Crystal Falls, Michigan

August 20, 2012

Here we are in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, or the "U.P" as they call it.  We've been here a few days, since Friday night.  We left the Sioux Falls area on Thursday and spent the night in Minnesota, at a lovely campground called Peaceful Valley...and indeed, it was.  The campground was nestled in a small valley, just outside of Le Sueur, MN, surrounded by woods.  We arrived in the late afternoon, dropped the trailer in the park, and immediately left to find the Costco, which was about 40 miles away, in Burnside, MN.  We needed our Costco fix - paper towels are important!  We also found a Pei Wei for dinner which was a nice change of pace.

Friday morning we were up and out of there by 8:30 a.m., as we decided to do the entire 367 miles in one day.  We normally go about 200 a day when traveling, but we wanted to get to the U.P.  Let me tell you, it was a long day.  By the time we got to our campgound in Crystal Falls, Michigan, we were ready to be out of the truck.  On top of a long travel day, our campground was impossible to find from the directions on the internet.  We got lost following the GPS coordinates posted on the website.  Finally called the camp host.  We were not happy campers Friday night.

Paint River Hills Campsite

View from our front window

Saturday morning was another story - this campground is situated in a small township, population 1,466.  There are very few people other than us and the camp hosts (people probably can't find it!) and it is nicely laid out in the middle of the woods.  Saturday and Sunday we stuck close to the trailer.  Jim did some software work and I started a new book.

This morning we decided to follow the hiking trail into the woods adjacent to the campground.  The trail runs along the Paint Hills River (the name of the RV park is the Paint Hills River Campground) and is really beautiful.

Paint Hills River

Leaves are already turning

Thoroughly enjoyed that walk and will definitely do that again.  Up the road, on Highway MN-69, is an actual boardwalk on the river.  I would like to explore that as well.




These pictures were taken with my Motorola Razr Maxx, so are not the best quality, but you will get an idea of the place we will be staying for the next few months.  I'll take my Nikon next time and take "real" photos.

Don't forget...if you click on the photos you can enlarge them.