Alpena, Michigan: Holiday Inn Express and more

December 2024, week night, one night

View from king suite 407 in Holiday Inn Express Alpena, Michigan
Sitting area in king suite 407 below

Holiday Inn Express, king suite 407

I reserved a basic king guestroom in this hotel.  As a platinum member, we received an upgrade to a suite. Although we did not have a river view, the extra sitting area in the room was great. I also received the opportunity to pick a gift from the Christmas tree in the lobby, and received an extra 250 points. Some of the gifts were worth 5,000 points, so I guess I was not so lucky on that draw. 😁

King suite 407 in Holiday Inn Express Alpena, Michigan

This Holiday Inn Express still had Keurig coffee machines in the guestroom. They did not have a fresh brew machine in the lobby, like the location in East Lansing. The guestroom was spacious, comfortable, and very clean. The bathroom shower had glass doors, and a safe was provided in the entry closet.

Breakfast in Holiday Inn Express Alpena, Michigan

Lansing, Michigan: Holiday Inn Express, Visitor Bureau and area

November 2024, weekend, one night 

View from guestroom 326 in Holiday Inn Express & Suites East Lansing

I am sharing a few photos and some basic information from our Lansing visit last month.

Guestroom 326 in Holiday Inn Express & Suites East Lansing

Holiday Inn Express East Lansing, king suite guestroom 326

I reserved a basic king guestroom in this hotel. As a platinum member, I received an upgrade to a king suite. The guestroom was clean and comfortable. 

Guestroom 326 in Holiday Inn Express & Suites East Lansing

Grand Rapids, Michigan: City Flats Hotel with Expedia through AARP

October 2024, one night, weekday

Guestroom diagram in CityFlats hotel Grand Rapids, Michigan

Reservation process

This is the first time I have used Expedia, and based on this experience, I will never book through them again. The only reason I booked this way, is because I had a $100 credit from AARP. I saved a little money in the end; however, the process was not worth it. The biggest headache occurred when the $100 credit did not process correctly. First I spoke with AARP, who could not help, and then it took me an hour on the telephone with Expedia to get this corrected! The first person I spoke with was going to have the hotel cancel the reservation and have me re-book (I was on hold while he attempted this). Lucky for me, hotel staff did not answer, because the same thing probably would have happened during re-booking. After a supervisor got on the telephone, this person was also unable to correct the error. The supervisor eventually ended up crediting me back the $100. Whew! Another reason not to book through a third party, is that if you have a membership, the hotel will not credit any earned points for the stay.

View from guestroom 502 in CityFlats hotel Grand Rapids, Michigan

Arrival and guestroom 502

Our room was ready when we arrived, and the check-in process was quick. The guestroom was very small, and the view was lousy.

Guestroom 502 in CityFlats hotel Grand Rapids, Michigan

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

Kincheloe, Michigan: Kinross Charter Township RV Park in the Upper Peninsula

October 2024, two nights, weekdays

Arrival 

This township has two RV Parks; east and west. We had thought we would stay in the west section near the fairgrounds, as that area is a bit more like a campground; however, the water had already been turned off for the season in that section. We arrived from the west, so continuing 2½ more miles to the east campground was not a problem. A host trailer was on site in the east park near the registration area; however, we did not see the host at any time during our stay. We chose a site, and then registered and paid via envelopes provided at the self-registration kiosk.

Above: sunset from inside camper in East Kinross Township RV Park
Below: map overview of East Kinross Township RV Park

Campsite 12

I did not take any campsite photos, so I am including a marked photo above from google maps to show the campground. We were on the campsite circled in red.

All of the sites in the east campground are full hookup. Our campsite had a level concrete pad. There were not many campers in October, so the fact that the sites are open was not an issue. There is plenty of room between neighbors behind each site.

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

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