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Old 05-12-2019, 07:15 PM   #21
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Wisconsinite who spends at least 3 weeks per year in the UP here. How much total time to you have to burn, as many have mentioned there’s a lot of different options, but the top 4 alone will take 4 days in 2 different campgrounds.

And if you add on the loop around the lake (highly recommended, the north shore of Minnesota is amazing) you’re looking at a lot of nights and miles.

As much as I love Copper Harbor, if you have limited time I’d grab a spot at Rippling River campground in Marquette. It doesn’t have a view of the water but it does have easy day trips to Pictured Rocks, all the amenities of Marquette and gives you the easiest UP experience without too much driving.


These and the other campgrounds sound great! Since we are Limited on time and the two most appealing places so far are Pictured Rocks and Copper Harbor. You all have given some great recommendations on campgrounds in these areas. Has anyone stayed at the 12 mile beach campground? Originally we were looking at that as our first choice but it looks like it’s first come first serve at least that we can tell. Our first stop might be Arbutus campground on Otsego Lake. Any thoughts on that particular campground as an overnighter?
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Old 05-12-2019, 09:17 PM   #22
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I have stayed at 12 Mile Beach CG. We really liked it, but the mosquitoes were terrible. It is right on the lake but substantially elevated. The CG sits on a bluff about 200 ft above the water. That may have hurt the mosquito situation. When we went to the Munising Tourest Park right on the shore, mosquitoes were not a problem.

Anyhow 12 Mile Beach is FCFS which we like. They also had a generator free zone. We would camp here again and look forward to it.

Dan
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Old 05-14-2019, 08:00 AM   #23
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Went up to the UP for about a week two years ago with my family (me, my wife and three young children), so please keep that in mind.

We stayed at Hawatha NF - huge sites, but was too remote for us. The sites, although large, had some pretty rowdy groups all around us so we didn't like that too much. At it was a hike to get into Munising and some pretty rough roads, so that got old pretty quickly. I would advise staying closer to Munising for sure. In Munising, there was a great little breakfast/lunch place - Furnace Bagels i believe - we ate there every day! Great little spot.



Also, there is a great beach if you head straight out on HW 28 (i guess it's technically north, then east at the turn), but it's a great spot where the waters are much, much warmer and we had almost the entire beach to ourselves. The parking lot was fairly close and you cross a small river area but there was some very shallows spots where my two year old could cross without issue. Just an amazing spot (it's past the Tourist RV Park). I can get the exact details of this is you like - just need to check our journal.


From there we went to Tahquamenon Falls State Park. Excellent state park that even hard a craft brewery in the state park that was privately owned which was nice. There are two areas to camp there - the upper and lower falls. The upper was closer to the brewery (and row boats rental which you can rent to row around the upper falls which was nice), and the lower falls was quite a drive away and although we didn't stay in the lower falls, it did appear to be great spot for kayaking/canoeing from what we could tell.



While at TFSP, we visited Oswald Bear Ranch (http://www.oswaldsbearranch.com/) which was super cool. We saw people all ages there - really cool place to check out and you can even get a picture next to a black bear! The kids loved this place.



Really nice area overall though - happy to provide some info if you would be interested. Just PM me and I will respond.


Have fun!
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Old 05-15-2019, 08:00 AM   #24
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Pancake bay is beautiful with an extremely long sandy beach. You don’t park on it but it’s nice to walk. Lake Superior Provincial park is also very nice this one has a small museum with information about the German prisoners of war who stayed there. Great sunsets.
Sleeping Giant Prov Park has nice hiking trails all around.
We stayed in all these parks last year on our route to and from the west coast trek.
Another time we plan to circumnavigate all the Great Lakes.
So thanks for the info from all the forum folks about parks in the US side of Superior
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Old 05-15-2019, 11:05 AM   #25
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Pancake bay is beautiful with an extremely long sandy beach. You don’t park on it but it’s nice to walk. Lake Superior Provincial park is also very nice this one has a small museum with information about the German prisoners of war who stayed there. Great sunsets.
Sleeping Giant Prov Park has nice hiking trails all around.
We stayed in all these parks last year on our route to and from the west coast trek.
Another time we plan to circumnavigate all the Great Lakes.
So thanks for the info from all the forum folks about parks in the US side of Superior


