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

Manistee, Michigan: Lake Michigan at Manistee/Lake Michigan Recreation Area

July 2024, 4 nights, weekdays – weekend, campsite 73

We have stayed in this campground a few times, and you can find more information in my previous posts from: July 2021 and August 2016. This is a brief post with a bit of updated info.

View of Lake Michigan from Lake Michigan at Manistee National Forest Campground

Facility information

This campground has two reservable loops: Oak and Orchid, and two First Come, First Serve loops: Violet and Hemlock. There are flush toilets in Hemlock and Orchid loops, only. There is fresh water and a trash dumpster in each loop. There is no electricity, dump station, or showers. Generators can be run during non-quiet hours. It was very hot during our stay, yet this was the quietest experience we have ever had at this park, in terms of generator use.

Campsite 73 in Lake Michigan at Manistee National Forest

Reservable campsite in Oak loop, #73

Our campsite had a reserved tag on it when we arrived. There was also the addition of new pink signs on each post in the reservable loops, stating that the sites could be taken for one night, if there was no reserved tag present. Reservations need to be made 24 hours in advance, so if a site was not reserved, anyone arriving could stay for one night, and potentially longer, if no one reserved it online for the following days.