Traverse City, Michigan

Our first big trip in our RV brought us to northern Michigan. It seems that the majority of people don’t know about the beauty of this place. But those who have visited, KNOW how special northern Michigan can be. The landscape, charming towns, crystal clear turquoise water, and the changing colors in the fall will have you falling in love with this place.

We stayed on a friend’s property in Traverse City which had water and electric hookups! The weather was mostly rainy and dreary during our time there, so we mostly got caught up on school work. One day was nicer weather, so made a day trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. This place is a MUST visit, so add it to your list!

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Sleeping Bear Dunes is located in Michigan’s lower peninsula, and stretches across 65 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. The “Dune Climb” is a popular activity in which you can climb up and over almost 2 miles of sand dunes to reach the lake! It’s a pretty difficult hike of climbing up slopes in loose sand, and usually take 3-4 hours to complete. Make sure you pack water and snacks!

First, we picked up our Jr. Ranger books at the station at the bottom of the dunes to take with us on our Dune Climb. Our kids had a blast rolling around and running up and down the dunes throughout the hike. Truth be told I was not planning to or prepared to do the entire hike to the lake, I thought we were going to just climb up a little ways and take a picture and come back. Over a mile later, we decided it was time to turn around, since we didn’t have time to reach the lake anyways.

The kids completed their tasks for the Jr. Ranger badge and we stopped at the campground office to be sworn in. We swung through the nearby town of Empire to get a pizza for dinner. We ordered from Empire Village Inn, and honestly it was one of the best pizzas we’ve eaten in a long time!

We quickly grabbed the pizza and headed to Empire Bluffs Trail to watch the sunset, literally eating it as we hiked. Empire Bluffs trail is an easy 2 mile out and back trail that brings you to a breath-taking view of Lake Michigan and Sleeping Bear Dunes. We highly recommend hiking this trail to watch the sunset!

Empire Bluffs Trail at sunset

Petoskey, Michigan

Petoskey RV Resort

After Traverse City, we made our way to Petoskey, about 2 hours east. We were able to stay at the incredible Petoskey RV Resort, which is living a country club lifestyle in the RV world. This place has it all:

-Spacious concrete pads with full hookups, picnic table, firepit, WiFi, and cable.

-A clubhouse with a gym, pool, movie room, card table room, and more.

-Putting green & horseshoe pits

-Dog Run

We definitely felt like we were living like royalty in this park. We stayed here for over 2 weeks while camping right next to my parents! We did have to focus on completing school work in the morning, but we enjoyed exploring Petoskey when the work was done.

Finding Petoskey Stones

We LOVED finding Petoskey stones along the rocky beaches in the area. Have you ever heard of a Petoskey stone? The are rocks with a unique pattern made from fossilized rugose coral. Our favorite spots to find them were at Magnus Park and a small beach at the end of the trail in West Park.

A Petoskey Stone

Playgrounds with Views

Another free activity we enjoyed was going to playgrounds! We love the playgrounds in Petoskey because they have the best views of Lake Michigan. Our two favorite playgrounds were East Park and Bayfront Park. Bayfront Park is located right in the heart of Petoskey and offers a lot to do around the area. Nearby Bear River Valley Park offers hiking along the Bear River and we got a kick out of watching fishermen try and catch the salmon trying to swim upstream.

Playground Views at East Park

Hiking along a river trail in Bear River Valley Park

Mackinac Island

When visiting northern Michigan, a trip to Mackinac (pronounced MackinAW) Island is a MUST! It’s definitely something that you should plan for a full day away. Mackinac Island is a quaint island off the coast of the northern tip of Michigan, and is only accessible by ferry boat. On the island, you’ll see bikes and horse carriages as the only modes of transportation. Biking is a very popular activity on Mackinac. There is an 8-mile paved bike path that circles around the coastline of the entire island.

