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Southeast (Gulf Coast), Texas, United States

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Exploring the Lower Lake Michigan Coastline

Diane Jennings had a good idea regards wanting to visit Michigan.  We had called the Weko Campground on the beach in the city of Bridgman, MI, and the lady said that they had 8 camping sites being vacated and we could get a couple if we got there before 10:30am!

We left the Elkhart area early enough that we arrived at 9:30am, and she had only 2 left, and assigned them to us.  One was a site that she had just given to the people in front of us in the line, and the other had an RV on it that looked like it had not been moved for months!!  Dumb Lady!!!

We asked her what else was available for camping in the area, and she gave us a list.  We could not call any of them because there was no cell service………… either for my Verizon or Chip’s ATT phones.  We drove into Bridgman, and got cell phone service, and finally the second campground that we called had two pull-through sites.  It was called Fuller’s Resort and Campground, and it was 30 miles inland from the beach area!  It did, however, sit on the edge of a man-made lake.  We took it!

We traveled down some fairly narrow country roads, but we finally arrived.  It turned out to be a nice find, and was another family “Camp” place with a lot camping trailers with attached sun rooms and decorated lawns.

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The campground had a nice store and café, sitting areas, and it’s own beach.  The following are “early morning” pictures before the beach area gets busy……

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We checked into the campground about 11:00am, and Patsy and I chose to drive back to the coast and explore the area north of Bridgman.  The drive along the coast was nice.  Michigan is like most of the states, in that people own the beach property behind their homes.  Access is almost non-existent………. except for a few very small areas.

Here are some of the pictures of our drive starting with a beach area………

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A typical nice “high dollar” home on the lake with the beach behind the dune on the right….

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We stopped and looked at one house on the beach side that was for sale.  Price was $675,000, and it was a mess.  It would need to be torn down and rebuilt!   From the road, it just looked like a two-car garage, but it had a small home below it……

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We found this lighthouse museum….

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Here is Patsy coming back from taking a picture from one of the many beach access locations with no parking access.

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On Friday morning, the Jennings and us piled into the car and explored the area around of Bridgman.  Our first stop was Warren Dunes State Park.  It was a nice surprise, and we did not expect to find such a nice beach.  Here are a few pictures …..

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We checked out the campground areas and found this…..

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We left this state park and drove up the coast a little ways to find Grand Mere State Park.  We followed the GPS, and found this….IMG_3278IMG_3279IMG_3271IMG_3273IMG_3274IMG_3276

….. and after a while, we got here.  It was somebody’s home!!

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We saw ‘signs’ of a park, but no park.  Before we left the area, we did find a small park with walking trails.  Where the first road tried to take us, we never figured it out!!  We did, however, follow another road and found this……

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We followed the highway along the coast up to Benton Harbor, MI, and found another nice beach area…..

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After Benton Harbor, we found our way back to our campground and enjoyed our last day in Michigan.

On Saturday, we left Fuller Campground, and drove through Chicago to Wisconsin Dells, WI.

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