Strongs, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula: Three Lakes Campground

September - October 2024, 3 nights

Sunset over Walker Lake behind campsite 5 in Three Lakes Campground

Arrival and campsite choice

We had hoped to camp in Soldier Lake Campground for this stay; however, that campground had already closed for the season. The information for Three Lakes Campground says it has sites for up to a 20' trailer, and ours is 25'. People we had met when camping in Brevoort Lake National Forest Campground told us the sites are large, so we decided to check it out. This campground is easy to access from M-28, and all of the roads are paved. Our 25' trailer could have easily fit on most of the sites in this campground. The facility map for this campground is not correct at the time of this post, and some of the website photos are incorrect, as well. I have shared information about that farther down in this post.

Campsite 4 is the site with the best water view; however, there was a camper on that site when we arrived. There was no tag on the post, and that camper ended up leaving late that day, after we had already chosen site 5. 😳  We chose site 5 because it had the best kayak launch spot of the remaining waterfront sites available.

Campsite 5 in Three Lakes Campground
Photo above is lake view from inside our trailer

Campsite 5

We liked all of the campsites in this park. The sites are spacious, and there is quite a bit of privacy around every site. The area where we parked our trailer on site 5 is hard packed, as is the ground on the road side of the tree. There is not a designated gravel or tar parking area on any of the sites, like is often common in National Parks. We chose to back in on the other side of the tree in order to have a better lake view, and so the tree would not be in the way of our awning.

Campsite 5 in Three Lakes Campground

Au Train, Michigan: Au Train Lake USDA Forest Service Campground in the Upper Peninsula

September 2024, 1 night, weeknight, campsite 22

Sign posted at the entrance to Au Train Lake Campground September 2024

Arrival experience

As we were driving to this campground, we were hoping it was still open, because the information online was unclear. Information on the recreation.gov site sounded like it might be closing the day we were arriving, although it did not state this for sure. Later, we learned that the information on the USDA Forest site would have been more helpful, since that site clearly stated the closing date. When we arrived, a sign on the post stated that the campground was closing October 1st. The host campsite was already vacated for the season. Although we have seen the host campsite available at other campgrounds after the host departs, it was roped off at this campground, so no one could rent it.

Campsite 22 in Au Train Lake Campground

Campsite 22

At the time of our stay, all of the sites were first come, first serve, except campsites that had been reserved far in advance. There were reserved tags on those sites. We were only staying one night, and chose campsite 22, which was spacious enough and level enough that we did not need to unhook our trailer. 

Campsite 22 in Au Train Lake Campground
View from the road and from the lake behind the site

This is a great campsite on the lake, and it has trees around the perimeter. This site is always FCFS, even during peak season. We thought most of the campsites in this campground were great. Most of them are spacious, private, and level. 

Songbird Trail in Au Train Lake Campground

Champion, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula: Van Riper State Park

September 2024, 5 nights, weekdays, campsite 111

Sunset over Lake Michigamme in Van Riper State Park

Reservations and arrival

This was our first stay in this campground. We made an online reservation for campsite 111, which is a 30 amp site. We arrived after checkout time, and slightly before check-in time. We were able to check-in, fill our water tank at the sanitation station, and proceed to our site. We observed a couple of campers depart after we arrived, so apparently staff does not always enforce the check-in and checkout times, as others have stated. Possibly, the late departing folks had paid for an extra day... When we departed on our last morning before checkout time, we observed new campers arriving early and proceeding to their sites, as well.

View of Lake Michigamme from campsite 111 in Van Riper State Park

Campsite 111

This campsite is shady, it is a decent sized site, only slightly unlevel, and it is mostly private. Lake Michigamme was barely visible from the edge of the site and through our back camper window. 

Campsite 111 in Van Riper State Park

The trail behind this campsite goes down a hill to the boat ramp. The activity on the trail was mostly people walking their dogs, and one day it was active with young teens speedily riding their bikes down the hill. Fortunately, there were no serious accidents! We overheard conversation about one wipeout, but no crying or screaming, so apparently the spill was minor.

Above: Pesheke River flowing into Lake Michigamme under the railroad tracks
Below: Heading out on Lake Michigamme from the boat ramp in Van Riper State Park

Upper Peninsula Michigan: Colwell Lake National Forest Campground

September 2024, 4 nights, campsite 27

You can find more details about this campground in my previous post from our stay in  September 2022. I am sharing a few recent photos and info from our stay this year. 

Sunset over Colwell Lake from campsite 27 

Arrival

There was only one non-reservable campsite with electricity available when we arrived on a Wednesday; campsite 5, which is a non-waterfront site. We had hoped to get a campsite with electricity; however, we opted for a waterfront site instead. There were several great waterfront sites available for three nights or less. We wanted to stay four nights, so we chose campsite 27, which is one of the sites we had circled after our previous stay. 

Beach area of campsite 27 in Colwell Lake National Forest Campground

Campsite 27

We thought the water access from this campsite is one of the better ones. The beach area is sandy, and there was plenty of room for our chairs and kayaks. 

Campsite 27 in Colwell Lake Campground

Upper Peninsula Michigan: Brevoort Lake National Forest Campground near St Ignace

September 2024, 6 nights, campsite 29

Water view behind campsite 29 in Brevoort Lake Campground

Reservations and arrival 

This was our first stay in this campground, and there is not any signage inside the park, other than the park sign when entering the area. There was no sign designating which direction for the campground when the road split (fortunately, google was correct). The campground is straight ahead on Park Lane when arriving from the south, and the picnic area is down the road to the right. The campground was not staffed in September, so we proceeded directly to our campsite. This campground has reservable sites and first come, first serve campsites. There are several great non-reservable sites on the water, and since our stay was off-season, we probably should have picked a site after arrival. We reserved a waterfront site online; however, the online photos do not provide enough information about the sites. I have provided some details about our campsite below.

