Camping with Bozz: North Higgins Lake State Park
While my wife and I do most of our camping in the Summer, we always take one trip in the Fall before we store and winterize our trailer.
For the past several years we have been going to North Higgins Lake State Park.
If you look at a map of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, move your eyes North from the center of the map and you will run into Higgins Lake.
There are actually two state parks on Higgins Lake, one is at the North end of the lake and the other is at the South end. North Higgins Lake State Park has about 182 camp sites that you can reserve. The sites are split between two loops, one on the East side and one on the West side.
North Higgins Lake will always be special to my wife and I. It was the first place we camped when we purchased our first travel trailer pictured above. It is a very nice quiet campground with lots of shade, large sites, and a newer bathhouse on the West loop.
Even though we have upgraded our trailer, we still love coming back here to camp.
One of the main reasons we come to this campground in the Fall is because they have a harvest festival every year. The friends that we camp with have children and they love all of the activites the park has during the day on Saturday.
They also have trick or treating around the campground on Saturday night. The children can go from campsite to campsite and the campers hand out candy to them. Once it starts getting dark, they shut down the East loop of the campground and people can go on a "haunted hayride" over to that side.
This year was a little different for my wife and I. Instead of bringing our dog like we usually do, we left her at home with a sitter and instead we brought two of our nephews and one of our nieces. The kids had a blast and I don't think we will be able to get away with not bringing them again in the future!
Here is a picture of the entrance to the park as you are heading down the highway. Once you enter the park and get registered, you are greeted with this view as you pull ahead to go to your campsite.
The lake is relatively shallow, but beautiful none the less. We pulled in to our campsite early in the evening on Friday. The drive up was quite terrifying due to there being a high wind advisory. Pulling the trailer gives us a pretty high profile and the wind was beating us around pretty badly.
At one point I had to leave the expressway and take two lane roads part of the way because the wind was just too dangerous. With sustained winds over 20 mph and gusts over 40 mph it is probably some of the worst weather I have ever pulled a trailer in.
We made it in one piece though and after a quick dinner the kids were starting to get antsy wondering where their friends were. Unfortunately because of work obligations our friends and their kids weren't able to get there for a couple more hours.
I drove down the road to get some firewood so we could start a fire and filled the truck up with gas so we would be ready for the drive home Sunday.
Apparently there was something on the wood that I grabbed from the guy down the road because the flames had a definite green hue to them. Our friends arrived just in time for the kids we had brought to see them before going to bed and then the adults settled around the campfire for the night.
Sometime overnight the wind died down and Saturday proved to be a beautiful day.
It was still pretty chilly though so I went to get more wood and we basically kept a fire going all day.
At one point while we were sitting around the fire, the kids grabbed some sticks and were banging around on things like they were playing drums. Mostly it was my nephew that was doing this because he is taking drum lessons.
I had them pick out two specific sticks for me and I went to work with an idea that was forming in my mind. I pulled out my knife and I started whittling away at the wood.
It took me an hour or two, but by the time I was done, I had two decently presentable drum sticks for him to play with...
The kids had a great time through the day, going for walks, painting pumkins, playing on the playground. When evening came they put on their costumes and took their bags to get some treats! My wife and her friend stayed behind and handed out treats to the kids that came to our site. Meanwhile her friends husband and I took our kids around the campground to go trick or treating.
I took a couple shots of the way people decorated their campsites for the occasion:
If you ever find yourself driving that way and you need place to camp, or you just want to stop and have a picnic along the shores of the lake, it is a great place to stop.
If you find yourself in the area during the last part of September, make sure you stop in for the harvest festival. If you look hard enough you might see my wife and I there with a gaggle of kids running around crazy!
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I never though of the fact that people would decorate their camping sites like that that is so so cool to see
Yeah, it is pretty crazy. I think the have a contest and they give out a prize for the best decorated site. Some people go all out. The kids love it and it gives us a reason to get out in our camper one more time before the Winter!
I had always planned ot get a camper and cruise and see a lot of the country when I retired, unfortunately with my wife’s health that may not happen, but then I always say who knows things may change
It can be hard, I know. My parents used to camp a lot. Now that they are older they just can't do it anymore, but I can tell that they miss it. I have thought about driving the trailer somewhere for them and letting them use it for the weekend, but I am not sure if they would be interested.
Yeah I think mostly its a young persons game and were not gettign younger anymore lOL
Great decorate sir, its remain me with my child play plant and zombie. you are woderfull story telling sir @bozz. really enjoy all your words in this post. God bless you
Thank you, I appreciate that!
That is just cool beyond all reason. Kudos to the Michigan State Park system for that.
I love that people gather here year after year and decorate. It's just amazing to me.
My folks just loved to camp, too. When we were just kids it was big heavy canvas tent time. My Dad bought a new pickup in spring '62 and rented a Pick Up Camper for our fall trip. My brother and sister and I spent the whole trip in the back (Mom, Dad and Baby Sister up front.) It is still memorable!
Sometime in the 70s they bought their first motorhome. Then they started coming to Yuma. By 1980 they were driving a car to Yuma in the fall and selling it before they came north in a Motorhome that they bought and sold in the northland. They paid for their trip that way.
That is really cool! When I was a kid I did a lot of camping with my parents too. We had been to pretty much every state East of the Mississippi by the time I was in high school. There are lots of other state parks that do the fall festival in Michigan too. In fact there is one right down the road from where we used to live, but a lot of times when we camp too close my wife sees kids she knows from working at the school and sometimes it is nice to just be incognito somewhere :)
gorgeous pics man
Thank you!
When I'm reading your post, I really miss the camping with the beautiful nature. Now, I have difficult time to go outside of nature.
Sorry to hear that you aren't able to get outside and camp anymore. Good luck with all of that!
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