Ocqueoc Falls and Ossineke State Forest near Alpena MI

We woke up in Onaway State Park and decided that today was going to be a travel day. We have no other reservations and nowhere specifically to be. But we decided to wing it and see where we would end up. 

We took care of dumping our holding tanks, and I put a picture of the dump station device in the blog before this. It worked out really well. At the same time we topped off our fresh water tank. We do not drink or cook or make coffee from our freshwater tank. We use the large Blue 5 gallon jugs from the grocery stores and a battery powered device we bought off Amazon. I will do a picture of it in another blog.

Here's the map of where we've traveled so far... 

We left the campground and headed east for about 10 mi. We had seen on the state park brochure about a place called Ocqueoc Falls. It was said to be the tallest falls in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan? Well, who wants to miss that? Right across from the Falls is a small Campground loop with about 20 sites. We thought we would check those out too. Just in case we wanted to be in an amazing wonderful place and wanted to stay longer.

Well, the campground was not too bad, along the shore of the river that I think is after the waterfalls. There was one empty site but it looked to be pretty crowded. We decided we would move on across the road and go view the waterfalls first.

We found a nice shady spot to park in the parking lot under some trees. It was only 72°, and we had the windows open for Binney who waited patiently in the motorhome for us. She really doesn't care for water, and a waterfall just didn't seem to be her thing. 

We walked down the beautifully wide paved path to this amazing array of squared off rectangles and blocks of quarry rocks and stones cut into a cliff next to this humongous waterfall! Actually, I'm kidding. It was pretty small. But all of the rocks and stones were covered with kids balled up tennis shoes and socks and towels and t-shirts. They were all in the water!

Of course, I had to make a video of them

It really was a pretty sight. And it was a very well-kept and clean area. We found a few people to chat with along the shore. We weren't about to go in the water, although we did have our swimsuits along in the motorhome. 

We did pose for a typical tourist selfie in front of the waterfalls. 

So 

we've been there 

done that 

seen it 

took the picture 

and 

time to go! 

From there we drove further east into Rogers City and curved southward along Presque Isle. The water is very turquoise blue as we drove along seeing Lake Huron for the first time since crossing the Mackinac Bridge on Wednesday.

We had found a little State Forest on the map along the shoreline just south of Alpena. We were wondering if maybe we might get in there. It was first come first serve on a Saturday morning. What are the odds? It was 42 sites, so we were going to try our luck if we could find one of them open.

Here is a link to their website:

Ossineke State Forest

Situated on the shore of Lake Huron, this rustic campground offers a beautiful beach and picnic area. Located in Alpena County, one mile east of Ossineke.

This rustic campground is in the depths of a beautiful cedar forest, resting on the shores of Lake Huron. The campsites are generously spaced apart. The campground has a campground host present all season long. Facilities include a day-use area with picnic tables and grills, sandy beaches and a boardwalk out to Lake Huron.

There are 42 sites for tent, small trailer and large trailer use. Camping is limited to a 15-day maximum stay. Amenities include vault toilets and potable water from a hand-pump well. The campground is located one mile east of Ossineke via US-23 S and Ossineke Road. Sites available on a first-come, first-serve basis. No reservations.

This is rustic state forest camping, with just a well hand pump and outhouses. There are no hookups. The cost is $20 a night. We easily found our way into the campground and chose left or right. All of the sites are situated the shoreline facing out to Lake Huron. 

We chose to the right. We sure are glad we did because every single site we passed was occupied. Almost to the end as we were just passing site number 33. The people were packing up their two vehicles and just about ready to exit the site. Steve stopped and rolled down the window and asked if they were leaving. They said "yes it's a wonderful beautiful site!" and they were just getting ready to leave. We already had our envelope in our hand and I was frantically filling it out as quick as I could. We had just enough time to go to the end of the loop and turn around and come back as they were pulling out of the campsite. Within 30 seconds we hung our tag on the post and backed into the most beautiful site of the entire campground!  I kid you not, it's the one that's closest to the water with its own little sandy path to the beach. As we walked around the entire campground later on in the evening, we realized this is the absolute best site!