And thank you for that description of Pancake Bay and Canada camping. Appreciate that very much
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Old 05-15-2019, 02:13 PM   #26
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Pancake bay is beautiful with an extremely long sandy beach. You don’t park on it but it’s nice to walk. Lake Superior Provincial park is also very nice this one has a small museum with information about the German prisoners of war who stayed there. Great sunsets.
Sleeping Giant Prov Park has nice hiking trails all around.
We stayed in all these parks last year on our route to and from the west coast trek.
Another time we plan to circumnavigate all the Great Lakes.
So thanks for the info from all the forum folks about parks in the US side of Superior
I'm not sure if there is a museum at Lake Superior Provincial Park for this but I believe it was Neys P.P. that served as a German prisoner of war camp.

http://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblo...ovincial-park/
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Old 05-15-2019, 09:48 PM   #27
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Originally Posted by hawksbil View Post
Pancake bay is beautiful with an extremely long sandy beach. You don’t park on it but it’s nice to walk. Lake Superior Provincial park is also very nice this one has a small museum with information about the German prisoners of war who stayed there. Great sunsets.
Sleeping Giant Prov Park has nice hiking trails all around.
We stayed in all these parks last year on our route to and from the west coast trek.
Another time we plan to circumnavigate all the Great Lakes.
So thanks for the info from all the forum folks about parks in the US side of Superior


Thanks for your message! Overall, are the Canadian campsites more crowded or less?
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Old 05-16-2019, 06:54 AM   #28
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I stand corrected it is Neyes Prov Park that was a prisoner of war camp. My error.
The other writer that mentioned Kakabeka fall it was very nice too.
As for more crowds Canada vs US can’t say. Did not stay on US side on this trip.
The one consistent thing is that water is cold in Lake Superior.
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Old 05-16-2019, 07:26 AM   #29
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I'm so glad to have found this thread. We are planing a trip to the UP in mid-June heading up from KY. First stop will be South Haven (western shore of Lower MI), then up to Traverse City. From there on to Manistique staying at Indian Lake CG to check out the springs. Next stop, Marquette Tourists Park CG, then finally on to the Big Bay Town Park and the Apostle Islands Nat'l Lakeshore.

We were seriously considering stopping at the Porcupine Mtns. and/or Black River Harbor at some point. I read that Black River Harbor CG is under renovation and not available to stay...
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Old 05-16-2019, 07:52 AM   #30
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I read that Black River Harbor CG is under renovation and not available to stay...
I have reservations for the July 4th weekend (3rd-7th). I believe the harbor area and marina is being renovated, but that does not affect the campground. There's no notice on the Recreation.gov website about the construction and campsites are available for booking. Looks like campsites are available for booking after June 1, 2019.
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Old 05-17-2019, 06:34 AM   #31
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Next stop, Marquette Tourists Park CG
Just make sure you don’t get the sites on the west loop of the campground. Bright street lights in the loop on all night and an industrial neighborhood on the other side of the fence.

The lake side sites are nice.

Sites 1-27 at Rippling River are also great ( and RR is right on the hiking & biking trails)
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Old 05-17-2019, 08:33 AM   #32
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I've camped on the Canadian shore back in my pop-up trailer days. The mosquitos were hideous. By the time I was done taking the trailer down the morning we left, they had nearly driven me insane . . .
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Old 05-20-2019, 10:59 AM   #33
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Thanks for the heads up! Right now we have site #71 at the Tourist Park. We will only be there for an overnight stop in the way to Bayfield. It looks like it is in the back on the East side.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bradknapp View Post
Just make sure you don’t get the sites on the west loop of the campground. Bright street lights in the loop on all night and an industrial neighborhood on the other side of the fence.