Campsite 29 in Brevoort Lake Campground

Campsite 29

Something to be aware of, that is not disclosed on the reservation site, is that the online photo of campsite 29 is not taken from the road. There is a dirt road area in front of this campsite, which gives it more privacy from the road; however, there are also two stumps in this area that stick up several inches. They were tall enough that we could not drive over them with our trailer. This made backing our trailer in a bit challenging. I would not suggest this campsite for anyone who wants easy parking.

Campsite 29 in Brevoort Lake Campground

Clare County, Michigan: Mud Lake State Forest Campground

June 2024, weekdays, 2 nights, campsite 5

We arrived at this campground from the southwest. The roads after M-66 are dirt; the distance on dirt roads was just under 5 miles when we arrived at the campground. When we left, we traveled southeast on M-115, and the distance on dirt roads traveling that direction was about the same.

 

Lake view from campsite 5 in Mud Lake State Forest

This is a state forest campground with 8 campsites. It has a fresh water hand pump, an outhouse, and a dirt boat ramp. The self-registration cost was $20 per night at the time of our stay. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon, and the park was empty except for one vehicle at the boat ramp.

Campsite 5 in Mud Lake State Forest Campground

Campsite 5 and more

Campsites 5 and 6 are the only sites with a view of the lake. Although the view from campsite 6 is more open than it is from site 5, we chose site 5, as it is a larger campsite with a bit more privacy. The campsite on the other side of site 6 (I do not recall if it was 7 or 8) is a private site on the lake side; however, the lake is not visible from that campsite, as it is not as close to the water. Campsite 3 is also a great site, in terms of privacy and space. The site is open in the back and overlooks the meadow.

Campsite 5 in Mud Lake State Forest Campground
Below: looking toward site 6

We were glad that campsite 4 was empty during our stay, as the fire pit on that campsite is on the edge, close to our lot. The drive/parking area for campsite 4 is a ways away, next to trees on the other edge of the lot.

Clayton, Michigan: Camping in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

May 2024, weekdays, 3 nights, campsite 38 and more

Sunset from campsite 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

This was our first visit to this park, which is designated as a dark sky preserve. The campsites have electricity, there is a fresh water pump, and vault toilets only. There is no dump station or modern facilities in the park. The nightly campsite cost was $22 at the time of this post.

Arrival

We arrived a bit before the 3:00 PM check-in time. Apparently, we were the only ones arriving that day, because the staff member seemed to know who we were when I gave him our reserved site number. He told us we were all set to go. I told him this was our first visit to this park. Since there were no signs ahead, I asked how to get to the campground. He said to just follow the road left to the end. After we drove away, I regretted not having asked for a park map. We drove for over a mile before the road split, and we saw a sign for the campground and boat ramp. The road was paved until we turned onto the campground road at this point. When we got to the campground (another half mile plus), we saw two loops with no campsite number signs! Grrr -- we had made our reservation about 6 months ahead of time, and did not know which loop to choose. We ended up choosing the incorrect one, so we drove through the entire campground on dirt roads before we found our campsite. We were glad we had arrived before dark. 😳

Campsite 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

Campsites 36, 37, 38

Campsites 37 and 38 have the best views of the lake. There are no photos of site 38 on the Michigan DNR reservation page, so I chose our site based on photos others have shared. There is a better lake view from campsite 37; however, site 38 is more level and shaded with less protruding roots. The ground has some clay in it, and we had a couple of small wet spots on our site (near front of big slide, and back corner of trailer not visible in photo). There had been no recent rain before our arrival.

Campsite 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area
Bottom photo is the view from the water

We needed to use all three of our 25' power cords to reach the power box for site 38, which is located between sites 37 and 38. 

Lake behind campsite 38 in Lake Hudson Recreation Area

Montrose, Illinois: Montrose Village Campground

April 2024, weekday, one night

Sunrise from inside our camper on site 4 in Montrose Village Campground

We had originally planned to just sleep in a Walmart parking lot or someplace similar for this one night. I learned about this self-service campground, with a minimal overnight rate, shortly before our trip, and we decided to stay here instead. The information I had read online from previous campers, said that it is $5 for a primitive site, and $15 for electricity. I could not find any actual information or a website for the campground.

Registration and firewood at Montrose Village Campground

Arrival and registration

There was a self-registration box, as others mentioned. This is on the front of the building with flush toilet restrooms. We paid $15 for a power site, and set up on site #4. I deposited a check, which was processed from our account about 10 days later. There is also a donation box for [almost free] firewood.

Our trailer is on site 4 in Montrose Village Campground

Holland, Michigan: Marriott Courtyard, hiking, downtown

February 2024, weekday, one-night

View from guestroom 509 in Holland Marriott Courtyard
Above: sunset           Below: sunrise

Double queen guestroom 509 in Marriott Courtyard

Using points, I reserved a two queen bed guestroom with a balcony. We did not need two beds; however, a king bed guestroom with a balcony was not available. I was glad that we were able to reserve a balcony guestroom using points.

Guestroom 509 in Holland Marriott Courtyard

This guestroom is on the top floor, and overlooks downtown. It was clean, comfortable, quiet, and spacious. Refreshment amenities in the guestroom included a Keurig coffeemaker with supplies, ice bucket, and small fridge.

Guestroom 509 in Holland Marriott Courtyard