CAMPGROUND REVIEW Twelve Foot Falls Campground - Marinette County Parks

On Friday morning, the weatherman gave us a wonderful surprise of promising some sunny 70° days here in Wisconsin! We don't ever get that in mid to late October. That's about 20 to 25° above average. I convinced Steve that we should toss some groceries and clothes into the motorhome and take off. We wanted to go try out one more campground before the end of the camping season arrives. And before the *S*N*O*W* flies.

We perked up a pot of coffee in the morning, grabbed our mugs, hopped in the rig and took off. The colors were ablaze as you can see in this picture over Steve's shoulder as we headed north.

It really feels good to sit in the sunshine as we're cruising down the road, looking out the big picture windows of the front of the motorhome. In a way, I wanted to just keep on going and going and going. We are making some plans to maybe head south this winter in January or February. Maybe northern Texas, southern Arkansas, into Oklahoma maybe, or even into New Mexico and Arizona. Who knows. A lot depends on the diesel prices.

The beautiful blue sky was having some wisps of clouds come across, but nothing that promised any rain. The temperatures were climbing as we headed north to a county campground that we have wanted to try camping at. What a great day! 

We turned off the highway onto some back roads and worked our way back into the campground. It is all pavement until the very last mile and a quarter into the park. Then it turns to gravel.  We don't care for gravel much, because our diesel air filter is at the back of the rig with our engine.  Dust is not good in that.  But the roads were not busy, so there wasn't much dust in the air.  Just what we stirred up. 

The campground we were headed to is called Twelve Foot Falls County park, part of the Marinette County Park system. It is a rustic campground without any hookups. There is a  handpump well for water and pit toilets. No showers, no flush bathrooms. There are three garbage cans in each area for garbage pickup. There's no dump station, but you can drive to the other County Park at Timm's Lake to dump there if you camp here. But it's quite a ways away.

The campground is comprised of two loops:

The first upper loop has sites one through seven. We can fit easily on campsite number one.  We can also easily fit on two and three.  Those two are together, great for people who are camping in pairs and want to share the larger site space.  Number four is actually around a little corner into the trees, but there is a long stretch of gravel road into it leading to a defunct wood-selling shed. A big rig could easily park on the long stretch and still occupy campsite number four. Campsites number 5 and 6 both would work in a pinch but maybe for a smaller camper than us.  Site six is actually a pull through right in the middle of the loop, but short. Number seven is a nice deep site but the way the trees are positioned at the opening, it would be very difficult to get a large rig into it. Maybe a fifth wheel could get in with careful turns and maneuvering. 

In the lower loop down along the river there are five more sites. Some are sloped and some are very tight. We would never get down into them. The road down to the parking lot and those extra sites is kind of steep. I would not go down there with a big camper or a motorhome. Perfect for pop-ups, small campers, truck campers, or tenting.  NO ATV's or UTV's allowed in the park. 

TAKE NOTE: THERE ISN'T A GOOD SPOT IN THE ENTRY TO THE PARK TO STOP AND UNHOOK YOUR TOAD (YOUR TOWED BEHIND VEHICLE ON A MOTORHOME).  WE HAD TO UNHOOK RIGHT IN THE CAMPGROUND LOOP. IT IS BEST TO UNHOOK SOMEWHERE PRIOR TO ARRIVING AT THE PARK SO AS TO NOT BLOCK CAMPGROUND TRAFFIC. 

We were the only ones there, so it didn't matter to us.  But in the busier summer months, this could cause a problem. 

The beautiful waterfalls attracts a lot of visitors on the weekend. About every 5 minutes there were cars going back and forth down to the main parking lot. Up in our loop, we were the only ones camped there, with nobody else around. In the lower loop there were two pickup trucks--- one with a tent and the other one had a hammock. I can't imagine sleeping outside in a hammock because it got down to 33° at night. I kind of think he switched and went back inside of his pickup truck? No idea. 

As for the campground, the rate is $15 a night. That includes two vehicle stickers. Otherwise if you just want to come as day use you have to pay an additional $5 for a vehicle sticker. I do believe that you can buy a yearly pass on their website. 

