Lake Michigan Circle

[jgray]

We had a great trip around Lake Michigan, leaving the Milwaukee area on the night of Friday, 8/5.

First night was spent at a rest area near Saugatuck, MI (we think). It was too hot, no power for A/C, and we were surrounded by big rigs with their engines running. Not a very nice way to get some rest. Probably won't try that again...

Saturday, we landed at Hill & Hollow Campground in Pentwater, MI, about halfway between Silver Lake and Ludington. This was a good place to be for two nights. Very pretty campground with full hookups and reasonably sized sites. WiFi was not good here as we were very far from the main building, but we got decent 2G cell service.

We went to Silver Lake and enjoyed 3 hours of a Jeep rental on the sand dunes. Package cost 250 bucks and included an hour of instruction and two hours of play time. Certainly a memorable experience.

Also while at the campground, I got our 7 year old to finally ride a bike without training wheels. This warranted a trip to Wally World to get her a new bike and she rides like a champ now. Never would have happened at a hotel, making this a testament to the added value of camping versus just traveling.

Next, on Monday, we traveled on to Petoskey, staying at the KOA there. Amazingly we managed to get a site with a tree. It was a nice level concrete pad, so we stayed hooked up, knowing this was not the place for us. 4G cell service made finding our next stop a breeze.

On Tuesday, we landed at Mackinaw Mill Creek campground. This was an amazing place, as our site had a full view of Lake Huron and the Mackinac Bridge. If you ever venture up by Mackinac Island, this is the place to stay! Solid 4G cell coverage here as well.

Wednesday, we drove up to Sault St. Marie, leaving the camper at Mill Creek. There we took the two hour Soo Locks boat tour. Another memorable experience for the family.

On Thursday, we hooked up and drove all the way back to Rio, WI and stayed three nights at the Silver Springs campground. This is another beautiful place to be, and the 4-pack sites are vary spacious, under huge weeping willow trees.

Silver Springs is unique, at least to my limited experience, in that you're assigned to a 4 unit site and get to pick how you'd like to position yourself. After a bit of negotiation with the two campers already on our site, we came up with an odd, but very functional position in the quad.

We traveled a total of 1489 miles on 138 gallons of gas.

Next time, we'll probably just go around the Wisconsin side of the lake and spend more time Up North looking around. We decided that staying put for three nights was a more fitting end to our first long trip than stopping again for more sightseeing. We'll see what the next trip brings.

All of the campsites on the tour get my recommendations, with he exception of the KOA. KOA was A-OK, but was very bland in comparison to the other, more natural looking places.

[ClassicHammond]

We love Mill Creek, go every several years, just for the campground although the last time it was rather cool. Might be a nice place to summer when we finally go full time. The view of the bridge is unreal. Where is Silver Springs?

[jgray]

Silver Springs is in Rio, WI. It's about 15 miles Southeast of Portage. Around 90 miles from Franklin.

[salda01]

Jeff,

When you head to the UP, I would suggest staying at Camp Holiday in Boulder Junction WI. From my experience and viewing othercampgrounds in the area,it's probably the best place in the Central Northwoods. Full hook ups and cable at most sites. CH doesn't have a pool, but they do have a beach with a water trampoline. When we have stayed there we put the bikes in the truck, parked the truck at the parking lot on HWY M and K and then biked into Northern Highland State Forest. There is a very nice beach. Doing this is free admittance in the park.

Plus an easy black top trail bike ride.

Or could stay at Highland State campground which is pretty nice, but very few if any power sites.



Also you within a couple of hours of Bayfield, 30mins from Minocqua.