For our last camping trip my wife and I were on the East side of Michigan, camping near the shores of Lake Huron and the Saginaw Bay.

This past weekend we went to the opposite side of the state and did our camping near the shores of Lake Michigan.

Orchard Beach State Park is a really nice campground that sits right on Lake Michigan.

It has 168 sites that you can choose from depending on where you want to be in the park and what type of equipment you are camping with.

The drive from our house took about 2 hours and the majority of it is two lane roads.

The last stretch of the drive takes you through the Manistee National Forest.

To the left is a picture of the sign you pass as you are entering the forest.

Parts of this drive are also a little hilly and my truck was struggling to pull our trailer up some of the inclines.

We made it to the campground without issue and were able to get set up in record time since I had made sure to reserve us a pull-through site.

Worrying about how I am going to back in our trailer is one of my least favorite parts of camping.

Sometimes the campgrounds get so full that maneuvering in them can be tricky. Having a pull through site eliminated all of that worry. Since we were camping with friends, it also gave us the opportunity to have our trailers facing each other.

This gave us a nice little common area in the center where we could sit around the fire and visit. Getting the pull through sites at the end of one of the loops also gave us views like this:

My wife and I stayed at this park last year, but we were down farther where the bluff is higher, so you were not able to see the water. It was a nice campsite last year, but we were much happier with this one.

There are several old stone buildings throughout the campground. Last year when we were walking through the campground, I immediately remembered that I had camped here as a kid with my parents just by seeing those buildings.

I made sure I got some pictures of them this year. The one is an old well/pump house. You aren't able to go in it, but there is a sign next to it. The other building is a pavilion/bathhouse that you can rent out for gatherings etc.

As a matter of fact, there was a group of people that were camping at the campground and they used the pavilion on Friday night for their wedding. We had the opportunity of watching the groom walk by with his tux while sitting around our campfire one afternoon.

We usually spend most of our time outside when we are camping, but Saturday the weather wasn't looking too good.

We had no data service on our phones so we tried to pull in the local weather on the TV in our trailer.

The only station we were able to pull in though was from Wisconsin. Our proximity to the lake allowed the signal to travel all the way across Lake Michigan to us.

There isn't much of a beach for swimming in this park. Like I said, it is a pretty steep bluff and Lake Michigan has really started to erode the shoreline. They have tried to take steps to mitigate the effect, but the West winds combined with the size of the lake make it hard.

The small town of Manistee is just a bit South of the park and if you head North a little, there is a casino. I think the park offers some of the nicest views in the area though:

My wife took this last one of me taking some of the other pictures I shared of the sunset.

As good as my shots were, I think she killed this one.

Thanks for joining me as I shared this post with you.

My wife and I have several more camping trips planned this summer and I look forward to sharing as many of them as possible with you.

Do you camp fellow Steemians? What is your favorite part of camping? What is your favorite campfire treat?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next trip...

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