Cell phone reception is a little weak, one bar or two bar limited LTE signal. But it was enough that we could stream Roku late at night to catch up on the weather and TV shows. Over the air TV antenna signals fade during the day but in the late evening they come back. We could only pull in the NBC 26 and CBS 5 from Green Bay. We could get PBS out of Marquette in a weak signal that would pixelate in and out. But we could not get the FOX 11 network. That's important, because the Packer game was on Sunday. And we could not pull in FOX. More on that later. LOL

Here is a link to their website and note that some of the campsites are actually reservable. I think it was the even sites were reservable and the odd sites were first come first serve? Don't quote me on that because I kind of forgot what it said on the sign. I'm sure the website has more information:

Twelve Foot Falls County Park

This is copied and pasted from the website:

TWELVE FOOT FALLS PARK – This park was built in 1956 and 1957 in the center of the County’s largest forest plantation. The construction work was done by the Marinette County Forestry Department. Old time river drivers, who helped move the pine timber logged in the area named the falls by the distance the river dropped over the rock edge. Rustic camping sites are located near the reflecting pool of the falls.

We got all set up on campsite number one. It was very nice to pull in nose first. The campfire pit was positioned up near the nose of the rig so you could either back in or go in nose first, either way for this site. But there was more grass and open area if we drove in nose first. We also chose this site because it seemed pretty open to get some solar exposure. This time of year with less daylight hours, every bit of solar that we can get is better than running the generator. We have 500 watts of panels on the roof that are slightly tilted. We have a bank of four large 6 volt golf cart batteries that do quite well with any of our electric needs overnight. But we do need to charge back up during the day.

Here is a photo of the little loop of the top end camp sites. As you can see, we are the only ones here. At the far end there is an outhouse, three garbage cans, and a defunct wood selling shack. There's a sign there saying you have to go over to Morgan Park at Timm's Lake near Pembine to purchase firewood.

We set up in the sunshine and rolled out our tarp. The nice grassy area kept down the dirt or the dust. Some of the workers had recently been through there and pushed back or brushed back or blew back all of the pine needles and falling leaves. They must have been there just before we got there because everything was clear and neat as a pin. There were clean new fresh bags in the trash cans and plenty of toilet paper in the outhouse. Very well kept campground.

We walked down by the waterfalls. This one is called Twelve Foot Falls and there's also a sign to hike over to 8 Foot falls. There is a whole map if you Google Marinette County Waterfalls Tour . I think 10 or 11 different waterfalls in the area are marked to travel to. We had done it once years ago when we were on our little Honda Helix scooter. It was fun.

Here's a little video clip I shot of the waterfalls

It sure was pretty, sitting on a bench watching the waterfalls. There are three or four benches in the area to sit down on, as well as a nice big parking area, picnic grounds, and more out houses.

Our little Binney enjoyed the walk down to the falls, but it was quite a hike back up the hill for her. She is now 10 years old and with the damage the heartworms had done to her heart before we adopted her, it takes a toll on her. She needs to stop and take a break. So do I! 

We walked back up into the campground and I took this panoramic view. The entry point kiosk is on the right to pay the camping fees at the self-pay post. Otherwise you can also pay for your site online. It was nice to be the only ones in the campground loop. Peace and quiet--- ahhhhhhhhhh.

I took out my new-to-me red oak spinning wheel. This is the one that I will take along camping from now on, and leave my other more delicate Wee Peggy New Zealand wheel at home. This one is made to be much more rugged. Here is my previous blog post about the wheel and how it came to be:

Peshtigo-red-oak-spinning-wheel

Steve grabbed my phone and took a picture of me while I was sitting in the sunshine, with my little dog at my feet. It was a beautiful way to spend the afternoon.  It is hard to imagine that last week we had *S*N*O*W* in many parts of Wisconsin! 

I spun up an entire bobbin of cream-colored sheep wool blended with caramel colored llama, and then I started on some soft fluffy gray sheep wool that I had taken along. This will make a snuggly warm winter hat.

The birds were singing, there were little red squirrels rustling around in the leaves, and it was just so completely peaceful. If it hadn't been for cars every now and then driving down to the waterfalls, it would have like we were the only people all alone in the woods.

We were getting the grill out, ready to sizzle up a big plank of salmon for supper, we had a couple cocktails. Well, actually one each. 

