Petoskey State Park – August 22 – 23, 2014
After a week in the Upper Peninsula we planned to spend the final weekend of our vacation at Petoskey State Park. After a cool, cloudy and damp week the skies finally started to clear as we drove south over the bridge. It was nice and sunny by late afternoon when we arrived in Petoskey It gave us a chance to finally open everything up and start drying it out. It seemed like everything we had was damp from past week. We had beach towels that we used after going for a swim at Fayette State Park 6 days prior that never really dried out.
Petoskey State Park is located on the east end of Little Traverse Bay about half way between downtown Petoskey and Harbor Springs. The park has 180 modern campsites split between to campgrounds. The Dunes Campground appears to be older with smaller sites and tighter roads. This area area seems better suited to smaller campers and tents. Several of the sites here have at least some privacy compared many State Parks. The Tannery Creek Campground is at the southern end of the park and has a little bigger sites in four “D” shaped loops that all have camping pads. There is access to the beach and the end of each loop.
The main attraction of Petoskey State Park is the 1 mile of beach that is a mix of sand and stones. The best sandy beach is at the north end of the park in the day use area. The park also has about 3 miles of hiking trails. Because of it’s location in one of the State’s most popular tourist areas the park is filled for most of the summer so you will want to make reservations well in advance.
We stayed in the Tannery Creek Campground at site 91. It was a nice site at the end of the first loop. None of the sites are right on the water, but we were about as close as you can get with about 100 feet of trees and then the open dunes leading to the water. The only thing that was not perfect about this site was how close our neighbors were to us. They were fine, but it almost felt like we could have been sitting at the same fire at night.
Just around the Conner from our site were the short stairs leading down to the beach on Little Traverse Bay.
While we were setting up camp the girls went down to check out the beach and within about 10 minutes Regan came back with the first Petoskey stone.
Reid would rather throw the stones.
After dinner we got our swim suits on and went back down to the beach. The girls went right back to searching for Petoskey Stones. With the current Lake Michigan levels there was only a small strip of sand left at the beach by the campground.
After hauling our paddle board around all week we finally had a chance to use it.
We decided to just spend the rest of the evening soaking up sun.
The sun setting over Little Traverse Bay from the edge of the trees by our campsite.
We were all a little tired the next morning because Reid came down with a fever during the night and woke up crying several times. This didn’t stop the girls from heading back down to look for more Petoskey Stones first thing in the morning.
Reid was not still not feeling well so he went back to bed for a nap. The girls and I decided to go for a bike ride while he slept.
The wood chip path above connects the Tannery Creek Campground with the Little Traverse Wheelway a 26 mile paved path that runs from Charlevoix to Harbor Springs.
We headed a 0.5 mile north on the LTW and then crossed M119 to connect with the Northwestern State Trail which runs from Petoskey to Mackinaw City. The 7 miles from Petoskey to Alanson is currently the only section of this path that is paved.
Our destination was the Oden State Fish Hatchery about 5 miles from Petoskey State Park.
The first thing you notice when pulling into the hatchery is the refurbished Wolverine Train Car. This car is now an air conditioned exhibit that shows how the Department of Conservation employees lived while transporting and stocking fish around Michigan from 1914 to 1935.
Adjacent to the train car is the visitor center building. From what we had read the visitor center includes interactive exhibits, live fish tanks and a gift shop. However, the only part of the building that was open was the entrance way where we picked up a map and used the restrooms. There was a contact desk, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around. We locked up our bikes and started walking down the paved path.
Our first stop was the viewing chamber. There is a trout stream that runs through the grounds and this chamber gives you a unique look at what happens under water. Lucky for us there was one trout hanging out right by the window.
There are 2 big windows in the viewing chamber, but one of them was vandalized just before our visit. I later read that they caught a local girl who admitted to throwing stones at the window.
A little further down the path is the Big Fish Pond. The girls bought a handful of feed from the dispenser, but the only thing that came to eat was a family of ducks. There was some construction going on and the fish must have been moved to the bigger pond. From here we continued on the path to loop back to the visitor center. It is about a 0.7 mile walk round trip from the visitor center.
We saw an older couple riding around the hatchery on bikes so we figured it must be allowed. So we picked up our bikes and rode up the 0.4 mile path to the new hatchery site. There were a few raceways with fish, but it was kind of hard to see what was going on through fence.
On the way out we stopped to throw the rest of our feed into the stream behind the rail car. There were actually a couple fish in here fighting for it with the ducks.
On ride back I heard: “Dad the fish hatchery was kind of a bust.” I think they were a little disappointed that there were not fish in the feeding pond and that the gift shop was closed. I thought it was interesting and a good destination for a bike ride. Although, I probably would not go out of my way to visit the hatchery, but if you are in the area it is worth a quick stop.
More Oden State Fish Hatchery Information >>
On the way back we stopped at the Alanson Flowing Artesian Well to fill our water bottles. This also seemed to be a popular spot for cars to pull off and fill bottles. After waiting for a couple to fill a whole milk crate full of water bottles it was our turn for some of the cool spring water.
When we got back to the camper Reid still was not feeling well. After lunch we decided it would be best to pack up and head for home before someone else got sick. Unfortunately we had to cut our stay in Petoskey a little shorter than we planned. We will have to try and get back up here again next summer.
I guess it was kind of a fitting end to our camping week. We usually have had nice weather in August, but on this week our luck seemed to have run out. We still had a good time and because of the rain we got to see and do some things that we normally would not have done.
-The End-
If you didn’t start at the beginning of our trip you can click here to go all the way back to our fist night at Hartwick Pines State Park.
Our Favorites:
Grand Trunk Double Parachute Nylon Hammock
We purchased this hammock right before our bike camping trip because I knew that comfortable places to sit are hard to come by on this kind of adventure.
Since then the kids have spent countless hours sitting in and fighting over this hammock. It is comfortable, lightweight, easy to setup and we also found that it dries fast after leaving it out in the rain for the night. It has been a great addition to our camping arsenal. We may have to buy a second one just so we can have a chance to relax in it.
Click here to find Double Nylon Hammocks on Amazon >>
Advertising Disclosure: We may receive a commission if you click a link on our site and purchase one of the products or services that we recommend.
Leave a Reply