Vanderbilt, Michigan: Pigeon River State Forest Campground

October 2024, weekend - weekdays, 3 nights, campsite #1

View of campsite #1 in Pigeon River State Forest from hiking trail across river

We stayed in this campground April 2023, and you can find more information about the area in that post. I am sharing just a few photos in this post, as there was not much that was new this trip.

Campsite #1 in Pigeon River State Forest
Below: river behind campsite 1

Campsite 1

We again chose campsite 1, as it was the best river site available when we arrived on a Saturday. The campsite view to the river was a bit more overgrown that it had been in spring 2023. Other than that, and the rocks someone had piled up in the river, this campsite was pretty much the same as it had been then. 

Recreation: Discovery Center, hiking, kayaking, elk viewing

The Discovery Center next to park headquarters has a lot of great information inside. This is a short hike from the campground, and is also along the southern loop of ShingleMill Pathway. You can find hiking photos and a map in my previous post. The center had not been open last time we camped here. Fresh water is available at the ranger station, and we observed people filling their jugs when we passed by. A large portion of the trail on the west side of the river had been updated with new boardwalk since our last visit.

Above: Beaver Pond in Pigeon River State Forest
Below: pathway signage in Pigeon River State Forest

Seney, Michigan (upper peninsula): Seney Township Campground

September 2024, 3 nights, weekend

Fox River in Seney Township Campground in Michigan's upper peninsula

We found this campground, between our primitive campground stays, as we were looking for an inexpensive place to stay for a night or two with electricity. We liked this campground so well, we stayed for three nights.

Arrival experience

This is a small township campground on the Fox River with self-registration. Two campsites were taken when we arrived on a Friday. Only one campsite is river adjacent, and the camper on that site looked like he was staying for awhile. We parked, and walked around the park on foot, before we decided to go with campsite 14. The senior rate for a site with electricity was $18 a night. This campground does not have a sanitation station.

 View from campsite 14 in Seney Township Campground 

Campsite 14

This campsite overlooks an artesian well and a small creek. Tent sites, and Fox River Road are visible on the other side of the creek. Since there were no tent campers during our stay, we had a great view. The only vehicles were observed on Fox River Road were ATV type trail machines, and a couple off vehicles camping at the State Forest Campground down the road.

Above: Seney Township Campground artesian well and campsite 14 beyond
Below: campsite 14 from tent area in Seney Township Campground

People often stopped at the well to fill water containers, which did not cause us any disruption. In fact, when we returned one day from our hike, someone had left us a box of firewood. 😊 No campers had departed the campground that day, so we assume it was from someone who had stopped for water.

Campsite 14 in Seney Township Campground

Cheyboygan State Park in Cheboygan, Michigan

August 2024, weekdays, 4 nights, campsite 15

View of Duncan Bay behind campsite 15 in Cheboygan State Park

Reservations and arrival

This campground is located on Duncan Bay in Lake Huron. It is over two miles off the main road, and the road turns to dirt after the first mile. This was our first visit, and we had originally reserved campsite 30. When we made our reservation, there were no photos on the DNR reservation site, and we'd had a difficult time choosing a campsite. The staff member when we arrived was very helpful, and we ended up switching to campsite 15.

Campsite 15 in Cheboygan State Park

Campsites

Our 25' trailer would have fit on campsite 30, although the space would have been a bit tight. Campsite 30 is also mostly dirt, rather than grass. 

Campsite 15 in Cheboygan State Park

Campsite 15 is a larger and grassier site with better access to the water than site 30. Campsite 15, as well as a few others, are non-reservable sites. We did not realize this, because we had missed this information, which is in the individual campsite details on the DNR reservation site.

Above: campsite 9 in Cheboygan State Park
Below: campsite 23 in Cheboygan State Park

We took a few photos of other campsites, and I have included a couple of those in this post, as well. 

Hiking trails in Cheboygan State Park

Northport, Michigan: Leelanau State Park

July 2024, weekdays and weekend, 5 nights, campsite 42

One of the amazing sunsets from in front of our campsite in Leelanau State Park

This was our first time camping in this campground. We absolutely loved it; however, the campsite information online is highly inaccurate. I am sharing some information, and a few photos of campsites to assist future travelers. Getting into the campground is a bit tight, and I would not suggest it for anyone with campers over 25 to 30', even though their website lists 10 sites as accommodating at least a 30' unit (3 of them say 35 to 40'). We previously owned a 30' Montana 5th wheel, and we would not have taken it to this campground. Another thing to keep in mind when choosing your site, is whether you have kids or not. The east end of this campground was definitely more peaceful than the west end during our stay.

Beautiful view out the front window of our camper in Leelanau State Park!

Campsites

We did not choose a site on the water, as all of the water sites, except one, say they only accommodate tents, pickup campers, vans, or trailers less than 20', and our trailer is 25'. We chose site 42, which says it can accommodate a trailer up to 30'. You could only put a 30' trailer on site 42, if you do not plan to use your fire pit, and/or you do not have slide outs. We had to finagle our camper in the position we ended up with, and then we had to back up closer to the fire pit when we departed to make the turn.