Steve prepped the salmon while I made the salads and some pasta.  We do put the grill away at night, so we don't attract bears or coons.

The temperature was dropping quickly, and the weatherman forecasted we would be probably down into the freezing range for the night. We went inside the motorhome and got cozied in for the night and decided to not light the campfire after all. 

Even though there aren't any hookups, most people with built in propane furnaces really wear down their battery overnight by running the furnace with the electric blower fan on it.

Instead, we have long ago installed this Olympian Wave 8 catalytic heater by Camco. It doesn't use any power at all.  Only propane. On "low" it keeps the motor home very comfortable, especially in the evenings during regular camping season. Knowing that we were going to have such bitterly cold temperatures, we turned it up to "medium" for the night. You can see the red glow of the catalytic pad. We keep everything away from the front of the heater and have one window cracked for extra ventilation.  This size works quite well for the space in a 40 ft motorhome without slides. 

Here is a past blog post about the heater and how we installed it: 

motorhome-modifications-o-is-olympian wave 8 heater

In the morning we woke up and it was pretty chilly outside. But we were cozy and warm inside. 

We like having all of the creature comforts of home.  We set the Wave 8 to "high" for a while, so we could sit around in jammies and relax. 

Looking out of the windows, it looked like it was going to be another beautiful day with clear blue skies. We turned on the tv, streaming through Roku, and picked up the local weather. Yes, it was going to be in the 70s again!

We set up the old glass Pyrex flamethrower coffee pot on the stove. I have such fond memories of this type of coffee pot when I was a kid. Dad would fill it up in the morning and it would be on the stove in the dim morning light of the kitchen in the middle of winter, before the sun came up. The first few perks would be caramel colored swirls coming down into the water underneath. Watching the bubbles go up the clear glass stem in a rhythmic perk perk perk as the scent filled the air.  I put a paper coffee filter in the glass basket for easier clean up. 

Steve, the chef, cooked us up a hearty breakfast of hash browns and bacon, and I cooked the eggs. We had picked up farm fresh brown eggs from the Mennonites when we picked up the thick slab bacon at Brubaker's in Lena on our way North. We only had plain bread because we weren't going to run a toaster on the inverter and our batteries.

Steve looks pretty happy to be spreading

  homemade jam on his plain bread.

He grabbed the phone and snapped one of me 

even with my messy bed hair!

Sipping my fresh perked coffee, I was looking out the windows of the motorhome while still being inside and comfortable. Waiting for the temperatures to rise outside before I was going to go outside for the day.

Once it warmed up outside, Steve pulled out my white Cosco folding table. We shortened the legs just a little bit so it would be the perfect height for sewing. I brought along my little antique Singer Featherweight sewing machine. It can run on electricity if we want, but it also has a little hand crank device that I have added so I can run it without electricity. I turn the little crank and it sews nice little short seams for my quilt blocks. I wouldn't want to do big long seams with it. But it works perfectly for working on quilts.

Steve relaxed in his chair for the afternoon while I was working on my quilt. 

He looks pretty happy.

The sun was streaming down and filling up our batteries with solar power. If I really wanted to, I could run the on-board propane generator to sew with electricity. Not really noisy, but I really didn't want to do that. Also I have a pure sine wave inverter that I could transfer the battery power over to 120 volt electric AC electricity to run the sewing machine. But I really wanted the limited solar exposure this time of year to work to top off our batteries. Getting them back up to 100%. So instead, I just crank crank crank on my little sewing machine and enjoyed myself.

As evening came on, Steve broke out another beverage and I had to have another glass of my Two Buck Chuck wine from Trader Joe's.

Steve had marinated some tenderloin steaks all afternoon. I cut up and sliced some potatoes with onion and olive oil and seasonings and rolled them in tin foil to go on the grill. A crunchy salad with the very last tomatoes from our garden topped off our meal.

I took out the spinning wheel again to spin by the fireside as Steve got the wood stacked to get the campfire going. It was a nice warm evening after a relaxing day.

 Isn't that what camping is all about? Relaxing.

 Got some more grey wool spun up. 

