Clare, Michigan: Herrick Recreation Area

June 2024, weekend - weekday, 2-nights

Herrick Recreation Area

Reservations and arrival

We decided to camp at this park last minute, as it was on the way to our next destination in Bay City State Park Campground. We did not make an advance reservation for a couple of reasons: we had never been to this park before and did not know what the campsites actually look like, there were many available campsites, and there is a $5 online reservation fee. 

The entrance booth on the south side of the road was empty when we arrived at the campground area. A sign on the window instructed campers to check-in at the picnic area on the north side of the road (about 500' east of the campground entrance). Since we needed to continue into the campground area to turn around with our trailer, we decided to drive through the campground first to see some of the campsites. We found several empty sites, wrote down the numbers of a few we liked, and then headed to the the picnic area to check-in. We were able to get one of the sites we had chosen; however, we still had to pay the $5 reservation fee. 😳 The nightly rate is $25, and this park also has the following daily fees: vehicle entrance fee $6, and boat/kayak fee $6. We had two kayaks with us; however, we did not use them, nor had we planned to. It sounded like we had to pay the boat fee anyway, so with these additional fees, the nightly rate would have been $43 (+ the $5 reservation fee). After I questioned this, we were told that since it was free fishing weekend in Michigan, the park was waiving the boat and entrance fees, so our final cost was $55 for two nights. There is no information about the boat fees on the park website, and I doubt we would have stayed in this campground if the cost had been $43 a night.

Campsite 54 in Herrick Recreation Area

Campsite 54

This campsite is a spacious and somewhat private site in one of the last campground loops. It is level and grassy with 30 amp power. The fire rings in this campground are very small, and set in flush with the ground, which we thought was quite dangerous. That are not highly visible. You can enlarge the labeled photo above by clicking on it.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Cades Cove Campground, Hiking, Biking, and more

 May 2024, 6 nights

Cades Cove loop in Smoky Mountains National Park

We had originally thought we would stay in Look Rock Campground to visit the Smoky Mountains because it is the only National Park campground with electricity, and we wanted to stay for about a week. After more research, we decided to go with Cades Cove Campground instead. One reason we changed our minds is because there is more hiking directly from the campground in Cades Cove, and we had read there is a lot of vehicle noise by Look Rock from Foothills Parkway.

Above: Abrams Creek across from campsite
Below: campsite 68 in Cades Cove Campground

Cades Cove Campground, campsite 68 and more

I had about six campsites as top choices in Cades Cove. Campsite 68 was on this list, although it was not near the top of the list. Some of the other sites on our list were 21, 42, 69, 70, and 79. Lucky for us, most of the other sites had been reserved by the time we could make our reservation (6 months in advance). After we got to the campground, we decided campsite 68 is one of the best sites in loop B! 😄

Above: view of campsite 68 from road in Cades Cove Campground
Below: looking toward campsite 69 from campsite 68