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Showing posts with label Manistee County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manistee County. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Lake Michigan Recreation Area / Lake Michigan at Manistee, Michigan

 July 2021, 3 nights, weekday-weekend, Violet loop campsite 87


Looking toward Lake Michigan at Lake Michigan Recreation Area from trail

Arrival 

This was our second time staying in this campground. You can find more information about this park in my post from August 2016. I am sharing new info here. Last time, we made a reservation in Orchid Loop, and this time we arrived on a Thursday afternoon without a reservation. We had thought this would be a good time to arrive before the weekend; however, that did not turn out to be true. There were apparently many vacationers at the campground because it was [almost] full, and many people left on Saturday. We got the last available campsite when we arrived, and it almost started a fight. From what we overheard, it sounded like the person across the street had been saving the site with some belongings on it for his friend who was not arriving until the next day. Someone who had arrived just before us, had taken the only other site available. When the person who had been saving the site saw us coming in with our camper, he decided it was not right to save the site, so he removed his stuff (from what we overheard). Apparently, the guy before us did not like the site he had ended up with because he walked by and there was a heated discussion between them while we were parking. I do not know what site he was on, but I did not see any campsites in this loop that looked worse than the one we ended up with. When we had driven through the other loops before Violet loop, it actually looked like people were savings sites in Hemlock loop, too.  


Campsite 87 at Lake Michigan Recreation Area


Campsite 87

Our trailer is 25', and the tar pad on this site is barely long enough to park our trailer and truck on. Just like last time, if the posts at the end of tar were a bit shorter or farther back, we could have backed up farther and still kept our tires on the pavement. There is actually plenty of room to park on this site, if you did not have to park on the tar. Parking on the tar is about the only rule we saw enforced at the park, and they are particular about that. In fact, the host stopped to tell us to move our truck before we had a chance to move it back over after unloading our wood. We also saw him stop at the site next to us during our stay to have them move a vehicle out that was not on the tar.

Campsite 87 at Lake Michigan Recreation Area

There was just enough room for our awning to open. We were glad that our camper door is at the back of our trailer, and not the front.

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Northwest Michigan Experiences: Hiking Nature Preserves, along with Beer, Wine, and Spirit Stops

 March 2021, Weekday - weekend


Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve

Hiking

We hiked a couple of new trails this trip: Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve in Arcadia, and Misty Acres Trail in Benzonia. 

Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve

Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve is an easy and beautiful boardwalk hike. The entire walk, out and back again, was just a little over 1½ miles. We parked in the parking area on M-22. There is also a parking area at the east end of the boardwalk on St. Pierre Rd. There are several benches and viewing platforms along the boardwalk. We observed signs showing three different types of trout in the waters, although we did not see anyone fishing. We saw swans, birds, and muskrats.

Misty Acres Trail

Misty Acres Trail is on the north side of N. Manistee County Line Road/M602 in Benzonia. This hike is a hard packed dirt trail, which is slightly hilly. Even so, it was still an easy hike of about ¾ of a mile. We caught a couple of small glimpses of Betsie River down the hill near the start of the loop portion of the trail. 


We passed many preserve and trail signs this trip: Green Point Dunes, Arcadia Dunes Nature Preserve, Upper Herring Lake Nature Preserve, and more. We missed hiking two trails where we had planned to stop because my husband and I both had extreme fatigue symptoms following our COVID-19 vaccination the day before this trip: Arcadia Dunes Baldy Trail in Arcadia, and Fruithaven Nature Preserve south of Frankfort. I had read that the Baldy Trail overlook has a great view of Lake Michigan. These are just a few of the many beautiful outside areas in Manistee and Benzie counties!


Pickle Chips at North Channel Brewing Co.