Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

 September 2024

I am sharing info about a few of the areas we hiked/visited along the Pictures Rocks shoreline between Munising and Grand Marais. We split our campground time between Bay Furnace National Park Campground (primitive campsites with a sanitation station and fresh water available), and Seney Township Campground (town park on Fox River with electric sites and artesian well on property). 

Mosquito Falls and trail in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Hiking to Mosquito Falls, Mosquito Beach, and Chapel Falls

We started our hike at Chapel Falls trailhead. This trailhead is about a 40-minute drive from Bay Furnace Campground. We put the destination in Google maps and our GPS before we left Munising, so it stayed connected even when our phone lost reception en route. There is a trail map and vault toilets at the trailhead parking lot.

Above: Mosquito Beach
Below: cave along Mosquito Falls Trail

We hiked the Mosquito loop trail first, which was almost 5 miles. We did not think this was a difficult hike, although many people turned around before Mosquito Falls, as the trail gets a bit wet and hilly in areas. Since there were not many hikers, we got to enjoy the scenery and saw several deer. Mosquito Beach is beautiful!

Above: Chapel Falls
Below: creek above Chapel Falls

Munising, Michigan: Bay Furnace National Park Campground in the Upper Peninsula

September 2024, 4 nights, weeknights

Sunset from inside our camper in Bay Furnace Campground

Reservations and arrival

The entrance into Bay Furnace is quite rough with many potholes. Fortunately, the distance down this rough dirt road is less than half a mile from M-28. 

Bay Furnace Campground self registration September 2024

We had made a reservation online several months ahead of time, and were able to proceed directly to our campsite. At the time of our stay the last full week of September, campsites that had not been reserved, had all been converted to first come, first serve. A sign on the self-registration post listed the park close date as 10/9/2024. The online system had said the park was going to close on 10/4 when we made our reservation. The host had already departed from full hookup site #8, and a local person had taken that campsite for the maximum 14-days allowed. According to the information on his post, he had rented it for the same price the rest of us paid for our primitive campsites.

Campsite 9 in Bay Furnace Campground
Photo above is view through screen door.

Campsite 9, and more

Campsite 9 is a great campsite on Lake Superior with a fabulous view. It was an easy few steps down the hill to the water. 

Campsite 9 in Bay Furnace Campground

This campsite is spacious, level, and somewhat secluded. There is a trail to the picnic area between this campsite and host site 8, which did not pass too close to our trailer. I marked the trail with an arrow in one of the photos above.

Most of the campsites in this park are great. They are spacious, and offer some privacy. Host campsite 8 and campsite 6 also have good views of the water, even though they are not directly on the water. Campsite 10 would be a good site for a tent, pickup camper, or motorhome pulled in. We did not like that site, because the fire ring and sitting area is behind the trailer when backing in with a travel trailer.

Above: picnic area in Bay Furnace Campground
Below: Campsite 9 in distance from edge of picnic area

Upper Peninsula, Michigan: Recreation in Porcupine Mountains State Park, and Black River Harbor Recreation Area

May 2023, 8 days of hiking, waterfalls, rivers

Union Mine Interpretive trail sign and Union River
gorge overlook in Porcupine Mountains

Hiking

We hiked over 32 miles in the Porcupine Mountains! One of the hikes I enjoyed most is underrated, in my opinion; Union Mine Interpretive Trail. This is an easy trail along the river with some beautiful views.

  

Union Spring and Union Spring Trail in Porcupine Mountains

We hiked Union Spring Trail in this same area, which was a wet hike in May! Union Spring is a smaller version of Kitch-iti-Kipi Spring, and is just as beautiful. 

Government Peak Trail

We tried to hike Government Peak Trail one of the first days after we had arrived, and the bridge was out before Trap Falls. The bridge had been repaired a few days later, and we hiked the trail as far as Union Spring Trail junction. 

Union Spring Trail and Government Peak Trail connection
River crossing below

To get to Union Spring Trail from Government Peak Trail, you need to go through the river, as there is no bridge.

Ontonagon, Michigan: Porcupine Mountains State Park Union Bay Campground

May 2023, 8-nights 

This was our first visit to Porcupine Mountains since 1989. We did not have a reservation when we arrived that year, and the state campgrounds were full. We ended up in a private campground near the entrance to Union Bay: Union River's Big Bear Campground (very nice, BTW). This time, we made a reservation online to arrive on the opening date for Union Bay Campground, May 15th. Even though we arrived opening day before check-in time, there were already about 5 to 7 campers in the campground.

Union Bay Campground in Porcupine Mountains
Below: photo of campsite 18 on DNR reservation site

Union Bay Campground reservation and arrival, campsite #18 and #12

We made an online reservation for a waterfront site that looked like it had the least amount of standing water in the website photos. The photos also showed a few trees around this site, and the description says the surface is grass. When we arrived, campsite 18 was not as pictured or described online. The surface is small stones/rock, rather than grass, and there is no growth between the campsite and the water (which would have helped with the wind). This site is so shallow, that I assume the stone ground cover was brought in after much of the site was washed away during the high water levels three years ago. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good current photo of campsite 18, as there was a camper on it right away after we decided not to take it.

Campsite 12 in Porcupine Mountains Union Bay Campground
Above: view from screen shelter

Union Bay campsite 12 and more

Since the weather was cool, and we would not have been able to put up our screened shelter in the stones, we looked for a different site. We picked out a few empty sites, called on the yellow phone, and then ended up on site 12. We had shelter, a grassy site, calm conditions, and a great view during most of our stay. The sites across from #12 dip down quite a bit, so they were not the first waterfront sites chosen. All of the sites in front of us were empty during most of our 8 night stay.

Campsites in Porcupine Mountains Union Bay Campground

Marquette, Michigan: Tourist Park Campground, Biking, Hiking, Breweries

 September 2022, Weekdays, 3 nights

Beach and sunset at Marquette Tourist Park Campground

Marquette Tourist Park Campground, Campsite 77

I attempted to make an advance reservation online; however, the website for this campground is not user friendly, and it did not work properly. Apparently, I am not the only one who has had trouble with the reservation system, as I read complaints about the process from others when I researched this campground. Fortunately, I was able to reach someone in the office who was helpful with adjusting our reservation after it did not process as expected.

Marquette Tourist Park Campground
View from inside our camper on campsite 77, looking toward campsite 75 

Campsite 79 is a secluded site along the back tree line with electrical hookup. Most of the waterfront sites were already reserved when we made our reservation. During our stay, we were glad we had not chosen a non-secluded waterfront site, as it was quite windy and cool, and the wind was stronger at the sites closer to the water. Campsite 13 on the water had looked like a good site online; however, when we looked at it during our stay, it did not look like it would have been a good site for our trailer. It is not very level, and the camper sitting side would not have been facing the water. This is probably a great site for people with a truck camper or tent.

Beach area in Marquette Tourist Park Campground

This campground is located on the Dead River basin. It has a sandy beach with swimming area, and there are kayaks for rent inside the park. The paved bicycle trail alongside the park (Marquette City Multi Use Path) is well maintained and connects to Iron Ore Heritage Trail. 

Presque Isle Park in Marquette, Michigan

It was an easy bike ride of about 2 miles one-way to Presque Isle Park. There are a couple of stopping points along the way, and the Presque Isle Bog walk is located just before the park entrance. Inside the park, there are hiking trails along the water and rocks, and there are hilly trails through the woods in the center of the park. Most visitors just stopped along the loop drive to explore the areas along the water and close to the road. We passed only one other hiker on the hilly inside loop trail. It was easy to hike all of the trails, other than a few steps or mild hills for the interior portion.