What is wonderful is that these sites are all first come first serve. There's a 15-day limit. So each day if we decide to stay longer all we have to do is drop another envelope in the post at the entrance to the campground. 

We were set up in no time flat.

We found this beautifully painted rock sitting by the picnic table. 

Here is the little path leading to the beach. It was lined with beautiful rocks!

Only some of the rocks were painted. Others were natural. I know some people may say this is defacing public natural property. But on the other hand, someone has taken the time to tastefully paint on these and leave them behind to make the next person smile. I suppose if someone really wanted to they could take them all away and dispose of them. I sure hope not.

It was kind of a happy little welcome to the campsite! 

Very creative!

Here is what I am talking about. This is the view from our campsite right out through the scrubby brush and dunes across to the shore of the beautiful Waters of Lake Huron. 

We walked up and down the beach a little bit to see what we have gotten ourselves into. We were not disappointed in the least.

Stumbling across places like this make it very special to be able to travel with no time frame and no reservations. It basically was our luck that we were able to turn right and find this site just as the people were leaving.  

The turquoise blue waters and the puffy row of clouds along in the sky made such an interesting contrast. It was a perfect temperature of 73° and only 58% humidity.

Because neither of us really felt like having breakfast this morning, we decided to cook up breakfast for lunch once we were settled into our campsite. We do have to start using up our eggs as well as our fresh produce before we cross the border into Canada.

After that, we both curled up for a nice afternoon nap with the open windows. We could hear the waves against the surf and the sounds of birds twittering in the trees around the camper. There's some kind of little chickadees or finches that are going beep beep beep. There's a really brave blue jay who keeps hopping on over to look if we have anything good around our campfire. 

As I said, we have to start using up some of our produce before we get to the Canadian border. I still had a zucchini from last week when we were camping at Fox Park. Some campers from Minneapolis Minnesota shared with us three zucchinis from their garden. So we chop that up along with some other vegetables to saute on the griddle. Steve was doing up pork tenderloin tips with garlic and Val Dalia onions. He really likes using his Black stone flat top griddle and it's so much easier to cook on than a traditional gas grill with a grate. 

He drizzled on a little Andria's steak sauce and seasoned up the meat as well as the veggies. There's no way we can eat all of that meat, he cooked up a double batch so we can save half of it for another meal. Inside the motorhome, I was boiling up some white rice on the propane stove. 

Tahhhdahhhh!!! 

After our fine meal, we hooked the harness on Binney and took a little walk around the campground. That is when we discovered how extremely lucky we were. It seems on the north loop of the campground, where we didn't go, there happens to be a camper with two very large aggressively barking dogs. They are going absolutely nuts anytime anybody comes near walking down the road within eyesight. The clueless campers are just hollering at their dogs to stop barking and not doing anything about it. They are very large and very vicious looking and tugging at the ends of their cables winding around each other and lunging at anyone walking past. The guy in the next site is extremely upset and was talking to a few other campers who had just walked past. He's not happy and I don't blame him. We are very fortunate to be up on the other end. But even as we sit here we can faintly hear the ruckus going on down there every time someone walks past. We didn't see any campground hosts but there may be one at the far end to the north. I think pretty soon someone will be calling the sheriff out here because that is really out of control.

We did not even walk back in that same direction and instead took the loop out towards the entry post and walked around that way. It was very calm and peaceful walking through the woods for the evening. Even the mosquitoes were not out. So pleasant and we were glad to be where we ended up. 

Actually, when the previous people left the campsite, the fire had a wonderful bed of coals still simmering away in the fire pit. They also left us some campfire wood! How wonderful is that?  So this evening now after our walk, as I sit here dictating this blog into my phone, we have a campfire. 

And bear with me for one more cute adorable picture of little Binney enjoying our campfire with us

What a wonderful evening at Ossineke State Forest. 

74 miles traveled today 355 mi total