We pulled into Cheboygan State Park late Friday afternoon. We had not been at this park before so we thought that we would give it a try for a couple nights on our way back home from the U.P.
From the Michigan DNR website: "Cheboygan State Park is open all year for a variety of activities. A system of well-marked trails through the park provides access to scenic Lake Huron vistas, and glimpses of rare wildflowers and lake shore species. Modern camping, rustic cabins, and teepees are all available within the park. Elliot Creek flows through the park and is known for its trout. A carry-in boat launch provides access to Duncan Bay, where fishing is also plentiful."
Find more information at: cheboyganstate park.com
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| We stayed in site 44. It was a nice site surrounded by cedar trees that gave us a little privacy from our neighbors. Behind was an opening to Duncan Bay on Lake Huron. The sites here have power, but when I opened the box there were only 15 amp plugs so I had to dig out my adapter. |
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| Unfortunately there was about 100 yards of weeds between us and the blue water of Duncan Bay. |
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| The muddy access leading from the campground out to the water. The campground host that we talked to had been coming here for several years and when the first started hosting the water came up by the campground. However, as the Great Lake water levels have gone down over the past few years the weeds started to take over. |
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| Looking over to the day use area from the campground. To get from the campground to the beach it is over a 3 miles drive. |
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| The beach area at Cheboygan State Park. It looked like they had to continually plow the sand to keep the weeds from overtaking this too. |
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| Looking up the road from our campsite. All of the roads in this park are gravel, but were treated to keep the dust down. Even with it being a weekend the campground was quiet and didn't get over half full. |
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The 76 campsites here are serviced by one small bathhouse. It was older, but very well maintained. The two older gentleman in charge of the bathhouse seemed to take a lot of pride in keeping things clean and supplied.
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| In the evening we took a drive around town and made a stop at The Big Dipper Ice Cream Parlour. |
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| Inside it was a classic little ice cream shop with wire backed chairs and checker board floors.
We thought about giving the kids $20 and leaving them here while we went a couple doors down to the Cheboygan Brewing Company. It looked like a nice place and there was a band playing outside on the deck over looking main street. We will have to check it out another time when it is just the two of us. |
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The sun setting over what is left of Duncan Bay.
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In the morning there was an Adventure Triathlon going on at the park. It sounded like this was the 5th year of this event that includes 2 miles kayaking, 8.5 miles biking and a 4.5 mile run. After the racers went through I took the girls out on the trails on our bikes. We did a short loop together and then I dropped them off at the campsite and went out to ride the rest of the trails.
The loop in the video above follows the trails through Cheboygan State Park starting in the campground. The trails here are marked by posts with different color ends. This ride starts on the yellow trail and then I head out along the shore on the green trail to the end of Cheboygan Point. From here it is back to the campground on the black, blue and then red trails. |
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The Cheboygan State Park Trail Map.
The trails here are fairly wide and mostly flat. All the of trails here are open to both hiking and biking, but a fat tire bike is really needed for all the sand on the green and black trails. The others are easy and good for kids. |
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| After biking we made the 20 minute drive into Mackinaw City. From there we continued on to Wilderness State Park for a picnic lunch. |
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We spent the last afternoon of our vacation relaxing on the beach at Wilderness State Park. The weather was nearly perfect for a beach day. Bight sunshine with a light onshore breeze and temperatures in the mid 70s. The water was also clear and warm.
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| We stayed at the beach for happy hour and then made our way back to Mackinaw City and stopped at Mama Mia's Pizza for dinner. This place had been on our list for a while because I wanted to see the Mackinaw Bridge Museum upstairs above the dinning area and other artifacts from the bridge build hanging on the walls. The restaurant is self service so you place and pickup your own order at the counter which was good for our hungry family fresh off the beach. The pizza here gets mixed reviews, but we thought it was alright and the kids thought it was great. |
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After eating we made our way upstairs to see the free museum. The most interesting part is a theater where they have a video continuously playing that shows the bridge being built. The documentary seemed pretty old, but it was worth taking the time to watch. I think it was somewhere around 40 minutes long. After this it was time to get our tired crew back to the campsite.
Mama Mia's Pizza reviews on TripAdvisor >>
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The last sunset of our vacation. Sorry about the low quality cell phone photo. By this time of the trip I was too lazy to go get the good camera. It was another really nice night by the campfire. We stayed up a little later than normal to soak it in, knowing that in the morning we had to pack up and head home.
-The End- |
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