Lake Delton, WI to Munising, MI
Munising, MI - Events of Friday, July 29 to Saturday, July 30, 2011
We pulled out of Lake Delton, WI at an unusually early time of 8:15 AM. That was because we had an unusually long (for us) drive of about 5 hours plus a stop for fuel. We left early because, not only did we have a longer drive, but we would be arriving on a Friday afternoon without a reservation. We would be also losing an hour going from the Central time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone.
We were making a one-night stop on our way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There weren't many campgrounds near the half-way point where we wanted to stop, and the campgrounds we found were heavily wooded. The one that we did find looked from the satellite photo on Google Maps like they might have or four or three sites where we could possibly get satellite reception, but the campground would not guarantee reservation requests for specific sites. Therefore, we decided to go with Plan B, which was to drive an hour farther and stop for the night at Island Resort Casino in Harris, MI.
The campground at Island Resort Casino has two ovals surrounded by trees well away from the casino. There are a few back-in sites around the outsides of the ovals, and the pull-throughs run across the width of the ovals. There are a total of about 50 sites. The only problem is most of the pull-throughs are double sites that are set up nose to tail. In other words, if you have the rear site of a double pull-through, you can't pull through until the person in front of you leaves. Since we were only staying only one night and didn't want to unhook the toad, we really wanted one of the few single pull-throughs or one of the front sites of a double pull-through.
We arrived about 1:30 (EDT), checked out both ovals, and found only a couple of short back-ins and a bunch of rear pull-throughs left. As we sat there discussing whether to push on to our final destination or to go knock on doors to see if anyone in the front sites was planning to leave the next morning so we would know we wouldn't be blocked, a man approached the motor home. He saw us driving around looking perplexed, so he followed us on foot to tell us he had a front site and was leaving in the morning. He welcomed us to take the site behind him. He was double towing a 5th wheel and a boat and even offered to move up a little if necessary. Fortunately, he was in one of the longer pull-throughs, so we fit with no problem. We were even positioned perfectly to get satellite reception between two small trees. We thanked our new acquaintance profusely. The photo below shows our rear pull-through site at Island Lake Casino.
The next photo shows the layout of our double site. That's our rig behind the boat near the center of the photo.
The campground at Island Lake Casino has water and 30/50-amp electric only. The roads and sites are paved, and there is a narrow strip of grass between the sites with a fire ring and picnic table. The sites are a little narrow, but at only $15 a night, we couldn't complain. The campground was nice and quiet except for just a couple of trains.
After we got set up, we walked over to the desk in the casino hotel to register. We're not into gambling, but it looked like a pretty nice casino. It was surprisingly busy considering it is in the middle of nowhere.
The next morning, our neighbors in front of us pulled out fairly early. We weren't in a particular hurry because our drive was less than three hours, and that included a stop at Walmart along the way. We forgot a couple of items last time we shopped, and we knew we would be away from any Walmarts for a while. Much of the Upper Peninsula is kind of remote, and there aren't many towns big enough to support a Walmart, much less a Super Walmart with groceries.
Margery, always looking for unique sightseeing opportunities, was disappointed that she had not planned better so we could stop in Gladstone, MI, which was right along our route, for a tour of the Hoegh Pet Casket Company. They offer tours Monday - Friday 8 AM to 4 PM. Unfortunately, we were passing through on Saturday. In addition to a variety of pet caskets, they also have pet cremation urns, memorials, and remembrance plaques.
Our next destination was Munising Tourist Park in Munising, MI. Munising Tourist Park is a city campground located a couple of miles outside town on the south shore of Lake Superior. The main road in the campground is paved (we think it's the old highway that used to pass by where the campground is now located), but all the campsite roads are dirt with a little gravel mixed in. The roads are pretty dusty when they are dry, and the wind off the lake and vehicles in the campground kick up clouds of dust from time to time.
All the sites are back-ins. Some are grass (like ours), and the ones closer to the lake are dirt and gravel. The next photo shows our site at Munising Tourist Park.
The sites have water and electric only (mostly 30 amp but a few have 30/50 amps), and most of the sites have shared hookups. Notice where our water hose is connected in the photo above. Some of the sites have the electrical hookup all the way at the rear and the water all the way at the front by the road. To camp in one of those sites, you'll probably need an extra length or two of water hose and a long electrical cord.
The other problem is many of the sites aren't very level. Some slope, and some (like ours) have high spots and low spots. When we first pulled into the site, the front wheels were on a high spot and we were pretty far off-level. When Paul pulled forward to get the front wheels off the high spot, the steps got hung up when he opened the door. He had to raise the jacks on that side to get the steps to come back in so he could move the motor home a little farther.
Spacing of the sites near where we were located at the back of the campground is fairly decent.
Once we finally got leveled and set up, we took a little walk down to the lake. The RV sites by the lake are a little close together, but there is a nice view. This is also where most of the 30/50-amp sites are, and it looks like these sites have the water hookup closer to the electric pedestal. The waterfront sites book up well in advance.
If you are lucky enough to get one of the waterfront sites, you can step out of your door, walk behind your RV to a sandy beach and swim. The water is shallow pretty far out so that the water was warmed by the sun.
There are about 20 very nice primitive tent sites along the water as well.
Although the sun was out much of the day, you can see some heavy-looking clouds in most of the above photos. Early in the evening, a storm moved through. Our weather radio went off a couple of times with severe thunder storm warnings, but we just got a lot of rain, a few small hailstones, and only moderate wind. From our window, we did see one tent blowing up the beach, but they quickly got it secured. When our satellite internet connection died because of the rain, we switched over to the campground Wi-fi so we could watch the progress of the storm. After the storm passed, the skies cleared to give us a spectacular sunset.
A small boat hurried back to shore shortly after the sun dipped below the horizon and began to cast a red glow.
Back at the motor home, we enjoyed the last of the sunset.
We have a number of things we want to see while we are in Munising, so stay tuned.