Watching the flickering flames as we sat and talked about our upcoming travel plans. Everything of course is just ideas, nothing written in stone yet. But it's nice to talk about places to go, or things to see if we decide to take off this winter and go south.

Once the snow starts piling up, Steve gets a little antsy and would like to be somewhere warm. Me, on the other hand, have plenty to keep me busy and tucked away in my She Shed all winter long. I can be quilting or weaving or knitting or spinning and be content. The nice thing is, when we go in the motor home, I can still bring along all of my fiber fun stuff. I can do it wherever we are! 

While we were talking, Binney was curled up on my lap. She enjoys being close by the heat of the campfire as the temperatures were dropping again for the night.

We woke up to a very cold and chilly 38°. It wasn't quite down to freezing like the night before. But it still was very strange because we were getting a heavy mist and fog. Things felt damp. No sunshine!

I looked out the windows to see a whole bunch of neighbors lined up for their turn at the outhouse? It was a whole flock of turkeys! They moved eerily through the mist, not a peep or flutter. 

The silly little things were wandering around pecking and looking for something interesting. I don't know if turkeys need to eat little bits of gravel for their gizzard like chickens do? But they sure were busy over there and they must have found something good.

Well now, back to the TV station thing. Because we weren't able to draw in the FOX network channel 11 out of Green Bay, Steve would miss the Packer game at noon. I figured we could watch the recap of it or even a repeat of the game on Roku later.

But he was kind of chomping at the bit that maybe we should head on back home before noon. We were only 60 miles from home. Also, the weather reports for Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday look to be pretty windy and rainy.
Sigh.

I got things roadworthy inside while he packed up a couple things outside. We were ready to go in a matter of minutes. He raised the jacks and backed out of our campsite. Once he was out, he BARELY made it around the loop with the 40 ft motorhome but he had to jig jog a couple times. I would recommend that if you do come in with a big rig, that you take the time to back out the same way you came in. If you are in a truck pulling a trailer or a fifth wheel you should easily be able to fit around the loop. We hit the road heading back out of the campground and encountered even more fog.

It was only this way for a couple miles and then the sun started burning through and we were able to get out to the highway with ease.

Home again 

home again 

jiggity jig.

The Packers played horribly and lost at the end. 

I think I would have rather stayed at the campground?

CAMPGROUND REVIEW - WE Energies Rec Site #1 between Wisconsin and the U.P. of Michigan

Peaceful

Tranquil

Remote

Rustic

Relaxing

We just spent a wonderful time of 3 days and 2 nights at the We Energies Recreational Site number one, which is part of their Wilderness Shores campsite system located along their waterways and dams on the Menominee river.

Their sites stretch from the Chalk Hills Dam area, with site one located between Wausaukee, Wisconsin and Stephenson, Michigan. The rec sites continue all the way north along the river, deep into the UP of Michigan. Here is their website for more information of their other recreational areas.

https://www.we-energies.com/environmental/wilderness_shores.htm

We stayed at rec area number one:

The nearest cross road to this rec site also has a boat landing with access to get on to what is known as Rosebush Lake. It's actually just a wide spot in the river...

This rec area is set up for camping with 4 sites. It is located just below the big Chalk Hills Dam on County Trunk K and turn south on 356.  There are signs.

These sites are remote and quiet and rustic and tranquil. There are no electrical hook ups, or water available. Be sure your batteries are charged up and your fresh water supply is full. There are only pit toilets so it's nice to have the all of the comforts of home in your RV when you stay here.

There are 2 trash cans available in the spaces of 4 campsites in this rec area. The We Energies workers do stop by from time to time to collect the fees from the pay post and take care of the garbage and cut the grass. Everything is neat and clean.

The sites numbers are 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D. All four sites can accomodate a Big Rig. But the turnaround at the end by site 1A is a bit tight.  If you are pulling a large 5th wheel or drive a long motorhome like ours, sites 1B, 1C and 1D are more ideal. 

We enjoy site 1D the most. It has the most beautiful setting and is flat and level. We can park the big RV near the water on a very firm grass lot.

p.s. that is our sign on the post. We put it there after paying for the site and setting out a few chairs, a tiny tarp tent and some firewood. It held the site until we could come back with the motorhome that we left out on the highway in a parkinglot.  It saved us the extra miles of driving in the rig, only to find out if the site was vacant.  Then we would have had to drive back out to the highway and head on to another campground. 

