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground, private with full hook ups. We were there for 2 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed the area, including the UP.

I will second Aune Osborne by the locks, we go there often. Very nice bathrooms. Munising Tourist park also, park if nothing special but the views are awesome. Get a lakefront lot and toss your kayaks in the water and paddle to Grand Island.;)

travelnutz wrote:

Copper Harbor is about like a ghost town in winter and most of spring and it gets a lot of deep snow so would be tough to have much business there without enough customers. Not even Eskimos are there.

When I was there last February (Mohawk), every room in the keewanaw peninsula was booked with snowmobilers. Restaurants and bars where packed. Probably mostly on weekends though. 40 inches of snow on the ground and the snowshoeing was spectacular. I'll be going back this year.