Northern Michigan RV trip

[BigLarShreve]

Planning our first RV trip to northern Michigan next year from Louisiana. (late May..early June) Anyone have suggestions on RV parks, routes, etc. around Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, (possibly at Munising) then on to Mackinac Island area, then down to Traverse City. Planning to spend several days in each those areas and want to make the best of it. I'm all about the scenery and RV parks that provide full hookups. Pulling 33' Cardinal 5th wheel. Appreciate all advice and suggestions.

[birddogs]

To the OP,
You might want to think about purchasing a Michigan Recreation Passport. It costs about $32 IIRC and you can buy online or at the first state park you visit. The passport will save you money if you intend to use the state parks or visit recreation areas, because there is an entrance or parking fee of around $8. Michigan has so many great state areas, having the passport makes touring and enjoying the amenities economical and easy.

[tewitt1949]

Don't forget Fayette state park. Very pretty visiting the old smelting town being restored. Well worth the stop.

[dverstra]

As previously said, there are a lot of CGs in Michigan. You can download a Michigan Campground Association booklet or request that they mail you one at this website
http://www.michcampgrounds.com/

IMHO don't miss
trying a pastie,
blue moon ice cream,
digging your toes into the sands of Lake Michigan,
sampling the fudge at a good fudge shop where you watch them make it.
Cruise or kayak at the Pictured Rocks
Cruise through the Soo Locks or watch the Locks operate from the viewing platform.
Bike around Mackinac Island
Go into an iron ore mine in Hancock.
Search for Petosky stones on the lakeshore
Visit Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Oh, I almost forgot. Sample the beers of Grand Rapids. Beer City, USA (shameless plug for my hometown)

[travelnutz]

To the thread's OP:

Here's some of the CG in the U.P. which offer sites with full hookups. There are many more but this is a sampling scattered around the U.P. and near the Straits of Mackinac in the L.P.

Whispering Valley CG at Rapid River

Whitefish Hill RV park at Rapid River

Vagabond Resort near Escanaba

Gladstone Bay CG at Gladstone

Iron River RV Park & CG at Iron River

Marquette Tourist Park at Marquette

Gitche Gumee RV Park - E of Marquette

Perkins Park CG at Marquette

River Road RV Park CG at Ontanagon

Indian Lake Travel Resort at Manistique

Log Cabin Resort & CG at Curtis

Muniding Tourist Park CG at Munising

Wandering Wheels CG at Munising

Otter Lake CG - SW of Munising

Bay Mills Resort & Casino RV Park at Brimley

Castle Rock Lakefront CG at St Ignace

St Ignace/Mackinac Island KOA at St Ignace

Lakeshore Park CG at St Ignace

Tiki RV Park & CG at St Ignace

Mill Creek CG at Mackinaw City

There are a few thousand CG's total in the State of Michigan with a couple hundred thousand sites in total as RVing and camping is huge in the state. Michigan's been a travel and vacation destination for over a hundred years now and the numbers keeps growing as so many return year after year along with the many new ones. About 3/4 of the state's CG's are in the Lower Peninsula. Simply impossible to list them all on a forum!

[travelnutz]

Maye this will help? Blue Moon ice cream is a flavor not a brand. Kids love it! Pasties made right are absolutely delicious. We make lots of them ourselves to freeze and take along in the RV. A great meal ready in a flash!

[travelnutz]

michigansandzilla,

Our 29' 5th wheel has 46 gallons of fresh water, 40 gallons of gray, and 34 gallons of black capacities. We also usually have a blue sewage dump tote tank on the back carrier I made for the 5th wheel. We actually can stay as long as we want on a site without FHU's if we use the tote tank to dump each week or so and the refilling of the fresh water tank is no problem either as what does it take to fill a blue 5 gal etc water can/container or collapsable tank and simply dump it in a couple times? We don't even have to lift the water jug as I'm lazy and have a 12 volt transfer pump that makes very short work of transferring to the RV fresh tank if needed. Fill on the truck and pump into the RV! Walla! NO lifting!

There's only 2 of us and our Siberian Husky and one to 1-1/2+ weeks is no problem at all. It all starts with common sense water conservation tactics used by all people in your RV. No excuses accepted for wasting water! When we take 2 of our grandkids or great grandkids along, we still can easily last a week in the 5'er before dumping. Yes, it sure does help if using the CG bathouse during the day when possible as it further extends tank time.

My wife is a master as far as conserving water and better than me! She usually uses only 3 gallons for her shower as first get wet, shut the water off and soap up including your hair, then rinse off completely. DONE! What's the thrill of just letting the heated water keep on running anyway??? You learn very quick when you do a lot of boating in a cabined boat as you may find yourself dropping the hook (anchor) at night more than being able to find an open slip to use! You are only limited by your imagination and ingenuity! Where there's a will, there's a way! You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink!

Our TC has 40 gallons of fresh, 20 gallons of gray, and 14 gallons of black capacities. Really no problem as the TC goes where the truck goes and it passes the dump station at least everyother day as we take lots of day trips. These are the 2 RV's we take most of the time and are extremely comfortable!

