Orchard Beach State Park



We spent the weekend of June 9-June 11 at Orchard Beach State Park in Manistee, Michigan.  We returned to this park after spending a long weekend here last year, and this is a park which we could come back to year after year.


The park itself is very easy to get to.  It is a very short drive north on M-110 from US-31 (about 1.5 miles) just north of downtown Manistee, and is located right along the shore of Lake Michigan.  Pulling into the park, you are greeted with a view of the water from high atop a bluff, and the views from within the park are hard to beat!


We like to stay in one of the sites that has a Lake Michigan view.  The bluff at the southernmost end of the campground offers panoramic views from high atop the bluff, and give a great vantage point for watching the sunset over Lake Michigan.  Sites 41-47, 50-60 108-121 offer this view, while the remainder of the sites are shielded by trees and hills from having a lake view.  The elevation gets a little higher from West to East, so each of the sites in this area has a decent view.  We like to choose the easternmost sites because then we have the benefit of having the highest viewpoint, as well as having the woods directly across the road from us.  We have stayed in sites 56 and 59, and both have great views of the water!  Keep in mind that with an RV backed in, the sites in the middle of the loop will be set up with their "back" to the water unless you can park at an angle.  Also be prepared with lots of gear to help level your rig at this end of the park, because none of the sites are very level!



Sites near the entrance and along the road have full hookups (electricity, water & sewer) which is rare in a Michigan state park.  However, these sites are pretty close together, and are right along the roadway.  If you were planning to stay at this park for more than a handful of days, this would be a nice feature. 

The park has a decent amount of trees, but also has several sites that are very open.  Being so close to Lake Michigan, the heat associated with the lack of shade is not all that bad (a good Lake Michigan breeze is always refreshing), but you could easily get a sunburn without adequate sunscreen.  

Swimming in Lake Michigan at the park was not possible while we were there.  The park offers a stairway down to Lake Michigan, but the water was so high that there is no beach available.  On a completely calm day, you could likely set up a chair in the shallow water and swim at the park, but whenever there are waves, the waves generally reach the rocky bluff and create undertow that makes swimming here not a great idea.  So, if you're looking for a campground with a beach, this might not be for you.  However, if you're willing to drive or bike to the beach, there is a great beach about 1 mile north of the campground entrance on M-110 (across the street from Bar Lake) which has 20-25 parking spaces, is dog-friendly, and has a sandy/rocky Lake Michigan beach.  We didn't swim there this year, but when we came in late-July last year, the water was quite warm and we spent an afternoon here enjoying Lake Michigan.  


The campground has 3 buildings with bathrooms and showers, all of which are maintained well but outdated and could probably use an update soon.  There are also a couple older playground areas for the kids, which could also use some freshening up.  What has been updated very recently is the Sanitation Station.  It is located just inside the entrance to the park and has three wide lanes for dumping and filling.  Hopefully this Sanitation Station is a model for other state parks in the future, because it really works well.

Being so close to town, the park would be a great place to stay if you were in the Manistee area for an event, or just to check out the historic downtown area.  Also, because of its proximity to town, the park has great cell service - we were able to pull in 4GLTE service the entire time we were there.

As I mentioned, this is a park we see ourselves returning to often because of its location and lake views.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Muskegon State Park - Channel Campground

In early May, 2017, we spent a weekend at the Channel Campground at Muskegon State Park.  This is another park is packed in the summer months, but is less full in the "shoulder" seasons.  We love to come to this park each year in the early season and then come back in the fall season, in part because this park is beautiful but also because it's close to home.  That way, in the spring, we can run home easily to get something that got left at home during the winter, and in the fall, we can start unpacking the camper to get everything out that we don't want to store for the winter. The Channel Campground has two separate loops.  The "First Loop" has 10-12 campsites which are located right along the Muskegon Channel.  We always try to get one of these sites, because they offer a great vantage point to watch boats coming and going throughout the day.  We especially love it when the Lake Express car ferry comes by, because it is such an amazing boat to watch op...
Read more

Welcome!

Image
Welcome to Around Our Campfire!  We spend lots of time during the spring, summer and fall camping, and we love to share our stories and experiences.  We figured a blog would be a great way to journal our experiences and share them with all of you.  We hope you'll follow along with our camping adventures.  You might be following along just to see our latest destination, to learn more about us, or to get pointers and suggestions for your own camping adventures.  Regardless of why you're here, we're glad that you're along for the ride! Who are we?  We're a family of 3 humans and one spoiled Basset Hound from Michigan.  We spend several weekends each summer camping in various locations (almost all in Michigan).  We're no camping experts, just the casual weekend campers who like to relax with the conveniences of an RV. We're still relatively new to the RV experience as a family.  One of us grew up camping often with family in a Class C motorho...
Read more

Charles Mears State Park

Image
We spent our first camping trip of the 2017 season at Charles Mears State Park in Pentwater, Michigan.  This park fills quickly during the summer months, but in mid-April, most sites remain open.  The campground is located right on the shores of Lake Michigan.  It has two loops of campsites, and we chose to stay in the loop closest to Lake Michigan.  The 5-6 sites closest to the entrance along Lake Michigan have views of the water, and the remaining sites have a small dune between them and the Lake.  The dune is not too tall to climb, and has several established trails to the water.  The top of the dune has a few benches spaced out from one another, which would provide an excellent place to sit and watch a summer sunset.  The sites with Lake Michigan views also have the general beach access parking lot between them and the water.  Being mid-April (although unseasonably warm), there were not many people coming to ...
Read more