Van Riper State Park, Champion, Michigan

 7/4/2023 to 7/11/2023

        We arrived at Van Riper on the 4th of July. The campground of 147 sites in very close proximity was very full - and stayed full during our stay.  Lake Michigamme (view from our site pictured below) has lots of options for swimmers, boaters, paddleboarders, and kayakers. 


    We saw "moose crossing" signs near the park. We also got a flyer on places to go to try to see moose when we checked in. Unfortunately, we didn't see any moose. We did see a lot of mosquitos and flies, but after our experience at Copper Falls SP, we were prepared with lots of DEET and mosquito net headgear. And while we did see an occasional deer (and frogs and chip monks), we didn't see any of the animals described in very interesting plaques found all along the trails. 


        Scott paddleboarded and kayaked all around the Lake. One day I dropped him off up the Peshekee River.  He kayaked down the river to the lake and all the way back to our campsite. 



        We parked across the front of our site instead of backing in. It gave us a private area for our outdoor activities. 



            The campground was congested all week. We didn't get the usual thinning out midweek. Most people seemed to be vacationing for the whole 4th of July week. As we walked around the campground, I often thought the number of tents close together looked like refugee camps. I didn't get pictures of the tents, but did get a picture of some of the RVs right across from us. 



        Wisconsin and Michigan have check-in procedures/vehicle stickers/maps/etc similar to the Texas State Parks - unlike the Oklahoma and Iowa honor system where no one is available for check-in or information about the parks.  

        Wisconsin and Michigan have only EDWDS sites - electricity, drinking water access (but not water for hookup), dumpsite. We have figured out how to get through our 7 days without having to break camp to go fill up our fresh water tank or dump our gray water. We have a 5 gallon tank that Scott uses to add water to our fresh water tank when needed. He also fills up several gallon containers each day which we use instead of depleting the fresh water tank. The tote buddy works for emptying gray water when that gets full. 

        It's only practical to do laundry at the campsites with a full hook-up, so I find a laundramat when we're at EDWDS sites. This week I went about 30 miles to Marquette for laundry and grocery shopping. 

        We had a nice dinner out at a restaurant called Mt Shasta a few miles from the park in the Michigamme Township (pop 249). We almost didn't get a seat because we didn't have a reservation and it was "fish fry" night.  No competition from any other restauants for miles.  

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