One of the things we really don't like is the full hookup sites are almost always jammed together so it's like parking lot camping. We like elbow room and lots of trees and above all, some reasonable privacy!

[BigLarShreve]

Wow travelnutz.. who needs a Trailer Life Directory? So appreciative that you took the time to list all this valuable information. Such a big help that they're in location order! We're definitely going to try the pasties. Being from the South, we don't have these, so I googled 'em online. LOL Looks delicious. And dtappy3353, I'm wondering if Blue Moon ice cream is as good as Blue Bell. 🙂 You know we'll try it and find out! Thanks again to all who have posted!

[michigansandzil]

travelnutz wrote:
Th OP requested full hookups and that really limits the choices and more so in the U.P. That's why I haven't responded more. Full hookups mean absolutely nothing to us as all our RV naturally came with FW, GW, and BW holding tanks and they are good for a min of a week+ before even thinking about dumping. That's why they are there!

I'm amazed with this! We have at least 5 people in our camper and we run out of water every 48 hours in our fresh tank. If we don't shower in the camper, gray tank is full after 3-4 days.
I can't imagine going for a week!! When we go for a week long vacation, we only choose FHU CGs. It would seem like such a luxury to choose any park for a week.

[southernsky]

Sounds like a making of a trip BigLarShreve, been looking at things online. The ride is no bother to me. Like to hook up and travel to distant places, all part of being retired. Lots of good info here.

[dtappy3353]

don't forget UP pasties and blue moon ice cream. Can't get em here out west (OR)

[travelnutz]

UP and West Side of Michigan Shoreline CG's: To name a few in each area on the shoreline.

Starting at Sault Ste Marie (The Soo) Is Anne Osborn CG.

A half mile west is The Soo Locks CG.

About 20 mile farther west is Brimley State Park.

Maybe 5 miles west of Brimley is Bay Mills CG.

Up M-123 six miles south of Paradise, MI is The Tahquamenon Falls State Park Rivermouth CG.

North of Newberry, MI is Muskallonge State Park.

West of Muskallonge is Woodland Park CG at Grand Marais, MI

Going west on H-58 is a pretty rustic type CG on Lake Superior

At Munising, MI is Munising City Tourist CG

North on M-28 around the corner is the City Lakeshore CG park.

Half mile west on M-28 is Wandering Wheels Campground.

Next is Bay Furnace (think it's still rustic).

East of US-41 on M-28 is Gitche Gumee Campground.

Baraga State Park at Baraga.

Fort Wilkins State Park at Copper Harbor, MI.

McLain State Park near Houghton, MI.

2 CG's at Ontonagon, MI (can't remember their names but have camped at them).

The 2 Union Bay CG's at The Porcupine Mtns State Park.

Presque Isle CG at The Porcupine Mtns State Park.

Little Girls Point CG, County Rd 505, north of Ironwood, MI

I gave a partial list of the CG's on the U.P. Lake Superior Shoreline and now the list of many of the CG's on the U.P. Lake Michigan side shoreline starting at the Wisconsin/Michigan border and going east. The next post will be the CG's on the L.P. West Michigan shoreline on Lake Michigan waters. As usual, there are many many more CG's just within 5 miles of the Great Lakes shoreline within the State of Michigan.

Kleinke CG on M-35 (Lakeshore Dr) north of Menominee, MI.

J W Wells State Park on M-35 between Menominee and Escanaba.

O B Fuller County park on M-35.

Gladstone Bay CG in Gladstone, MI.

Vagabond Resort & CG near Gladstone.

Nahma south of US-2 near Nahma.

Fayfette SP - Garden Peninsula - M-183 - very neat place to explore.

CG at Thompson, MI - Co Rd 435 - near Manistique, MI.

Gould City Township Park - south of US-2.

CG near Epoufette - south of US-2 - samll but quaint.

Lakeshore Park CG - west of Saint Ignace, MI. Has a big CG on the other side on US-2.

Straits State Park - upper and lower on right side along the Big Mac Bridge in Saint Ignace, MI. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron basically join eachother under the bridge.

Going east at Saint Ignace it's Lake Huron and the following:

Castle Rock Mackinac Trail CG - north side of Saint Ignace.

Brulee Point CG - South of M-134 close to Hessel, MI.

Cedarville RV CG in Cedarville, MI.

Loons Point CG - just east of Cedarville.

Barefoots Resort & CG - on Hill Island - small but has a nice beach, boat docks, and a launching ramp for the customers use. Even more fun if you have a boat or rent on there. Great Fishing too!

Detour State Park - M134 Detour, MI.

Karen's Cabins & CG at Raber, MI - north of Detour in a very quiet area.


CG's on Lake Michigan waters on the west side of the Stateof Michigan starting at the Big Mac Bridge (The Straits) Mackinaw City and going south to the Indiana border:

Wildernss State Park west of Mackinaw City. 2 CG's.

