My Porcupine Mountains leg deserves a chapter of its own because I didn’t merely visit the Porkies – I camped my way through them. Three different campgrounds, Lake Superior, waterfalls, forests, ridgelines, rivers and enough Michigan wilderness to make “Hemi”, my Ram 1500, feel like it had finally found its natural habitat.
The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park is Michigan’s largest state park, encompassing roughly 60,000 acres of old-growth forest, ridges, rivers, waterfalls, inland lakes and Lake Superior shoreline. It has more than 90 miles of trails, so your strategy of using multiple campgrounds was actually a pretty clever way to experience different sides of the wilderness.
And, naturally, I decided that one campground wasn’t enough.
🐻 Union River “Big Bear” Campground
My first stop was Union River “Big Bear” Campground, just outside the Porkies. This was the “civilization, but barely” portion of the adventure. Big Bear sits right at the gateway to the Porcupine Mountains and just across from Lake Superior. It offers level gravel sites, electricity, water at many sites, a dump station, Wi-Fi, and—very importantly for a traveler living out of a Roofnest—clean modern restrooms and hot showers.
In other words: Wilderness outside. Hot shower inside.
The campground also gave me immediate access to one of the most spectacular features of the entire region: Lake Superior. The sandy beach across the road makes it possible to end a day of hiking by simply sitting beside the largest of the Great Lakes and watching the sun disappear.
🌊 River Road Campground
Next, I moved to River Road RV Park and Campground in Ontonagon.
This was my practical expedition basecamp.
River Road is less about dramatic resort-style scenery and more about being a useful launching pad for exploring the Porkies while remaining close to Ontonagon’s services. It provides a convenient base for day trips into the mountains and surrounding countryside.
And that is an underrated part of a long road trip. Sometimes the best campground isn’t the one with the postcard view. It’s the one where you can:
sleep → recharge → resupply → hit the trails → come back → repeat.
“Hemi” was doing exactly what I built it to do. Speaking of building, I also installed a Overload Vehicle System (OVS) 270 LTE Awning. I had it shipped to Charlevoix when I was staying at Jim’s place. Suffice it to say, the install was a bit challenged by the fact that the screws and bolts that came with the product malfunctioned. Literally, when you thread the bolts over the screws and began to tighten the bolts they would strip the screw and, eventually, if you kept tightening, snap the screw in half. Thankfully, my move to Ontonagon provided me with a friendly hardware store with a knowledgeable staff member. Here I picked up screws, bolts and washers that worked with my awning system. Problem solved. Awning installed, providing comfort from the direct sun, rain and wind.
🏖️ Sunday Lake Eddy Park
Then came Sunday Lake Eddy Park Campground in Wakefield. This was a completely different flavor of camping.
Instead of Lake Superior’s enormous horizon, I had Sunday Lake—a roughly 225-acre inland lake with a sandy beach, swimming area, boat launch and walking/biking opportunities around the lake.
It is the kind of place where the expedition suddenly feels less like an expedition and more like: “Maybe I’ll just sit here for a while.” And that’s exactly what a long-distance traveler needs occasionally.
Korner Kitchen Diner
🏔️ Then came the real reason I was in the Porkies
The campgrounds were the supporting cast. The Porcupine Mountains themselves were the star.
🌅 Lake of the Clouds
This is probably the quintessential Porkies experience.
From the overlook, the forested mountains roll away toward the brilliant blue-green water of Lake of the Clouds. It’s one of those places where you don’t need a complicated hiking itinerary. You simply arrive, look out, and think: “Yep. This was worth driving to the Upper Peninsula.”
⛰️ Summit Peak
Then there was Summit Peak. At roughly 1,958 feet, Summit Peak isn’t exactly Everest—but after climbing it, I felt that Michigan has done a surprisingly good job hiding a mountain range in the Upper Peninsula. The observation tower provides a spectacular view across the surrounding wilderness. And the beauty of Summit Peak is that you get big wilderness scenery without having to undertake a heroic expedition.
💦 Presque Isle River
The Presque Isle River corridor provided another completely different experience.
The river tumbles through the forest toward Lake Superior, producing waterfalls, rapids, rock formations and viewpoints along the way. Presque Isle Campground is itself positioned near this river-and-waterfall country, and the park identifies the Presque Isle area as one of its major scenic attractions. This is the sort of landscape where you stop taking pictures because every 50 yards looks like another picture.
🌲 The old-growth forest
One of the things that distinguishes the Porkies from many other places I’ve visited is the feeling of age. This isn’t simply “a forest.” There are extensive old-growth hardwood and hemlock forests, rugged ridges and wilderness areas that make the landscape feel considerably more remote than you might expect from Michigan. And that’s the great surprise of the Upper Peninsula: You can be in Michigan and still feel like you’ve wandered into another world.
Let the journey continue, on to Duluth, MN. Minnesota, the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” and the source of the Mississippi River.