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Right now, I only have one MI State Park trip planned, and that's Interlochen in early August with the family. Going to be trying to check off some new parks this year, as I'm trying to do the same with visiting every state park before the world ends. So far I have been to... Cheboygan Hartwick Interlochen Petoskey Young Bay City Port Crescent Fort Custer We're based out of SE MI, so our biggest struggle has been trying to plan UP camping trips to hit up the State Parks up there. If you have any questions on the ones above, let me know! So far out of those, Interlochen, Young, Port Crescent and Hartwick were my favorites.
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Jun 5, 2022 17:11
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 08:01 |
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Dr. Lunchables posted:I’ve hit 3 of your eight so far. Our “theme” this year was local, so stuff that’s under or only a little over an hour away. Luckily that means like half the state parks in Michigan. Metro Detroit has this orbital cloud of state parks, like an asteroid belt, that seem to signify the furthest folks are willing to go from home for a given camping trip. I think we're gonna plan our next trip up there for 2023 and try to hit 6-8 parks in the span of a week. Luckily I can also stay at my aunt and uncle's cabin outside St Ignace too if needed. For me/us this year, I'm trying to focus more locally too just because I've had to take a bunch of unexpected time off this year. Lakeport is high on the list, I want to try to hit Sleeper as well as Sleepy Hollow. Also trying to prod a few of my friends with kids to take them out camping to places like Proud Lake or Highland where it's close to home so they can jet if things don't work out. I remember loving LOVING camping more than anything as a kid Gravitee posted:I was inspired by your post and tried to book something for Port Crescent but it looks pretty booked for this summer. Now I've got the bug and it looks like I'm looking too late in the season already to get a spot at a good park. My recommendation is to keep checking! I regularly snipe amazing spots around the state (including a lake front Interlochen site!) throughout the summer as I see them come up. When stuff gets cancelled, it's released back into the pool almost immediately, so those maps are ALWAYS updating.
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Jun 7, 2022 01:39
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I'm just starting to plan our "major" trip for camping this year, which includes a 5 day stint at Interlochen SP with my family. Debating between doing a short UP tour, a west coast tour or an east coast tour. Once lady bagmo has a chance to think on it, I'll let you guys know what we come up with. Also looks like we might get to knock out Sleepy Hollow prior to a wedding this summer! Yay!
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Jun 8, 2022 16:04
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It is increasingly looking like we will be headed to the UP to check off 3-4 State Parks up there! I will share details once lady bagmo and I are able to sit down and hash out the details on this, but I'm super exicted. Lady bagmo had a Blackrocks pint glass she got that was really nice that broke recently, so I'm trying to plan this vacation around glass retrieval.
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Jun 10, 2022 16:31
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Fort Custer is insufferable if there's an extremely crazy flash rain storm right before you get to the campgrounds. Here's our camp site we were originally supposed to go to Luckily there were a couple decent ones available. It rained A LOT. This place was loving moist. It was also absolutely crawling with mosquitos. I had to shower myself in DEET multiple times, made it out with like half a dozen bites while lady bagmo made it out with 500 mosquito bites. Despite this, we're still planning on coming back and visiting again. Bell's is real close, as well as a bunch of other breweries too. 
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Jul 12, 2022 22:04
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Bonus pic from when we got back to the campsite and the rain picked up! I loved this picture
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Jul 12, 2022 22:06
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Dr. Lunchables posted:“Tents only” basically doesn’t exist in the lower peninsula, unless it’s explicitly hike-in. The vast majority of folks use trailers and RVs, and Michigan wouldn’t turn away that cash flow by making sites within the main campground tent only. The highest tent-camper coverage seen so far was only 16%, and that was at a small park (Ionia SRA, write up coming soon…) tbh there are a bunch of parks I've been to where they could definitely open up the "group camp" area to first come first serve tent campers. Those spaces are generally more green and less "developed" and would be really nice to pitch a tent at. I really just wish that they had more tent-only sites so that us tent campers would have additional opportunities to book sites. I'm currently booking out our EARLY AUGUST trip (4 days with family at Interlochen, 3 days on the road) which I planned out, forgot to book and lady bagmo was super busy so we didn't talk it out and here we are... But the one thing I noticed is that more than a few of the rustic sites are still available, otherwise I'm just picking through scraps to figure out what we can piece together. I'd love if there were more tent-only because I'm pretty sure those might still be available
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Jul 14, 2022 14:01
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Which, if anyone has any questions about how I pull off booking my trip like less than a month ahead of time, please ask! I can teach you what I do and how I figure out how to cobble things together with state parks last minute.
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Jul 14, 2022 14:02
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Dr. Lunchables posted:You might as well put in an effort post, this is definitely the thread for it I will actually detail the process once I get things booked here! I should be booking today and tomorrow, will share the plans so that y'all can see the thought process!