Petoskey State Park - between Petoskey and Harbor Springs, MI.

Magnus Park - small - behind the hospital complex on the lake.

Fishermans Island State Park - just south of Charlevoix, MI.

Barnes County Park - in eastport, MI - nice place.

Traverse City State Park - large - in Traverse City.

Leelanau State Park - north of northport on the point.

D H Day - was the first Michigan State park getting close to a hundred years ago now. Today, it's part of the Sleeping Bear National Park.

Platte River CG - in the Sleeping Bear NP - can walk or drive to the best beaches - not that far. Excellent CG and area.

Sunset Valley Resort - small - on M-22 north of Arcadia, MI.

Orchard beach State Park - north side of Manistee, MI.

Douglas Park CG - in Manistee.

Lake Michigan Reacreation Area & CG - Between Manistee & Ludington, MI.

Ludington State Park - north of Ludington - end of M-115 going north off US -10.

Buttersville Park & CG - south of Ludington on the peninsula.

Whispering Surf CG - north of Pentwater, MI on business US-31.

Charles Mears State Park in Pentwater.

Timber Ridge CG - between Pentwater & Silver Lake.

3 more at Silver Lake behind the sandune.

Claybanks Township park CG - north of Montague, MI.

Meinert Park CG - north of Montague.

Pioneer County Park CG - north of North Muskegon, MI.

Muskegon State Park - couple miles south of muskegon SP - also has the Channel Unit CG.

P J Hoffmaster State Park - between Muskegon and Grand Haven, MI - huge park.

Grand Haven State Park - in Grand Haven - superb sunsets and so much to do - Michigan's most popular State Park.

Christian Conference CG - south of Grand Haven.

Holland State Park - north side of Holland.

Lake Park Trailer Resort - between Saugatuck & South Haven, MI.

Singing SandsRV Park - north side of South Haven.

Van Buren State Park - south of South Haven.

Weko Beach CG - Bridgeman, MI

Warren Dunes State Park - Bridgeman.

A lot more CG's on water within 5 miles of the Lake Michigan Shoreline also. Even more that are not directly on water.
The total list is very very lengthy.

[travelnutz]

"Indigo Bluffs CG" began as "Sleepy Bear CG" around 30+ years ago. We stayed there for a weekend the first year it was opened and met the owners (nice people). A few times since also but not since the new section to the west had fully opened. Not sure who owns it now. The original owners (can't remember their names as it was so long ago) lived in a mobile home which was also the office facing west as you went down the hill road and to the right into the CG area behind it. A simple cement block bathouse painted dark green but decent about 100 feet or so behind the mobile home with reasonable sized dirt sites (about 30 then) in a circle at the bottom of the hill and had 15 amp electric. The bathouse was on the south side of the CG against the hill. Entrance to the CG is still in the very same place today and the mobile home is still there.

We go past it about every year as we always camp at the Platte River CG in the N.P. a couple+ times each year. One of our very favorites. My nephew was a Ranger at the N.P. which was a State Park before it became a N.P. for many years. 30 and 50 amp flat paved very large sites in the forest with excellent tables and fire pits and many superb tiled bathouses with outside individually doored showers that are open all year and heated. The sites and paved roads are kept plowed all winter long and we love winter camping and no place better than SBNL to do it in! Next best is Tahquamenon Falls State Park CG in winter. With all the leaves off the trees, the deer etc are visible everywhere all day.

Th OP requested full hookups and that really limits the choices and more so in the U.P. That's why I haven't responded more. Full hookups mean absolutely nothing to us as all our RV naturally came with FW, GW, and BW holding tanks and they are good for a min of a week+ before even thinking about dumping. That's why they are there!

Indigo Bluffs CG It's on the N.E corner of County Road 677 (S. Benzonia Trail) and M-72 (W. Empire Hwy). Yes, the new section is very nice but it's higher priced also.

To the OP:

I'm trying to get a decent list of "full hookup" CG's in the U.P. close to major attractions put together for you. Some we have stayed at and some not!

I will repost the list of CG that are right on Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron etc shoreline again. I've done it several times already. Nearly every one of them we have actually camped in over the last roughly 50 years. Some of them many many times!

[Dadoffourgirls]

Stop for Smoked Whitefish at Gustafsons about 30 miles west of St. Ignace on US2. Muldoons in Munising for Pasties. The Keweenaw Brewing Company in Houghton has some great brews.

[michigansandzil]

dverstra wrote:
A highly recommended park near Sleeping Bear Dunes is Indigo Bluffs in Empire. I haven't been there but rvparkreviews has a good rating.

We drove by this one, all I could remember was "Indigo" something. Pretty area and not near the hustle and bustle of town. We didn't go in but you could tell that even from the road it looked nice.....the sign was nice and upscale. I think they had a pool too but that probably won't be open in May.
You could easily stay here and go to Traverse for a visit.

[dverstra]

A highly recommended park near Sleeping Bear Dunes is Indigo Bluffs in Empire. I haven't been there but rvparkreviews has a good rating.