If y’all remember, my family and I were trying to renovate an older 90s model camper…. Well, that did not turn out so well.

After we started gutting it, I fell through the floor, in two different spots, and we found several rat nest fire hazards. Seriously, I have no idea how the thing had not caught on fire. We decided it was too much work, especially for how little we knew, and it was not bringing us joy.

So I sold it and bought a new camper this past June. I’ve used it only twice so far, and there are some things wrong with it, that I’m hoping the dealership will take care of under warranty work since I’ve had it less than six months.

Anyways!

So, our second camping trip was to Aloha State Park in Cheboygan, MI, the end of September. And it was beautiful!

We had heard both good and bad things about the campground. Some of the more common complaints were: if you don’t have a boat there’s nothing to do there, the campsites are small, and narrow roads. We didn’t have a problem with any one of those things.

We stayed on site 39, which is more near the entrance, on the Northside. Our site was huge! It had more than enough room for our 40′ camper. We still had room behind us, and in front of us. And it was so wide! At other campgrounds, I felt like I was stepping on my neighbors. Not here though. We had so much space on either side of our camper, it was lovely. The kids could run and play without me having to worry they were going to stumble into the next site.

On top of the huge site we had, it also has direct beach access… that I could see from inside my camper kitchen. It was truly great. Cleaning up breakfast but kids want to go play in the sand? No Problem. Want to see the sunset but it’s cold? No Problem.

And the beach was very clean! The water was clean. I didn’t see very much trash the entire time we were there.

Aloha is minutes from the Mackinaw bridge and Petoskey. We did not make it to to bridge, but we did head towards Petoskey where the kids played at two different mini/adventure golf courses, as well as an awesome BBQ place called Up In Smoke, and of course we looked for Petoskey stones.

But, the joy of camping is slowing down and just relaxing at your site, too. Which we did plenty of. The views were spectacular.

If you don’t feel like cooking while there, and do not want to go too far for a meal, you can hit up the Aloha State Park Store for a couple meals. They are known for their pizza and their fried donuts. We were told that we would have to order in advance, which is probably necessary normally, but when we went the place was so quiet and empty there was no need. I highly suggest the donuts one day for breakfast. 😉

The place was quiet and dark, so Dark you could see every star on a clear night. I loved it. The bathrooms/shower house were very clean, and they had a few different locations throughout the campground for them.

The only thing negative I can think of, is that the playground was lacking. Honestly, it was a swing set and some horse shoe pits. There wasn’t a camp host either, but it was okay since we can prepared with badminton supplies, a football, board games, and plenty of hotwheels.

Also, when driving there.. the address on Google that Google maps brought us to, was their mailing address, which is is a really narrow road and if your not familiar with the area, it’s hard to fit a 40′ camper down. Luckily they have a small dirt road that cuts to the ranger/check in station.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. It was quiet and full of beautiful nature. I cannot wait to go back sometime!

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