Was wondering if anyone has been traveling in the Michigan Up this summer and can report if the high gas prices have had any effect on the number of travelers at the rv parks? We will be headed up that way the beginning of July and was wondering if we needed reservations. Thanks Tom
2002 Chev,crewcab,Duramax,Rancho 9000,Michelins, 2008 Spree 261RKS by KZ, Equal-i-zer Hitch
We were up at Sault Saint Marie at the Aune-Osbourne campground on 6/17. I'd guess they were at 1/2 to 2/3 full and were more full than most campgrounds we've stayed at in the last month, (except for Memorial day weekend). The Soo Locks campground up there was not full either - don't know about the others. We are traveling without reservations (except for Memorial day and July 4th weekends) and have not had a problem. Some of the lesser used campgrounds are also negotiating fees to get you to stay (I.e. waiving the "extra person" fee). Across the country so far in the last month the lesser used campgrounds seem to be about 20% full and resort types are about 75% full.
From the looks of things right now, you should have no problems at all getting a site in the U.P. Here is the State Park Campground reservation website, and you can see by checking the Forth of July reservations that, although the ones close to Detroit, Lansing, and other metropolitan areas are close to full, the ones in northern Michigan, especially the U.P., are not. In fact, Baraga is only 32% filled for the holiday weekend, and Taquamenon Falls is about the fullest at 82%. If you click on the site map button for any particular park, for any particular day, you can see how many sites are available (those are the ones in green). If you're more interested in private campgrounds, click here to check those out. And regarding the gas prices affect on camping, I would say there has been a major impact. Last weekend I went through one of the local campgrounds, Algonac, which is about the closest to Detroit, and found that the Riverfront campground was only half full, and the Wagon Wheel was only about 10% or 20% occupied. I've never seen it this empty at this time of the year on a weekend.
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