After such a wonderful time in Alpena, we were a bit hesitant to move on up the coast – but adventures call. And it’s always better to leave a location wanting more than to leave it feeling like you’re ready to move on.
Hoeft State Park – Roger’s City
Our next stop would be Hoeft State Park (our review) just north of Roger’s City, Michigan. We had heard raving reviews of the campground and area, so were looking forward to it. We booked online, using the park’s own descriptions and photos to select a site.
We selected site 108 because it was described as secluded, level and large enough for a 40′ RV.
The site was actually rather unlevel and our 35′ motorhome barely fit in…it was very oddly shaped. And it definitely wasn’t secluded. The front view is of the housing neighborhood across the road, and the site was clearly visible from the park roads and backed up to two other sites.
When a family reunion moved in at the site next to us with constant commotion from early morning to late late night, we decided it was time to investigate other possible options. This just wasn’t going to be conducive to intense writing.
We selected site 126 around the bend, that was against a line of trees – and the staff was super helpful in reassigning us. It too was not overly level, but manageable (we only have wood blocks for leveling) – but would at least give us some peace and quiet. We had almost no neighbors within site the entire time. Kiki loved it too.
It was a much better solution to allow the family reunion the freedom to connect and make memories, and give us the solitude we needed. Our house has wheels – if we don’t like our neighborhood, move!
We honestly didn’t do much while in the area but write, research and write some more. At this point in our trip, we were on a mission – get The Mobile Internet Handbook manuscript ready for editing!
We did some hiking around the park, enjoyed strolling the beach and did find a gluten free bakery right across the street! We only headed into Roger’s City once to stock up on groceries, but it seemed like a cute little town. Had we had more time, we probably would have rented some bikes and visited the lighthouse up the road.
Overall, we weren’t overly impressed with the campground. There were very few sites that are our style – most were tightly packed in, unlevel and offered little distinction between them. So we’re pretty pleased that we scored the site we did. It was perfect for our needs at the time.
Cheboygan State Park – Cheboygan
Our buddies the Wynn’s contacted us to let us know they were approaching the UP quicker than originally thought, so we decided to move on up the coast ourselves to Cheboygan to be closer by to rendezvous. While we were exploring the east coast along Lake Huron, they had been exploring the west coast along Lake Michigan (a route we had done before).
Another long driving day of about 45 miles, and we arrived to Cheyboygan State Park (our review) and snagged a site for two nights.
We hit the trails for a hike to go out and see the lighthouse off the coast – and finally discovered what all the fuss is about mosquitos being the state bird of Michigan. Up until this point we had just encountered a few here and there. But wow, they were out in swarms on the trails.
Instead of hiking back via the wooded trails, we opted to scrimmage through the marshlands with tadpoles nibbling on our toes.
Our stay was short and enjoyable, we got some quality writing done – but we honestly could see little reason to return to this location in the future. Unless you really like mosquitos.
Sunrise Coast Closing Thoughts
We thoroughly enjoyed our tour of Michigan’s Sunrise Coast, and are so happy we selected this routing to do most of our book research and writing. A perfect pace for us with short driving days and beautiful chill locations to explore.
A quick recap:
- Tawas City, MI – we spent a week driveway surfing with friends and exploring this very cute town.
- Harrisville, MI – we camped at Harrisville State Park, which was just lovely with great sandy beaches.
- Alpena, MI – this town won our hearts with our beautiful water front spot at the fairgrounds with access to walking & kayaking.
- Roger’s City, MI – Hoeft State Park is not exactly our style, but the location is beautiful with sandy dunes beaches.
- Chebyogan, MI – just a quick stop for a couple night at this small state park campground.
In total, just 140 miles covered over about 3 weeks.
This is route is definitely worth a gander if you’re in search of an excellent place to slow down and keep cool during the summer. We wore sweaters most evenings, and even had to run the heater. A sure sign we’ve done better this year following the weather than we have in recent years.
Compared with the Michigan west coast, we found it much less crowded and easier to get prime camping locations last minute. The beaches are gorgeous, and the towns super friendly. I wouldn’t be surprised if we returned to this area of the country in the future.
Book Update!
We’re pleased as punch to announce that after several 18 hour days in a row we did finish the manuscript to the book on Sunday morning, and got it uploaded to our editor.
She’s now busily editing away with intentions to get it back to us by the end of the month. We’ll have some final touches to make once it’s back in our hands, and are aiming to get the PDF eBook ready for distribution in early August. We’ll then focus on getting it formatted for Kindle, iBooks and print!
While she’s working on that, we shift focus to catching up on some other projects – including launching our new mobile internet resource center website! It’ll be a central place for RVers to get timely information about this complex and rapidly evolving subject!
Up Next: We’re currently meandering around the UP of Michigan playing tag team with Nikki & Jason. We’ll part ways later this week as we head westward towards Oregon, and they southward to their next destination. Our routing is mostly unplanned except for a stop in Billings, MT to have our engine serviced before our rebuild warranty expires next month. We’re also aiming for West Glacier to meet up with some friends in early August.
We’re so glad you’ve enjoyed your time in Michigan. It’s great to read such a nice write-up on our Sunrise Side, as people so often just talk about the west side of the state. Wait…maybe it’s better that people keep talking up the west side, so we can keep our little secret…yup, Sunrise Side is just awful, don’t go there. 😉
You were also very fortunate to get a much cooler, more comfortable summer than we usually have.
Safe travels…see you next time…buh bye!
K, K, & P
Interesting part of MI that I’ve never really read much about. I like that it is less crowded and has a slower pace. Certainly something that would appeal to us. The mosquitoes not so much LOL. One day we’ll make it to MI.
Nina
We’re really quite surprised by how taken we were with this coast.. Michigan has won our hearts!
Nice synopsis of the area, thanks Cherie. Good to know about Hoeft State Park. Donna and I traveled through the sunrise coast and stayed in East Tawas on a motorcycle tour with our BMWs. We may end up there next summer.
Touring the coast by motorcycle would be pretty amazing!