September 2024, 5 nights, weekdays, campsite 111
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 |
Recreation: boating, beach, hiking, bicycle trail
We put our inflatable boat in at the boat ramp, and kept it tied up between the swimming beach and boat ramp overnight. We observed another boat and a wave runner in this beach area that were not used during our entire stay, so apparently this is a common thing. We had hoped to explore Pesheke River by boat; however, it is very shallow where the river meets the lake.
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| Rental cabin and dock in Van Riper State Park |
A nice looking rental cabin with a boat dock/fishing pier is located on the opposite side of the boat ramp from the campground. There is plenty of vehicle and trailer parking in the boat launch parking lot.
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Day use area in Van Riper State Park |
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There is a large beach, picnic area, and playground in the day use area. A coin operated washer and dryer are located between the restrooms (1 washer, 2 dryers). The washer leaked at the beginning of the cycle when I used it. This appeared to be from a faulty front door seal, as if someone had forced it open when it was locked.
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| Hiking in Van Riper State Park |
There is great hiking across US-41 from the campground and nearby. We hiked all of the park trails from our campsite in one day, which was only about 5½ miles. The only challenging part of this hike is that the trail is quite rocky when River Trail turns away from the river before going uphill to the overlook.
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| Hiking in Van Riper State Park |
A paved trail along US-41 and at the start of the hiking trails goes into Champion. We did not ride far on this trail, as it is quite hilly.
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| Canyon Falls in Michigan's upper peninsula |
Beautiful Canyon Falls is about 30 miles from Van Riper State Park. We drove there one day, hiked along the falls, and then along North Country Trail aways.
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| North Country Trail near Canyon Falls in Michigan's upper peninsula |
We did not encounter any long distance hikers on this portion of NCT, like we had near St. Ignace.
Misc. and overall
This park also has 40 rustic campsites near the boat ramp. We observed only a couple of people camping in this section when we walked around the park. The park has wifi, and the antenna is located on the northwest side the modern campground restroom building. Reception is probably decent when there are not many campers in the park.
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| One more sunset over Lake Michigamme in Van Riper State Park |
The sunsets over Lake Michigamme were beautiful. We enjoyed this park, and we were glad we had chosen to stay during the week. The modern campsites were all reserved for the upcoming weekend, as it was the park's harvest festival. Most of the campsites were filled with many inflatable Halloween decorations. Although I think Halloween is a fun holiday, I thought the massive amount of inflatable decorations was over the top. We kept a close eye out for fires after we smelled burning plastic one morning. I cannot even imagine what this park's electricity bill is during this event!
Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to share this post for others!
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