Next below is a photo of site 1C which is just as nice and has a little opening right into the river from the campsite. 

This is the view from your fire pit at campsite 1C:

Walking down the road a little ways past the pit toilets, you can enter into site 1B. It's a little more wooded, less open, but very peaceful and quiet with shrubbery dividing it from 1A. But if you'd like to camp together with another couple, sites 1B and 1C would be perfect to have to 2 campers close by each other.

The last site 1A is a bit further down this little gravel lane:

Site 1A is at the end of the road with a little turn around loop. It is a quieter site off by itself.  There is a little path leading from the fire pit out to the edge of the water. 1A is not on the water's edge like the rest of them, but when you walk down the little path from the site towards the river, this is only how far you have to go:

When you walk down the path from 1A fire pit and camping area down to the river it is very beautiful in this is what you see. You could even tie up your boat here and keep it overnight, safe and secure, to go back fishing again early in the morning:

There are two pit toilets available for the 4 sites. Everything is neat and clean and well maintained. We prefer to use our own toilet in the RV and utilize our onboard holding tanks instead of the pit toilets, if we can help it.

There are no reservations. It is "1st come 1st serve" and "pay as you stay honor system" at the post. The fee is $15 a night. They will accept checks and if you don't have the proper cash on hand, the sign says that the Rangers that come to visit the park will make change for you if they are around. We've only seen 1 ranger one time while we were here. Otherwise it's pretty quiet. So bring enough cash or write a check. Of course, no credit cards accepted.

These are some of the signs at the main entrance. They are chock full of information that can help you out, and understand the rules for camping here. Click on any photo to enlarge.  Oh... and no ORV's allowed. (off road vehicles like ATV's, side by sides, dirt bikes etc.)  That's nice because then they're not tearing up the lawn or the campsites and it makes it peaceful and quiet for the rest of us.

Here is the little boat landing just across the channel. There is sufficient parking there for probably 10 to 15 trucks and trailers in the lot. The boat landing launching depth appears to be about 4' deep at the edge of end of the pier or dock. We observed people loading and unloading big pontoon boats as well as fishing boats from this landing.

