travelnutz wrote:
louiskathy,
A heavy rain along the lakeshore like you'd experienced is very UN-common and flooding at Hoffmaster SP CG very rarely happens as it's all beach sand soil and usually drains real fast. Biting flies along the lakeshore is NOT common at all and only occurs when an approaching storm from the west pulls the air on the east side towards the storm to feed it.
The flies feed like crazy before an approaching storm as they have to hide under things so they are not hit by the falling raindrops and they don't know how long the storm/rain will last. It's normal anywhere and explained very well on several web sites.
It sure was a real cloud burst of a long lasting narrow storm and Hoffmaster was dead center. We live only approx 8 air miles south of Hoffmaster on the lakeshore (south side of Grand Haven) and have for our 74 years now and know the weather cycles very well. The interesting thing about the storm you experienced is that at our home, we only got a few sprinkles out of the storm and barely got the road wet and Pioneer Park area (about 10 air miles north of Hoffmaster) only got a medium to light rain too. It was on the TV news at night.
Glad you enjoyed Pioneer Park. We have camped at both Hoffmaster and Pioneer many dozens of times over the years (52 years of RV'ing) as it's close enough for family weekend get together weekend camping and the kids and grandkids are working and they can commute quick if they have to work on a Saturday etc and still camp with the family.
I enjoyed reading your info on that storm.
I'm not judging State parks against County parks... I just wanted RV's to consider going to a county park as an alternative.
I planned our trip in stages. This trip we left Oregon May 8th and we'll go back sometime in October. Planning for overnight stays in Michigan has been the most challenging. Probably because we're here at the height of the season and everything is full.
