We finally made it to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula! Setting up camp at Country Village RV Park in Ishpeming, we were centrally located for exploring the Lake Superior coast.
Here’s the Breakdown:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZprirAKu10%5D
Location: Ishpeming, Michigan
GPS: 46.50135, -87.67893
Price: $38+ (They offer a Passport America rate of $19 for one night)
Date/Temp: We camped here June 21st-26th. The weather was amazing, with sunny skies and light winds. Highs of 75, Lows of 50
Amenities: Country Village is a full service RV Park offering full hookups with back in & pull through sites. Each site also has a picnic table and fire pit. The campground has a large bathroom & shower facility that remained clean throughout our stay. The pool facility features a large pool, childrens pool, hot tub, and sauna.
Hiking Nearby Sugarloaf Mountain
Noise: The park is large, offering the option to be near the “action” or tucked away in a private site. The community here seems rather active – walking their dogs, hiking nearby trails, and swimming in the pool. These activities never created much noise, and we found the park to be very peaceful. Often when we were sitting outside of our camper, we were greeted with friendly conversation.
Wifi/Cell: The park offers free wifi, and during most of our stay it worked very well. As the weekend rolled around and the grounds filled up with more campers, we would struggle to get connected to the network. However, for much of the time, we streamed movies and uploaded YouTube videos easily. Our AT&T service received 3 bars of 4G LTE, and our T-Mobile received no service.
Relaxing in our spacious RV Site
Grocery/Errands: The town of Ishpeming offers almost everything needed for us to run errands. They have grocery shopping, a post office, a farmers market and lots of antique shops – all within 4 miles. If a big box store is what you’re looking for, the town of Marquette has them all (15 miles away).
Dog Friendly: Both the campground and the nearby towns are very dog friendly. The campground has a dog walking trail that leads into town. Marquette offers tons of dog friendly hiking on the Lake Superior coast and provides free dog bags along most trails.
Entertainment: We enjoyed the numerous hiking trails and the history the area offers. This is a mining community with strong ties to its heritage; museums are plentiful. In Ishpeming we tried our first Pasty (pronounced pass-tee) and highly recommend giving them a taste. We spent a few days exploring Marquette, and found the overlooks on Sugarloaf Mountain stunning.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLaJjSFqNRI%5D
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF4-O2_u8SU%5D
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Disclaimer – A big thanks to Country Village RV Park for allowing us to camp free of charge. As usual our thoughts and opinions are our own and not swayed or purchased. We just like to explore and discover new places!
Wow, how do you get free sites at RV parks?!! Nice perk. I’m still at French Farm Lake but leaving today for a free site near Cedarville (I hope!) You know there are free sites very close to Munising, at Hovey Lake? They are all lakefront (mucky bottom, good for fishing not swimming) and have picnic tables, fire ring, vault toilets and a central water pump! I’ll be going there in a few weeks.
We’ve been fortunate to have our social media platforms grow to a level where RV parks feel they will receive positive attention if we camp and share our experience!
I like your format, i.e. pros and cons, price, etc. Thanks for posting.
Holy wah. You make that place sound almost attractive. Every time we drive past there I wonder why on earth anyone would ever want to stay there, nicely done though it appears when viewed from US-41. There’s so much development around it (the shopping center, the hospital, the RV store, etc) that it always strikes me as being barely one step up from boondocking in a Walmart parking lot. But I can see where the same things that strike me as negatives could be viewed as a bonus by other campers.
Have you guys ever thought about being campground hosts at a state or federal park, or does the idea of being stuck in the same place for 30 to 90 days at a shot seem too limiting?
We were concerned about the charm of the campground as we arrived because of the big box stores in front of it. But, once we got settled in, it was peaceful and relaxing. They have nice shade trees and lots of grass – there’s even a hiking trail into town.
As for being a camp host, we’re interested in the experience in the future but not too soon. We’re enjoying our current travel rhythm for now.