The lake side sites are nice.

Sites 1-27 at Rippling River are also great ( and RR is right on the hiking & biking trails)
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Old 05-20-2019, 12:42 PM   #34
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I've camped on the Canadian shore back in my pop-up trailer days. The mosquitos were hideous. By the time I was done taking the trailer down the morning we left, they had nearly driven me insane . . .


Hi Mike,
Nothing has changed. It is why we only camp during the shoulder seasons in Ontario and Manitoba. At least Winnipeg has a "bites per hour " index that is reported on during the morning radio programs so one has warning on the number of layers of protection you may need. I haven't figured out the warning system in Ontario, unless it is the look of astonishment you receive if you tell somebody that you are going camping. That must be it.
Jim from Edmonton (once upon a time)
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Old 05-25-2019, 03:51 PM   #35
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AirMiles,
I read that there are no hookups at Black River Harbor CG. Is this still the case? Also, there is not cell signal either? We've heard good things and have wanted to add this to our list of UP CG's to visit, just want to be sure of what we're getting into. Thanks!
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Old 06-14-2019, 10:40 PM   #36
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Leaving in the morning for the UP! Thanks for all your suggestions. For this trip we will stay in the States but next time the northern shore of Lake Superior. We will post when we return. Planning on 12 mile beach campground ⛺️ as basecamp to explore your suggestions.

Steve & Debbie
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Old 07-05-2019, 06:03 PM   #37
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Hello, we are reporting back on our upper peninsula trip that we took the third week of June. We went from Ohio to the southern shores of Lake superior to stay at Twelvemile Beach Campground at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We arrived Sunday about 12:30 PM and there were a number of available sites. It seemed as though the campground started filling up on Wednesday. We were told that the campgrounds were going to the reservation system instead of the first come first serve.. We stayed in the generator free zone which is past the campground host trailer. The beach was beautiful and the campground was very quiet. Most campers were tent camping. We did look at some of the other campgrounds including hurricane river campground which had smaller sites and not quite as picturesque, and Beavercreek campground which was more remote with even smaller sites. Best overlook was the log slide overlook at the dunes. Enjoyed watching the Kirtland’s warblers in the young Jack pines near Sable falls. Did not really enjoy the pasties in the cheese curds but the fudge was very good from Munising. Plan on limited or no cell phone service in that area. Mosquitoes were pretty bad and apparently this summer is worse than other summers. We found mosquito netting to be very helpful. All the hikers at it and we pick some up at the visitor center at Sable falls. Click image for larger version

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Old 07-08-2019, 09:59 PM   #38
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Lake Superior Camping - US vs Canada

Thanks for the report and nice photos. We are planning to camp at Twelve Mile Beach July 25 and 26 with our daughter, who now lives in Detroit. We understand we will need to get reservations. If that isn’t possible we will camp in Grand Marais at Woodlands City Park.

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Old 07-09-2019, 02:29 AM   #39
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Thanks for the report and nice photos. We are planning to camp at Twelve Mile Beach July 25 and 26 with our daughter, who now lives in Detroit. We understand we will need to get reservations. If that isn’t possible we will camp in Grand Marais at Woodlands City Park.

Dan


Kingston Lake State Forest campground looked like another option. That was right off of HW 58 and had nice looking sites. Woodland Park seemed a little more like a typical RV Park but did have a nice lake view. A few quick photos of Woodland Park
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Old 07-09-2019, 05:02 AM   #40
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Thanks for a great thread and photos!

. . . a bit OT perhaps . . . but while watching the following performance on Live From Here . . . this thread came to mind.

Cheers,

Peter

[click on URL at top for a new window/tab with Full Screen etc. options available -- music starts at time stamp 1:00]
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