July 2021, 3 nights, weekday-weekend, Violet loop campsite 87
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| Looking toward Lake Michigan at Lake Michigan Recreation Area from trail |
Arrival
This was our second time staying in this campground. You can find more information about this park in my post from August 2016. I am sharing new info here. Last time, we made a reservation in Orchid Loop, and this time we arrived on a Thursday afternoon without a reservation. We had thought this would be a good time to arrive before the weekend; however, that did not turn out to be true. There were apparently many vacationers at the campground because it was [almost] full, and many people left on Saturday. We got the last available campsite when we arrived, and it almost started a fight. From what we overheard, it sounded like the person across the street had been saving the site with some belongings on it for his friend who was not arriving until the next day. Someone who had arrived just before us, had taken the only other site available. When the person who had been saving the site saw us coming in with our camper, he decided it was not right to save the site, so he removed his stuff (from what we overheard). Apparently, the guy before us did not like the site he had ended up with because he walked by and there was a heated discussion between them while we were parking. I do not know what site he was on, but I did not see any campsites in this loop that looked worse than the one we ended up with. When we had driven through the other loops before Violet loop, it actually looked like people were savings sites in Hemlock loop, too.
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| Campsite 87 at Lake Michigan Recreation Area |
Campsite 87
Our trailer is 25', and the tar pad on this site is barely long enough to park our trailer and truck on. Just like last time, if the posts at the end of tar were a bit shorter or farther back, we could have backed up farther and still kept our tires on the pavement. There is actually plenty of room to park on this site, if you did not have to park on the tar. Parking on the tar is about the only rule we saw enforced at the park, and they are particular about that. In fact, the host stopped to tell us to move our truck before we had a chance to move it back over after unloading our wood. We also saw him stop at the site next to us during our stay to have them move a vehicle out that was not on the tar.
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| Campsite 87 at Lake Michigan Recreation Area |
There was just enough room for our awning to open. We were glad that our camper door is at the back of our trailer, and not the front.
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| Campsite 87 at Lake Michigan Recreation Area |
This site is spacious in the back, and neighboring sites are a decent distance away. A trail behind this site leads to the beach and to the Nordhouse Dunes hiking trails.
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| Walkway out to water from overlook parking lot near group campsites |
Recreation: beach, hiking, swimming
The walk to the beach on the trail behind our site in Violet loop is about a half mile. It is longer if you drive the road. The beach and water are both beautiful.
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| Steps up to the overlook |
We hiked in Nordhouse Dunes and the park. We started from the trail behind our site every time we went to the beach or hiking. The park does has some great hiking. I am sharing a few photos here, and again, you can find more info by clicking my previous post link above.
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| Nordhouse Lake from our dunes hike |
Misc. and overall
The cost to camp at this park has increased from the $21 a night that I wrote in my last post to $27 a night. We did save the $9 reservation fee by not making a reservation. Still a bit steep for a campground without extras like power, showers, and a sanitation station. If we had not been able to get a site the first night, I suppose we could have stayed in the overflow lot for one night, since some people left on Friday, also. Apparently, you can camp anywhere outside the campground loops for no charge (considered dispersed camping in Manistee forest, I presume). Either that, or evicting people is not enforced. We saw people camping in the overflow parking lot the first night. They had a tent, clothesline, and more set up, just like one would at a campsite. I suppose the only thing they did not have was a fire pit. Early the next morning, we observed a motorhome set up in the beach parking lot. There is a fee to park in the beach parking lot, so I assume the people camping there paid that. There is no fee to park in the overflow lot.
Be prepared for the drive in, if you are arriving via West Forest Trail. It is almost 10 miles to the campground from US-31, and the road is extremely bumpy.
Let me know if you have any questions!
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