Campground Review -- Indigo Bluffs -- Empire, MI

Dates we stayed here:  July 27, 2010 - Aug 2, 2010 (Tuesday - Monday)

Location:  3 miles east of Empire, and 20 miles west of Traverse City, on M-72.  Great proximity to Sleeping Bear Dunes, Leelanau Peninsula, and Traverse City!

Site #: 46 (and our friend, Todd, was on 47)

Our site was HUGE, with a dirt/sand surface, several trees, and we had water and 30amp electric.  We paid $36/night.  This site was located at a Y in the road, so that gave us extra room for maneuvering our big rig into the site.  Once parked, we had plenty of room for the truck, bikes, Todd's food tent, and anything else we would have wanted to put on the site.  Nicolas even had room to open the rear dovetail door.

Todd's site was smaller, and he had a few more trees to deal with, but it worked OK for him.  We had all of our campfires and meals at our site.

We arrived without a reservation (after moving from another campground), but called ahead for availability.  They do have full hookup (50 amp) sites for $42, and pull-thru FHU sites for $48, but none were available for all the days we were going to stay.  We were in what's called the "Rally Park", but they also have a Class A Motorcoach Resort adjacent, which is very upscale (paved roads, stamped concrete sites, landscaping).  The lots in there are owned by individuals, but the ones that haven't been sold yet can be rented for $55/night. 

This is the entrance to the Class A area.

Conveniences:  Rooftop antenna didn't pull in many channels, but we had beautiful weather and didn't miss TV at all!  The workampers had satellite dishes out, so I guess they were getting reception.  Our Verizon signal was very good, and the campground wifi worked well, also.  We were located within a couple hundred feet of the bath house where I was picking up the wifi from.

Amenities:  The campground is surrounded by woods, and the perimeter was all rustic tent sites which they no longer rent out, so there were lots of areas for the kids to explore and ride bikes.  They have a small store combined with the office,

with a beautiful pool area connected to it.

The on-site Managers (Jim & Janice), and the workampers that we met were all very nice and helpful.  The bathrooms were kept exceptionally clean, and my husband said the showers had good pressure (since we had water, I used the RV shower.)  The showers were coin-operated, though.  Firewood was available (delivered to your site) for $4.50/bundle, and it was probably the best firewood we've ever bought from a campground.  They keep it stored in a barn, so it's nice and dry!

Overall, we think this was a great campground, and we would definitely stay here again!

Wrapping up our trip to Empire, MI

On Sunday, we started preparing for our departure by rolling our awning, putting aware our outdoor carpet, taking down Todd's food tent, and generally cleaning up the RV.  Afterwards, we packed a picnic lunch and headed over to the city beach in Empire.

It was pretty crowded, but we found ourselves a spot in the sand.  I enjoyed the sun while reading my book, and Tom played frisbee with Bryce and Kylie in the water for awhile and then walked the beach. 

Nicolas, the "chick magnet" was attracting some attention of his own.  Just standing there, minding his own business, and three teenage girls came up to him and asked if they could take his picture!!  What's up with that!!??!!  He is a cutie, but . . .

After awhile, we lost the sun, so we headed back to the campground.  After dinner, Todd helped us out by taking some pictures of the rig, and us with the rig, that we can use for ID cards and our workamper resume.

This morning, we woke to a little bit of drizzle, so we were glad that we had done a lot of the outside jobs yesterday!  We finished packing up and hitching up and headed over to the dump station.

Just as we were finishing up there, the charter boat group came in from their morning on Lake Michigan, and they had an incredible catch!  Captain Bill weighed each of the salmon as he handed them down to the fishermen to hang in front of the cleaning shack.  This big guy was over 15 lbs.!!

Not a bad day's catch!

After admiring the fish, it was time for us to hit the road.  We said "Good-Bye" to Todd, Josh and Kylie and they took off ahead of us -- they have a lot longer drive than we did.  Hopefully, they'll decide to keep the RV so they can meet up with us again somewhere!

We pulled out of Indigo Bluffs at 11:30am.  With stops in Mesick for diesel ($2.89/gallon) and lunch, and a "rest break" just north of Lansing, we arrived home at 5:00pm and had the RV unpacked and parked in the barn by 6:00pm.  It was a great week, and we can't wait until our next trip!

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

We woke Saturday morning to a steady rain, so we took our time getting out and about. The rained stopped around 11am, but it looked like it was going to be an overcast and slightly cooler day.

Sounds like a perfect day to visit the dunes!

We drove over to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in the National Lakeshore, and loaded Bryce, Josh and Kylie into the bed of the truck.

Nicolas rode with Todd to keep him company. We saw

a covered bridge,

Little and Big Glen Lakes (the bridge is the one we drove over yesterday on our way to Glen Arbor),

basswood trees with exposed roots,

and another tree that looked like it was trying desperately to hold onto the side of the dune!

At the Lake Michigan Overlook (by far the most popular stop on the scenic drive!), we saw lots of people disregarding this sign.

It certainly look menacing from this viewpoint looking down!

The kids are wondering if they should give it a try,

and we made sure they knew that WE wouldn't be rescuing them if they couldn't make it back up!!

Kylie wanted to go, so Bryce and Nicolas agreed to go with her -- they're on their way down!

In just under 4 minutes, they were at the bottom and cooling their feet in Lake Michigan!

Nicolas was like the little engine that could -- chugging his way up the mountain -- he made it back to the top in 12 minutes!

Bryce hung back and stopped to make sure Kylie was making it, so they took a little longer -- 17 minutes for them to make it to the top!

They were pretty exhausted when they reached the top -- especially Kylie!

We took some more pictures,

and then finished up the scenic drive. By then, it was time for an early dinner at Joe's Friendly Tavern in Empire, and then Tom & I and the boys went to mass. Back at the camper, we relaxed around the campfire for the evening. For a day that was rainy and overcast, it turned out to be pretty good!