CAMPGROUND REVIEW - Lake Emily Campground - Florence County Park in Northern Wisconsin

 (I know I've been neglecting my blog lately. Since Steve's dad entered hospice in April, our lives have been kind of crazy with trying to work around schedules with other family members).

Earlier this month, we woke up on a Friday morning and decided we could schedule a weekend long enough to get away. We were heading up to Lake Emily, a county park campground in Florence County in the Northern part of Wisconsin. Almost to the Michigan border.

Recently we bought a small boat trailer to be able to haul along our canoe behind the motorhome. Otherwise, we have to hook up the Saturn and towbar setup just to haul the canoe on the roof of the Saturn! Seems kind of crazy to tow along a 3,600 lb vehicle just to have our 60 lb canoe along?

So Steve found this cute little boat trailer for around 150 bucks and we gave it a fresh coat of paint. It had new tires and recently greased hubs as well as working lights and a perfectly good spare.

The weathermen warned us of heavy fog up north but the sky was blue in the early morning sunshine in Oconto. We hooked up the boat trailer and we also tossed in a tote of all of our gear and strapped everything down. 

We took off and double-checked and triple checked everything. Our rear backup camera can also be set to monitor out the back, even while we are driving forward down the road. Newer Winnebago View motorhomes do not have this option. It's pretty handy.

Yep, the weathermen were right! As we got up near Highway 8 everything was really foggy. It was quite dense and thick. Of course we had all of our lights on. We knew it would soon burn off. 

Turning off Highway 8 and going north on County Trunk U heading north. Soon it connects to County Trunk N and watch for the sign to the west leading to the county park. 

The fog burnt off within the hour and we had beautiful trees in every direction!

This Florence County campground does not take reservations at this time. It is still "first come first serve". But online reservations will be starting for 2024. Check their website for more information:

Florence County Parks

Lake Emily Park - ATV/UTV CAMPGROUND    NO RESERVATIONS - FIRST COME / FIRST SERVE  This facility has 18 sites on a quiet lake. Sites are $25.00 per night. There is a boat launch, pit toilets, water, sandy beach, and fishing. Each site has a picnic table, a fire grate, and electric and water hook-ups. This park also has a pavilion which can be rented for $25.00. Sites are available on a first come first serve basis.The Lake Emily Park Campground is located in the Town of Commonwealth. From US 2 in Florence turn South on County Hwy. N, go about three miles to County Hwy D, turn right (West) on County Hwy C, continue two miles to the campground and park.

My added notes:

There is NO dump station.

There are NO flush toilets or showers. 

Cell phone service is quite good 

because there's a tower at the end of the road. 

Broadcast TV stations fade in and out, 

come and go. Sometimes Rhinelander 

and sometimes PBS from Marquette.

We pulled into the campground, and we made one loop around, taking note of which sites were open. There were only about five campers in the park. Steve left me off part way around the loop to walk back and check our chosen site a little closer for level etc. He drove ahead to get an envelope from the pay post station.  Imagine my surprise as I walked up to the site. Here was someone standing by the post filling out a tag to claim it. It was our next door neighbor from back home, 85 miles away!! We had NO idea that they had chose to come camping at Lake Emily this weekend. He was filling out the slip quickly for his sister-in-law who was on her way. 

That was perfectly fine with us, we took the site right next to her then. They also had other family members on some other sites around too, so it was good that they were all together. 

We didn't recognize their motorhome when we pulled in because they had just gotten it recently. And they didn't recognize our motorhome when we pulled in because we had just gotten it recently. It was quite funny!

We got all set up on our campsite nice and level. It was underneath the beautiful tall trees.  Our post had 50 and 30 amp hookups. And there's also water spigots at every campsite. 

We unhooked the canoe on the boat trailer and wheeled over to the side of our campsite. It's very lightweight and we could push it easily.  It is working just like we planned.

The dreary weather had cleared up for the afternoon and we walked down to the little boat access area with a dock within the campgrounds. This is a nice area to pull your boat up into and tie up while you stay in the campground. That way you don't have to keep putting your boat in and out during your camping span of days. There is also a boat landing to the south for actual vehicle launching of boats. 

The fall colors of the hardwood trees were in their prime for the weekend. The temperature was also very pleasantly up into the '70s. There was rain forecast for the night and the next day. So we better make use of the nice weather while we have it.

Registered campers can pull up their boats at this dock and tie up. Kayaks also pull up on the grass and have a secure area to stay while in the campground. 

We carried the the canoe down and popped in our fishing gear. The sun was going to be going down soon, but we piddle-paddled around and checked out some of the weed beds for big fish. Some were jumping for evening bugs.  That doesn't bode well for worms and bobbers---

Bingo!  I popped a big fat juicy nightcrawler onto my hook and look what I caught! It was a pretty good sized smallmouth bass. They aren't such good eating this late in the year so we let it go.

That was the only fish we caught while we piddle-paddled around the lake. The sun started going down and we worked our way back to the campground. 

As we paddled to the little campground pier, the vivid colors from the setting sun looked like the woods were on fire!!! 

We pulled the canoe up in the grassy area by the kayaks and the other boats. It was nice to not have to haul it all the way back to our campsite for the night. 

And we were gifted with the spectacular warm soft peaceful sunset.... 

But the weathermen were right, look what was headed our way. We are the blue dot and that storm was blowing across from the west. And did it ever blow! 

We had hail and rain and thunder and lightning and even more hail and more rain. It lasted all night long and most of the day on Saturday. 

There were a few times that it would clear up and we would get out and about a bit. We curled up and took a long afternoon nap.

We had been thinking about making a campfire for the evening, our wood was nice and dry under a tarp. Just before Steve was ready to put it all together and light it, the rain came down again!

So instead, we curled up inside and tethered our phone to the Roku TV stick.  There is a really good cell signal in the area with the tower just down the road. We watched some HGTV shows until bedtime. 

The next morning was still rainy and cloudy. But the weatherman promised it would blow away by Sunday afternoon. Of course, that's when most people were heading home! 

Speaking of heading home, my cousin Bruce and his wife Patty had been up in Michigan visiting my siblings. They were heading home on Sunday and were able to swing by and visit with us for a little while at the campground!

All too soon, they had to head on down the road and get all the way back down to Cedar Grove near Milwaukee.

As the people around us were packing up, the clouds blew away to a beautiful blue sky for a Sunday afternoon! 

We popped the canoe back in the lake and headed out to piddle-paddle around. Steve is considering getting a small trolling motor for the back of the canoe. More piddling and less paddling?

Again, I out-fished Steve with a another smallmouth bass and then this big pan fish. If I had caught another pan fish we would have kept them for enough for a meal. But instead, we let him go. 

Steve didn't catch anything.

After everyone else left the park, there was only us and two other campers left on Sunday evening. The people left, and the campers were unattended all night.  We were the only ones staying in the park. We had decided to stay one more day because the weather had turned out so nice.

Monday morning was just as pleasant. We were glad we stayed an extra day.

But then we got the phone call that Steve's dad's health had taken a turn for the worst. Time to pack up and get back home. Time to spend with family and do some rescheduling with siblings to stay near his bedside.