What A View!!! : CAMPGROUND REVIEW - North Bayshore Oconto County Campground

We usually look at two things before we decide to go camping.

First is the weather. It looked like a we would have three of four nice days with some decent temperatures- not too hot, not too cold. Maybe a bit of rain.

The second thing we look at is the calendar. We try to go camping and when it's not as busy and have a better chance of getting a good campsite. We figured Monday through Thursday this week would be good, before all the Labor Day campers would be descending on the campgrounds.

On Sunday, we hopped in the Saturn and took a little ride up the highway--- only 9 miles from home. Yes, there's a beautiful campground just 9 miles from our house. It's probably only six miles as the crow flies, but nine miles by going around on the highway.

We are fortunate that we have so many campgrounds close by to our home. Not only that county one, there is a city owned one right in town, and another city one out of town about 3 miles to the south. We don't have to go far.

The one we decided to go to is called Oconto County North Bay Shore Campground. It is located right on the bay waters of Green Bay that lead out into Lake Michigan. It's a cute little County campground with one loop of campsites - 33 of them to be exact. They all have electric and most of them even have water. The last seven sites at the far end of the loop do not have water.

This is also a great harbor area to launch a boat for fishing. Many local fishermen come here in the morning just to launch and park their trucks and trailers in the large parking area south of the campground. There's a nice little break water on each side for the harbor to safely launch without the high wave action of out in the middle of the Bay.

There's a nice shower building with flush toilets, and also some pit toilets located at the north end of the loop.

All of the sites are level and can accommodate a big rig except for three of them up near the far end of the loop. Many of the sites have been blacktopped and all of them have nice wooden picnic tables and fire rings.

There are two playground areas near sites 4 and 7. There's also a large playground area south of the parking lot where the group campsite is, as well as a large picnic Pavilion that can be rented for group gatherings.

Oconto County North Bay Shore campground

The normal rate here is $30 a night for electric and water that's not too bad. But then for the months of August, September and October the county runs a special where you can camp Monday through Wednesday at half price. So for $15 a night that is a real bargain.

That is why we decided to drive on up here to see what the site availability would look like on Monday.

You can reserve sites online, or you can call in a reservation with a credit card to the county courthouse during regular business hours.

You can also self register on a first-come first-serve basis.

Each campsite has a calendar for the month attached right on it's post with which days marked off with an X that are already reserved by somebody else. This is great, so you don't inadvertently try getting into a first-come-first-serve situation and pull onto a site that somebody else has reserved. Make sure that the dates you want to occupy the site are blank, then you fill out your ticket, pay at the post, and just clip it above the calendar.

The host then comes around on a daily basis and updates any of the little calendars as reservations come in.

The camp hosts are pretty much here full-time. They are located near the entrance of the park with the dump station nearby, as well as a really cool firewood vending unit. It has an electronic door on it that allows you to submit a $10 bill. You have to have exact change. And then press the button of which compartment you want that is chock-full of firewood! It automatically unlocks and you can take out your firewood.

You get quite a bit of wood for the $10. It's a better bargain than the little bundle you get at a gas station for seven or eight dollars. I think it's quite an ingenious vending machine.

So that was my review of North Bay Shore campground. It is quiet clean and well maintained. The sites are all level and can accommodate big rigs on almost every one. It's located close to wonderful fishing and natural marsh areas for bird watching and just plain old relaxing camping.

Now on to us

and our experiences

while camping here:

Like I said, we watch the weather before we head out to go camping. Monday afternoon wasn't looking too good but we decided to get our campsite anyhow on Monday morning. We drove up in the Saturn and brought our lawn chairs, our table cloth, and our little "Campsite Occupied" sign. We paid for our site, hung our tag, and then planned to be back within an hour or so with the motorhome. We were waiting for a contractor to stop by the house first... and once he was done, we were ready to hop in the motorhome and head right back up the highway. (More on that contractor business later in another blog).

We pulled into the campground on a cloudy overcast Monday morning. It was very quiet with only six or seven other campers here in the entire Campground. We had our site already prepaid so we could back right in. Because it was nice and level, it didn't take a lot to get set up.