Campsite 42 in Leelanau State Park

In order to use the fire pit, we could not back up any farther than we did on site 42, because of our slide out. If we had not wanted to use the fire pit, we could have backed up all the way to it to get off the road farther. Parking parallel to the road would not have worked for us, because there are large trees next to our truck to the left of the screened tent that would have been in the way of our slides.

Campsite 42 in Leelanau State Park

We had an amazing view out our front window, and this campsite is pretty secluded. It was level enough that we did not need to use any leveling bocks for the position we parked our trailer in. We were able to partially extend our awning for partial protection from the sprinkles of rain during our stay and falling tree debris.

Above: Campsite 21 in Leelanau State Park
Below: Partial of campsite 23 in Leelanau State Park

There is more room on several of the water sites (21, 22, 23...) that are listed as only accommodating up to a 20' trailer, than there was on site 42, which says it can accommodate a 30' trailer. The campsites are not actually bigger than campsite 42; there are just not any tree obstructions on most of the water sites.

Above: Campsite 38 in Leelanau State Park
Below: Campsite 47 in Leelanau State Park

Campsite 43 is the largest site near the water (next to the site we were on and across the street from the lake). We were actually surprised to see a very tall 30' motorhome and a pickup truck squeeze onto this site during our stay. I did not get a photo of that site, although I have included a couple more campsite photos above.

Leelanau State Park lighthouse and campground beach

Honor, Michigan: Platte River Campground in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park

July 2024, nine nights, campsite 114

We have camped in this park a few times, and visited the general area many times. You can find more info by clicking on labels of interest at the bottom of this post, or via the following links: Platte River Campground September 2023, and Platte River State Forest campground July 2016. 

Campsite 114 from road in Platte River Campground

Campsite 114

Although campsite 114 was not our first choice when making our reservation, this turned out to be a great site. It is a spacious site, with good privacy compared to some of the campsites in this campground. The space between the fire pit on this campsite and campsite 116 is partially open, and the rest of the sides are blocked by trees and hills.

Campsite 114 in Platte River Campground

Before we arrived, we were a bit worried about the amount of tent room on this site, as the online photos looked like it might be boxed in by hills without much ground area. We have a trailer; however, we had two tent visitors for a couple of nights during our stay. We had also hoped to be able to put our screened in tent over the picnic table. The space worked out perfectly! We were able to put one tent on each side of the screened gazebo. The rules for this park do not say anything about the number of tents on a site; it only says no more than 6 people, only 1 trailer type unit, and only 2 vehicles per site allowed.

Platte Beach

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.

Pedro, Ohio: Iron Ridge Campground in Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area / Wayne National Forest

 May 2024, weekdays - weekend, 4 nights, campsite 18

We originally thought we would stay in Hocking Hills campground on our way home this trip; however, when I saw the rates at that campground are now $36 to $50 a night, we changed our plans. We liked the hiking in Hocking Hills when we stayed there in 2016; however, most of the campsites are pretty close together. We had been lucky that year to get a semi-private site at a reasonable rate.

I happened upon Wayne National Forest as I was searching national forests in Ohio, and then we chose Iron Ridge Campground in Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area. 

Campsite 18 in Iron Ridge Campground Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area
Camper barely visible on right [below] when approaching from the entrance

Iron Ridge Campground, site 18

We reserved site 18 online about 6 months in advance. The cost with our senior pass was $14.50 a night. This campground has power, water hookup, and a dump station. We proceeded directly to our site when we arrived, as there is no staff in the campground. There was a reserved tag on our site.

Campsite 18 in Iron Ridge Campground Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

Campsite 18 is one of the more private sites in the first section of the campground. After you pass sites 18 and 22, the road continues up a steep hill to a second loop. We were able to back directly into our site when we arrived; however, we needed to drive up the hill to turn around the day we departed. Site 18 has a slight incline uphill, and it was level side to side.

Visitor vehicles parked in tent sites 19 - 21 in Iron Ridge Campground Lake Vesuvius Recreation Area

Caseville, Michigan: Caseville County Park

 September 2023, three nights, weekday-weekend, campsite #72

Sunset over Saginaw Bay in Caseville County Park

This was our first stay in this campground, and our first visit to the thumb area. We chose the county park instead of one of the state parks, because it is close to town (we wanted to visit Thumb Brewery), and I had read good things about the beach area.

Reservations, arrival, and check-in

It was pretty easy to make our reservation on the Huron County website. The off season rate for water and 50 amp power was $38 a night. There was no reservation fee. We arrived in the afternoon shortly before 3:00 PM, and were able to easily check in. Since we needed to empty our holding tanks, we had to do a little loop and then reenter the campground after we checked in. The sanitation station is next to the park exit. 

View from campsite 72 in Caseville County Park

Campsite 72

We chose this site because it is an end lot, and our front camper window would be facing the water. We had a great view when we arrived, and a partial view after the motorhome parked on the site across the street from us.

Campsite 72 in Caseville County Park

Campsite 72 is long and quite narrow. Our truck in the photo above is parked on the edge of the site. The fire pit is located behind the camper, closer to campsite 47. Even though the site is long, there is a large tree near the back, which prevents campers from backing in all the way. The park wifi came in at this site. My understanding is that this is located at the pavilion/picnic area, and does not come in throughout the park. When I checked in, the staff member told me that the person on campsite 47 chooses that site so she can use the internet.