OK, that's our review of the campground for the specifics if anybody's looking to go camping there. 

~~~~~~~

Now I will talk about the things that we enjoyed while we were there for 3 days and 2 nights:

Here's a couple a typical touristy pictures
 of Steve and I
enjoying ourselves

Of course the campground is dog friendly. On leash at all times.  Binney has given this place her stamp of approval. She looks pretty happy doesn't she?

After we set up camp, it was time for Steveio to relax with a beer or two. The temperature was a perfect 75, slight breeze and no rain in sight.  It's good to see him settle down in a chair and sit still for a bit.  He needs to do more of that. 

We whipped up an easy camping dinner of bratwurst, corn on the cob, cucumber/tomato/onion sweet sour salad. I confess that I did fire up the generator for about 10 minutes to steam some corn on the cob while in the husk in the mircrowave.  But with nobody else around, a little bit of generator time isn't too bad. Ours is pretty quiet and it's a built in propane Onan generator and not obnoxious.

After dinner, we decided to relax around a campfire. Instead of building a big fire in the rock camp fire pit, Steve took out his other toy. This is called the Flame Genie and it is a portable camp fire pit that runs on hardwood pellets!

The pellets are all natural compressed hardwood, so there are no chemicals or harmful toxins. So you can sit around the fire and breathe easily, as well as cook over it if you choose.

We pour on a few cups of pellets every half hour or so.  If Steve puts on too many, it smothers it up and smokes for a while until it ignites again. When we are ready to go to bed, it cools off quickly if we stop adding pellets to it. It usually burns out within half an hour. Then it can be stowed away in our basement compartment so we can go to bed.  

If we only want a campfire for a little while in the evening, I like this better than starting one in the firepit.  It is easier than having one burning all night or leaving burning embers.  

Here is a little video clip I made of it burning. It so enjoyable to watch the flickering flames, that's so fascinating to see how it works:

His is an older model I bought him about 8 or 9 years ago.
Now they are designed a little different:

Flame Genie on Amazon

Around $100 for the smaller one
and $170 for the larger one

We had a very relaxing peaceful evening. Didn't hear a thing, it was quiet and tranquil. We woke up in the morning to a couple sand hill cranes flying overhead and the sounds of some loons. 

Oh the joy of fresh perked coffee and what a view out the windows!!!

Steve whipped us up a wholesome hearty breakfast. That is his specialty to make a nice breakfast when we are camping. Then it's my job to do the dishes...

After breakfast was cleared away I decided to take out my sewing machine and work on some quilting. This is my solar powered sewing machine!  Really, I'm kidding. Actually the sun charges up our five 100 Watt panels up on the roof. They in turn store the energy down into our four 6volt deep cycle marine batteries situated in a basement compartment. From there, we have an inverter that I turn on which changes the 12 V DC current over to 120 VAC current to operate any electrical household appliance.

So I can Sew

What a view! 

The dogs think it's very hard work to be camping. Rest and relaxation are a must. It's really "A Dog's Life" after all.

My quilting friend Judy Delaet from Wausaukee was able to pop over and spend the afternoon with me. She brought some show and tell quilts that she had worked on.  I brought out one that I had worked on, that is from the bed inside of our motor home.

We had such a nice time gabbing away together, the afternoon just flew by. We were treated with the most delightful sunset as the water calmed down on the surface of the river and there wasn't even a lick of breeze.

The colors got sharper and pinker and more purple with a perfect reflection across the water as the sun set behind the trees.  I didn't do any enhancing on this photo, it's just aim and shoot from my cell phone!

This time Steve decided to light a real fire with regular firewood in the provided fire ring of rocks. We like those rock rings so much better than those rusty iron or steel rings that some of the national forest campgrounds use.

We relaxed for the rest of the evening until a few stray raindrops started. Then it was time to tuck away our things and put away our lawn chairs, and listen to the rain on the roof.

It only rained for a short time but it was well after our bedtime, so it was good to go to sleep. Peace and quiet all around with no noises or anything. It was total heaven. 

~~~~~~

We woke up this morning and started perking the coffee. The dogs got out and about and we took a little walk. But the weather report isn't looking too good. It's going to be very hot and very humid. Our solar is not adequate to run the two air conditioning units on the roof of the motor home. To run those, we would have to start up the generator. Who wants to camp with the generator running for hours on end? Just to have air conditioning?

For that matter, who wants to camp next to somebody with a generator running for hours on end? So not only would we NOT want to do it ourselves, but we wouldn't want to impose it on anyone else either.  Not that there was anyone else around, but if someone came, they might be turned off by our generator and go somewhere else.  I would not want to be the cause of someone missing out on such a great camping location. 

I did do a little more sewing this morning and finished up the blocks for 4 new hot pads for my kitchen at home. It was quite peaceful to have some quiet creative time to do my quilting, while Steve puttered and put'zd around with a few other things on the motor home.

We took one last walk around the other side of the channel and past the boat landing, out onto the causeway that leads down to another recreational area site. I think number 38? From over there we can get a nice view back to the little peninsula that our campsite is situated on. 

I think this almost looks like 

a magazine shot of

"Go RVing"  LOL! 

The wind started kicking up as we were hooking up the motor home and the Saturn behind. We feel a storm kind of blowing in so it's probably good to get a move on. They did say scattered thunderstorms this afternoon.

We carefully went through our hook up procedure with the Saturn and got the Even Brake situated and tested. Everything is good to go. You can read my last blog to see what we did about swapping over our toad vehicle behind the motor home from the Tracker to the Saturn.

So now as I write this we are heading home and should be home and unloaded ahead of any storms.

Needless to say, I think this is my 2nd most favorite campsite all around, 

1st Favorite is Rattlesnake Point 

in Elephant Butte State Park 

in New Mexico. 

This We Energies site is my number 2.

and a close 3rd is 

Burnet Island state park

 in central Wisconsin.

We swung by the city dump station in Oconto near the Holtwood Campground, paid our $2 fee and dumped our tanks.  Parked the rig back in the yard and we are home again before the heat and humidity and weekend warriors descend on the woods!