Learned something new about camping....

Gordon Three,

Which site were you on at Hoffmaster SP??? We have been RV camping there a couple times a year for over 45 years now and on all 4 loops. About 300 total sites. We have many of our family and extended family camping weekends/get togethers there from May until Halloween as it's only about 10 miles from our homes and it's such a gorgeous huge (1200 acre) forested/sanduned park right on Lake Michigan with so much to do always. Before it became a Michigan State Park (about 40 years ago, the north end of Hoffmaster was Norton Township Park and had camping also.

Neither my wife nor I remember having hardly any acorns or things hitting the RV's roof other than some occasional raindrops. Maybe a few twigs when windy. Last year, they'd cut down over 70 trees on the beach end of loop one alone (the big one across the creek bridge) as many had died and they didn't want to chance them falling on campers. Also thinned out several other areas in the other loops too of the dead trees or large limbs. The CG is in a very old forest area on the north end of the park with loop 2 & 3 being in tall pine woods. Maybe it was windy while you were there, perhaps? I'm just curious as we know the big park so well!

Nothing says fall more than pine and fir cones mixed with raindrops on the roof
here in Western Washington.

Stupid nature, Ruining everything!!!

I had a great time at this park, acorns at all. I stayed near the end of the first loop on site 35. I got used to the banging acorns pretty quickly.

The park was quite busy, lots of young campers and families and lots and lots of tents ... it was refreshing to hear the activity compared to other parks I've been to recently where all I heard is folks showing off the pipes on their hogs or having diesel motor-idling contests.

I will say, the online reviews about the DNR being strict at this park were not an exaggeration. They were very vigilant about people paying not only to camp there, but also for their automobile pass. Even rec-pass holders like myself had to display a separate windshield sticker to confirm I had the rec-pass... and here I thought the purpose of moving the rec-pass to the license plate was so we didn't have to have the windshield sticker anymore.

Ahhh, site 35 on the end right across the loop 1 road. The path that goes between the dunes to the beach! That's the same path that was there back 40+ years ago before those campsites were built. The path went thru and from the then parking area to the beach. Cars got there by going across the creek on a cement bridge from the north side. You can still where the road went down the hill from each way to the bridge. The old entrance blacktop road (still there) went on the north side of the baseball field.

From where you'd started from your campsite 35 towards the beach, the now very grown over area to the between the dunes was the long ago parking area on both sides of the path and the yellow concession stand/bathrooms building sat on the small knoll on the north side of the path. The parking area could only hold about a max of maybe 60 cars between the creek and the high dune to the south so the day use/beach lot was moved to where it is now. You probably noticed the many stumps at ground level around site 35 and that end left from the gobs of trees they'd cut down on that end of loop 1.

Windshield sticker? Haven't had a windshield sticker since the "P" on the plate year colored tag came out about 3-4 years ago or so. Only $10 per vehicle added to the yearly Michigan registration fee when you renew so why not? Same for all our vehicles and all have handicapped plates. All they ask us at the entrance/checkin is if we have a yearly pass and I say: Yes.

I'd have no problem also having a windshield sticker also as the "P" on the rear license plate is so small and hard to see by the person at the entrance check window and of course cheap people etc will lie and claim they do have the "P". Even a much larger "P" might be smart also. We'd seen several vehicles getting tickets for lying at Grand Haven State Park the last couple years but they were beach users going to the left at the main entrance, not campers as the campers now use a different entrance. Having about 2 million visitors each year means the booth person doesn't have even squat time to look at the license plates. So the rangers do patrol the beach and also the parking lot there on the ATV vehicles and look at each vehicle plate for the "P" and if no "P", they check for or a daily tag on the windshield. None, write a ticket and it's not cheap, many times the $10 for a yearly pass good at any of the over a hundred state parks.

travelnutz wrote:
Ahhh, site 35 on the end right across the loop 1 road. The path that goes between the dunes to the beach! That's the same path that was there back 40+ years ago before those campsites were built. The path went thru and from the then parking area to the beach. Cars got there by going across the creek on a cement bridge from the north side. You can still where the road went down the hill from each way to the bridge. The old entrance blacktop road (still there) went on the north side of the baseball field.

From where you'd started from your campsite 35 towards the beach, the now very grown over area to the between the dunes was the long ago parking area on both sides of the path and the yellow concession stand/bathrooms building sat on the small knoll on the north side of the path. The parking area could only hold about a max of maybe 60 cars between the creek and the high dune to the south so the day use/beach lot was moved to where it is now. You probably noticed the many stumps at ground level around site 35 and that end left from the gobs of trees they'd cut down on that end of loop 1.

Windshield sticker? Haven't had a windshield sticker since the "P" on the plate year colored tag came out about 3-4 years ago or so. Only $10 per vehicle added to the yearly Michigan registration fee when you renew so why not? Same for all our vehicles and all have handicapped plates. All they ask us at the entrance/checkin is if we have a yearly pass and I say: Yes.

I'd have no problem also having a windshield sticker also as the "P" on the rear license plate is so small and hard to see by the person at the entrance check window and of course cheap people etc will lie and claim they do have the "P". Even a much larger "P" might be smart also. We'd seen several vehicles getting tickets for lying at Grand Haven State Park the last couple years but they were beach users going to the left at the main entrance, not campers as the campers now use a different entrance. Having about 2 million visitors each year means the booth person doesn't have even squat time to look at the license plates. So the rangers do patrol the beach and also the parking lot there on the ATV vehicles and look at each vehicle plate for the "P" and if no "P", they check for or a daily tag on the windshield. None, write a ticket and it's not cheap, many times the $10 for a yearly pass good at any of the over a hundred state parks.

I must have come across that old road, called the Ridgeview trail now? Wondered why it was paved and now I know!

Regarding the tiny "P", I agree it's hard to see for folks working the gate. I would think surely the State could print the sticker in a different color for those with the rec-pass without breaking the bank, or sell us an upgraded license plate like they do for the sports teams, sunset plate or bridge plate, that would make it super easy... who knows? I like the program and have been on board for both my cars since it started.

WD-40 does a pretty good job of taking Douglas Fir sap off roofs/hoods, etc...:B

Bigdog wrote:
Living here in the AWESOME northwest,we do a lot of camping at the beach and one of the problems we have is seagulls and low tide. They are able to get clams from the beach and then soar to great heights and drop them on the roof of your rv.WHAMMMM!!!! :MIt can be rather disconcerting if it's early in the morning as after they drop the clams and crack them open,they land and walk around making a skittering sound. There are also times when several of them want the clam and you have a seagull fight on your roof. Oh, and then there is the accompaning white stuff that they usually leave behind as they leave,mostly on the tablecloth,your chairs and BBQs.:(

While I don't have experience with clams being dropped, being near the Great Lakes we have tons of seagull experience. Yep, they are terribly annoying! Running back and forth on the roof or fighting over leftover food scraps the campers have out. Makes you rethink the beach front site!

The squirrels use my metal roofed pole building for a nut cracker. It is surrounded by oak trees. They only do it in the early morning and at dusk. Guesss squirels only eat two meals a day. Learned the hard way to never park anything metal under an oak tree in early fall. It can be as bad as hail damage.

We were at a park near Pensacola Fla a couple of years ago. It was a nice evening, clear skies and a warm breeze. Around mid night it started to sound like a thunder storm moving in off the Gulf, but the thunder didn't sound quite right. Didn't see any lightening either. hmmm. Went back to sleep. The next morning I talked a camper who lived nearby. No, that wasn't thunder, it was live artillery shells the Air Force was running drills with!