As soon as we were set up and making a little lunch, we tuned in the weather report and it was just as we expected. Some storms would be rolling on through. But once they went past, the evening promised to be pretty good, as well as the rest of the week. We are located about halfway up this map.

The first band of storms blasted through fast, and strangely, we had sunshine and beautiful blue skies peeking out between the white puffy clouds. Here's our campsite:

It's nice and open on the sites around the edges of the loop and the interior part of the loop is all tall mature trees. We chose this one because it was close to the little children's play area in case the grandkids come to join us.

The water levels of the Great Lakes have been rising over the last five or six years. It's caused a lot of concern for the properties along the lakeshore. The county park is no different. The waters have risen quite high and what used to be the shoreline is now way out beyond the trees in the background .... where you see the green marsh grass. The waves were rolling on in with the impending storm, and they said out on the bay the waves were five to seven feet high!

The storms blasted through and we got very little rain but had a lot of the high wind and the waves. Here is a little video clip I shot of how the waves were rolling into the far Eastern part of the campground Loop and getting close to the campsites over there.

Once the first band of storms rolled through, we had beautiful sunshine again. The wind started dying down and it was going to be a beautiful evening.

Here is a shot of our campsite. It is called 7B. The reason why it's called 7B is because there's also a campsite number 7. But they created an extra campsite when they had removed a very large willow tree a couple years ago. Rather than re-number all of the sites the rest of the way around the park, they just added one extra post with a B. Pretty smart huh? Good way to save the county money.

Just beyond the campgrounds within easy walking range is a cute little Boardwalk. The water comes right up to the edges of the boards and there are built-in benches to sit upon. There are people lined up here fishing as the water is deep enough to attract some pretty big fish.

What a great way to go fishing with the kids and not have to bring along a boat. Even for handicap accessible people, you can easily get a wheelchair or scooter onto this Boardwalk from the parking lot or the campground.

Here's a shot of the campground while sitting down on the boardwalk. You can see that it is nicely shaded with tall mature trees, well-kept lawns, and nice neat surroundings. It is a well-kept park and very quiet. It's located far from any highways, railroad tracks, or any cities, for that matter.

This is the center of the camping loop. It's a beautiful park-like setting with tall mature trees. Can't you just see your camper nestled into one of these sites?

For those who wish to have a clear open sky view for their satellite dish there are plenty of sites around the edge that are more wide open grassy sites. But these middle ones are very attractive with the tall trees for shade, especially on those hot horrible summer sunny days.

After supper we sat back to enjoy a beverage and the sunshine. The winds had died down considerably and it was turning into a beautiful evening. This is the view from our campsite as we look out around the trees and off into the water in the distance. We can hear the waves rolling up gently on the shore, now that the high winds have died down.

We took a little walk around the campground in the evening and kind of observed some of the cloud formations overhead. The sun was starting to set and we knew we were going to get some pretty colors off to the west. But off to the east is where the beautiful action was going to start, as the big full moon was rising up over the water.

We sat back in our chairs, ready to enjoy the show. Of course the dogs enjoy hanging out with us as they usually do. We always try to keep them close to us and quiet. Nothing can be worse than listening to people's yapping barking dogs incessantly over and over. Our dogs stay close to us, always on leash, and we keep them quiet. We threaten them from time to time with a fly swatter, without actually hitting them. But they have learned that they have to be good "Campground Doggies"!

And here comes that Moon! We could see it coming up through the trees and it was going to be spectacular....

I left the comfort of our lawn chairs by the motorhome and walked on over to the edge of the harbor a little bit further to the South. My oh my, this moon was coming up and it was just so beautiful!!!

In the foreground, I happened to catch a shot of these two loons, as well as a seagull, floating on the calm waters by the harbor.

The moon was rising up and it was reflecting across the beautiful water with a golden sheen. The loons swam closer and closer to make this a very pleasant photo opportunity.

Everything started to glow purple in the twilight.

It started getting darker and darker, so I wandered on back to the campsite.

Even in the darkness, our old vintage Safari motorhome sure looks pretty spiffy, don't you think?