We arrived to Mackinac City early in the morning, and headed straight to the Shepler’s Ferry parking lot. Shepler’s Ferry has been providing ferry service to Mackinac Island for 75 years! The staff were so kind to let Chris drop the kids and I and our bikes off right at the entrance while Chris went to park our truck. We decided to bring our own bikes, since it was cheaper than renting them on the island (there is a $13 license fee per bike to bring on the ferry.)

This isn’t just a ferry ride, Shepler’s Ferry will take you under the famous Mackinac Bridge, the fourth longest suspension bridge in the world. We had a very unique viewpoint to take some great pictures! We definitely recommend sitting on the upper deck of the ferry boat in order to get the best views and photos. The entire ferry ride only takes 20 minutes to reach the docks of Mackinac Island. Be sure to keep your round trip tickets with you in a secure place for your return ferry at the end of the day.

For information on Shepler’s Ferry, including schedule, ticket packages and to purchase tickets in advance, visit their website here.

The boat docks are right in the middle of downtown Mackinac, which can be a bit crowded with people and horses, so be cautious with younger kids and their bikes. We started out by biking away from the downtown area and crowds to get our biking legs going. We quickly realized we were hungry and it would be a smart idea to eat lunch before starting the 8-mile bike path around the island, so we turned around!

We opted for lunch at The Pink Pony, which is a popular restaurant in downtown. They have kids menu’s and a great selection of food! We chose to sit inside, but the outside views of the water were spectacular and I’d choose to sit outside if we ever go again.

After our bellies were full, we began our biking journey! There is a flat, paved bike path that hugs the coastline around the island. There are also plenty of places along the route to stop and take a break. We explored the nature path, climbed 207 steps to see the top of Arch Rock, and stopped along the rocky shore to enjoy the views!

Arch Rock

Views from the top of Arch Rock lookout

We would not have been able to do our biking excursion with our UrRider attachment. The UrRider is a compact, portable bike seat intended for children 2-6 years old (up to 110 lbs and 4.1 feet tall). This allowed Lily to ride perfectly on Chris’ bike the entire trip! It only weights 2.18 pounds, making it perfect for traveling! You can purchase a UrRider here. 

Honestly, I would have loved to do another loop around the bike path but the kids were a little wiped. We arrived back to the downtown area and walked around some shops for a while. We lingered in the fudge shop, observed how they made fudge, and of course bought a slab for all of us to enjoy. Mackinac is famous for their fudge, so this is something that can’t be missed!

After our sugar fix, we hoped on our bikes again and went up a very large hill towards the world famous Grand Hotel. This hotel has been opened since 1887, and is actually a National Historic Landmark. Tours of the hotel are available, but cost money, and with young kids we didn’t feel like it would be worth it. You can order a beverage to enjoy as you sit on the world’s longest front porch and enjoy the views!

We quickly passed the Hotel and kept going straight uphill towards the Fort. Fort Mackinac was built in 1782 by the British during the American Revolution, and was involved in several battles in the War of 1812. The Fort offers tours and demonstrations throughout the day, which would be a fantastic excursion to do with the kids! We, however, didn’t realize the time and we arrived after they closed. If we go again, we’ll definitely make it a priority to come here first! 2020 prices are $13.50/adults, and $8.00 for children ages 5-12. For more information, visit their website here. 

We were really bummed to miss the fort activities, but we decided to roll around in the grassy lawn across the way instead. Then we headed back to the ferry dock to catch the boat, which we also missed! It’s a good idea to check the ferry times because there was only ONE ferry after that! If you miss the last ferry boat, you’ll be stuck on the island and have to pay a lot of money for a hotel! We had to wait an hour for the next (and last) ferry to leave, so we filled our time with skipping rocks along the beach. The silver lining was the sunset views from the ferry boat on the trip back!

We had THE BEST time on Mackinac Island, and we have to say that this is a MUST visit when traveling through Michigan. We hope that you get a chance to come and see this beautiful, family-friendly island!

Tell us below in the comments, have you visited northern Michigan? What is your favorite place to explore?

You can watch a quick video of our perfectly fun day on the island below: