Camping in Upper Pennisula of Michigan

[Bevteacher4]

Planning a trip to UP end of August into middle of September. Would love suggestions on places to camp. Would like at least water and electric hookups. My trailer is 23 foot.
Also wondering about how easy it will be to get 91 or higher octane gas for the SUV I use to pull my trailer.
Any other advice would be welcome!
Thanks so much!

[wing_zealot]

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.

[Hammerboy]

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.;)

[4youngs1]

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.

[fbconsults1]

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

[travelnutz]

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.

[rbpru]

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.

[Jetstreamer]

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.

[travelnutz]

GordonThree,

Not dissing you but just wondering if you didn't see the BP station, that's all...

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.

[GordonThree]

So I was off ten miles?

[mike-s]

boosTT wrote:
How is Copper Harbor?

On your way there or back, stop at the Jampot and get some rumcake.

[travelnutz]

GordonThree,

The BP Station at Allouez on the north side of US-41 (the main highway) has diesel and it's barely 30 miles SW of Copper Harbor and it's $2.65/gal today. Perhaps you didn't see that station.

Copper Harbor is a very tiny resort town at the end Of US-41 highway and very few business places are there. A nice restaurant though on the south side of 41 in town. Can't remember the name right now but we ate there several times over the years.

[Bevteacher4]

Thank you all so much for the helpful responses! Now to just get busy and make some reservations!!!

[GordonThree]

boosTT wrote:
How is Copper Harbor?

It was wonderful. There's a state park there as well as a private RV resort.

While I was there Lake Superior was strangely calm, certainly not the lake Lightfoot sung about.

It was really neat to see the primitive US Army base, established to exploit the resources nearby. It's been restored and is part of the State Park.

The State is also working to widen and improve the road leading out to the tip of the peninsula. I chickened out as it was all wet clay, torn up by heavy equipment.

The road through Houghton was under heavy construction (late May), down to one lan each direction and very narrow.

There's no diesel in Copper Harbor, fill up about 40 miles south.

[TBammer]

Th UP is boring. Stay home and skip it. 😉