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Jul 14, 2022 14:34
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 Update soon
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Jul 19, 2022 02:25
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bagmonkey posted:
2 out of 3 booked. One is waterfront, the other is at a desirable state park. Will reveal once I get that last site booked. For those curious, I started stalking midnrreservations dot org on Sunday and availability at a few different campsites has changed drastically. If you're thinking about last minute planning, it absolutely CAN work. You can even get really nice sites sometimes!!!
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Jul 19, 2022 21:46
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Everything's booked!!!!!!  Interlochen State Park with the family for four days. Leelanau State Park for one night Clear Lake State Park for one night Onaway State Park for one night  I booked all of these in the past seven days for early/mid August, with Clear Lake being booked last this morning. I noticed that after 12pm EST each day, the cancelled reservations open up, which was how I was able to snag the Leelanau spot on Thursday. The other two are parks I've been wanting to check out, dates just happened to line up well. My strategy for booking is to first look at what's available, and then start to formulate a trip around the best available camp site. In this case, we already had our 4 days booked at Interlochen with my family, so I knew where I was starting. From there, I looked around the map and thought about what destinations I wanted to hit. Marquette was one, Holland was another, Tawas was my third. When I started looking at the parks in the UP, combined with travel time between destinations, I realized it wasn't going to match the vibes I'm going for this year, which is relaxing. Then Tahquamenon Falls got all booked up for the good sites and I just binned that idea. When I looked through what was available down the west coast, it was slim pickings and lovely campsites next to the restrooms or showers or whatever. Then, as I was browsing on Tuesday, I noticed that some spots had opened up at Leelanau! And here we are. Biggest takeaways: 1. Set an end destination or goal. Porcupine Mountains, Warren Dunes, Marquette, Charlevoix, whatever! 2. Find the closest parks to where you want to go. If something is available... 3. Start mapping your travel times from home to your destination. Is the ride too long? If so.. 4. Look for parks along the way. There's usually SOMETHING you can hit, and a lot of times it'll add more spice to the trip. 5. Book 'em Cancelled reservations seem to go up around 12pm EST every day, and there's usually a dozen or so that free up. Just keep an eye on what's getting booked and how quickly, and act accordingly. I'll post reviews once we're back! Let me know if y'all got any questions
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Jul 21, 2022 14:54
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Dr. Lunchables posted:God drat I always forget how much time goes into making one of these big dumb formatted posts. Sorry about the gap, everybody! Thanks for the write up dude! I'm trying to play a camping trip with my neighbors, who are a family of 4 with two young-ish kids, and I think this might be perfect. I've been wanting to try Sleepy Hollow for some time but have kept it in my back pocket for last minute planning. Might change that soon!
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Aug 1, 2022 14:30
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Phone postin' from Interlochen State Park where the signal is great, the facilities are brand new and vibes are laid back as gently caress
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Aug 8, 2022 21:18
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Dr. Lunchables posted:On our way in, on Friday, we passed what seemed to be a kind of fever dream: there was a Tiki Bar in West Branch. A Tiki Bar. In West Branch. Big lit up palm trees and neon lights, blazing warm friendly colors on the side of the road. We made a solemn vow that we would go back there for dinner on Saturday. After a 6 mile hike through what was labeled "Most Difficult" trails, we hopped our rear end in the car and drove off to visit the beach paradise known as Coco Cabanas, nestled between farm fields, far from a beach or any water of any kind whatsoever. Okay I am absolutely going here.
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Nov 21, 2022 02:25
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Dr. Lunchables posted:[*]1 requires campers to charter a goddamn boat to get there, and you can't paddle out to it[/list] Lime Island? I've been debating trying to check that one off the list, it's not that far from my aunt's cottage
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Dec 3, 2022 02:26
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It's absolutely one of those parks that I want to figure out how I can make it work. It's not gonna be easy, but it's gonna be amazingly fun once we do it. I think I know the group I'd like to do that with, gonna poke at them this winter to see what they think of the idea Another one I'm REAL interested in doing and have been since I was a wee lad is POWER ISLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which has always sounded so cool, but the island itself sounds rad as hell too
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Dec 3, 2022 02:50
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Dr. Lunchables posted:Oh yeah, we saw this poster at N Higgins. I’ve got one hanging in the basement that I’m using to plan my next couple of trips, it’s literally next to my WFH set up. I’ll take a good high res pic of it for ya Edit will also reach out to a buddy and have the fam check, we might have spares
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Feb 9, 2023 04:27
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Grumpwagon posted:If anyone gets a good digital file, please post it in the thread. I'm in WI, but spend plenty of time biking and camping in MI, so I'd love to have one too As I do have a full pristine copy of the map, I'll see if I have anyone who can help me with scanning it in. If not, I might bust out my DSLR and some strong lighting to make it work lol I have Lady Bagmo snapping a picture for me this morning hopefully, gonna reach out to my friends/family and see who has extra copies.
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Feb 9, 2023 15:19
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 Lady bagmo came through! Not the best but here's the version I have. I'm going to see if my mom/dad/sister, as well as a few friends who are huge park goers, have any extra copies as I'd like to get a couple for y'all 
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Feb 9, 2023 15:39
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amenenema posted:My wife and I are in Grand Rapids and to date have done probably 30+ state parks/state forests, including pretty much all the Lake MI shoreline ones from Warren Dunes all the way up to Wilderness. We've also done quite a few in the UP. What's the worst state park you have visited? I want to stay at a few of the worst parks this summer while solo camping cuz I love garbage
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Feb 9, 2023 21:48
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   I will try to figure out how to get a hi res scan of this eventually but I think should do!
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Feb 10, 2023 00:26
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Bump, we're camping second week of August and I'm trying to figure out where we should stay for the last night. Trip looks like this so far: Interlochen for 4 nights with family Straits SP for 1 night Twin Lakes for 3 nights Tahquamenon Falls for 1 night ??? for 1 night Lady bagmo suggested Hartwick, but we were there just a couple of years ago. Where would you suggest we stay at if we're on the way back to SE MI from Tahquamenon Falls SP??
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Jul 24, 2023 15:38
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Does anyone have experience with camping at State Forest campgrounds? I think next summer I'm gonna try and do that more because they are cheap as gently caress and easy to find everywhere
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Jul 25, 2023 15:48
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We've settled on Harrisville because I can get a lakeside site and we can go to a trout farm AND a lighthouse
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Jul 25, 2023 20:10
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Dr. Lunchables posted:Double post (don’t tell the OP) but had anyone ever looked into getting a lighthouse stamp passport? I don't have that one but I DID get my hands on the State Park centennial stamp book for the parks and that's what I've been working on mostly I'll have to grab one of those if I see it while out and about
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Jul 25, 2023 21:08
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amenenema posted:If you don't need a proper bathroom/shower and electric hook up I would absolutely recommend them over State Park campgrounds. Quieter, less "party crowds", more scenic in a lot of cases, etc. Mostly curious about the experience, anything I need to know that might not be obvious, unwritten "rules", etc. I'm one of those types who loves knowing way too much about stuff before diving in
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Jul 26, 2023 18:55
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 Interlochen is outstanding, just a heads up. There are a bunch of sites that suck but overall it’s amazing. Listening to loons yell at each other while I get settled in for the night. I’m gonna try to do a full inventory of Interlochen and a write up since this is my third multi day stay here since the pandemic (location location location!)
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Aug 7, 2023 05:13
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mercenarynuker posted:What site you at, bagmo, that view looks great 385 South Loop! The waterside campsites aren’t tough to get when the 6 month window opens up. Plus there are regular cancellations, our first time here in 2020 was a waterfront last minute book. Sounds like we’re gonna be spending dinner at the camp site, I’ll prolly post a bit more then. Showers were clean but not the brand new reno ones unfortunately, Star gazing was amazing even with the TC light pollution
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Aug 7, 2023 13:58
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mercenarynuker posted:Heading to Interlochen tomorrow. Can't wait to remember what I forgot That Tom’s right by camp loving owns, also the liquor store right by camp is decent! Hello from Straits State Park, appears we’re playing goon musical chairs at the state parks right now 
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Aug 11, 2023 04:48
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At Twin Lakes rn and it owns. Tomorrow Tahquamennon, next is Harrisville
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Aug 14, 2023 04:36
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Dr. Lunchables posted:What’d We Forget? Perpetual Bagmo Site Envy I feel hella called out also here was Twin Lakes camp  
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Aug 15, 2023 06:04
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I plan to do a very detailed write up for Interlochen and a mildly detailed pre-reno write up of Twin Lakes (very awesome btw but they close Sept 5th for renos so GET ON IT)
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Aug 15, 2023 06:06
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 08:01 |
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I'm gonna do write ups on Interlochen and Twin Lakes on Sunday*. Interlochen's will be very detailed, this is my third multi-night stay there and I am gonna imagine we'll be going back again. Twin Lakes is closing on Sept 5th for renovations, and it sounds like they will be good ones. I will still do a write up as the park was great and unless they majorly overhaul the camp design, it's going to continue to be an excellent place to go *edit, I am going to an anti-Dream Cruise party on Saturday so we'll see how I feel but I do want to sort through my vacation photos so that'd be a good time to work on some postin
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Aug 19, 2023 04:16
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