Is this the end of the 2020 Camping Season?

The 2020 Camping Season is shutting down pretty much everywhere you go north of the Mason Dixon Line this weekend. And what a year it has been?

There were shutdowns and forced closings, confusing partial openings, long lists of social distancing and cleaning requirements, the great debate over masks, and never-ending waves of pandemic-weary new RVers looking to get away and enjoy the outdoors in new and rented RVs.

So many new campers joined the RV Lifestyle that many dealers across the country literally sold out of their existing inventory. And campgrounds were filled almost every night.

But the 2020 camping season still brought many smiles!

According to industry research, for about half of all the campgrounds in the U.S. and Canada, this is the final weekend. Once the Halloween campers head home, the “Closed for the Season” signs go up.

It's hard to run a campground in the cold.

We just finished a fabulous fall campout that took us all over Southwest Michigan, from the Lake Michigan shoreline down to the Indiana/Michigan border.

Along the way, we were the subjects of a video documentary (we show you some behind the scenes shots), did some RV accessory shopping, visited an Apple Orchard, hiked, and had an awesome time with family and friends amidst the splendor of autumn in Michigan. You're invited! Click the play button below and come on along!

Here are some more details about the places we showed you in the video:

Holland State Park Camping

The first Campground on Lake Michigan was at the Holland State Park. It is now closed until spring but we highly recommend it.

We visit the Holland State Park a couple of times every year.  It is 142 acres in size and is located four miles west of the city of Holland, Michigan. The state park consists of separate Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan units on the northern side of the channel connecting Lake Macatawa with Lake Michigan.

Here's a photo of one of our camping spots at Holland State Park…

There's a nice hiking trail that winds its way over what were once sand dunes that have now grown into a ridge of hardwoods.

The beach at Holland State Park is known for its soft, sugar sand and the colorful red lighthouse is one of Michigan's most iconic photographs. The original structure dates back to 1870.

Waffle Farms Campground, Coldwater, MI

The campground we stayed at in Coldwater, MI was the Waffle Farms Campground https://wafflefarm.com/ It has also closed for the season.

The Campground is located mainly on Craig Lake and partially on Morrison Lake. These two lakes are part of a chain of 7 very popular lakes totaling almost 1,100 acres. All 7 lakes are located in southern Michigan for their excellent fishing. There is perch, crappie, Largemouth Bass and Northern Pike.

In all, it has 400 campsites, separated into two sections: The main campground has 225 sites and the seasonal camp 155 sites. In the main campground your choice of facilities vary from a primitive site to a waterfront site with full hookup. 

We camped with our son Jeff and our daughter in law Aimee, and two of our grandkids, Jovie and Jax, along with Aimee's mom, Linda,  sister, Beth, brother-in-law Robb and their kids Bowen, Adlin, and Izzy. We had three dogs, way too much food and a fun Halloween time that had the kids painting pumpkins, playing games and all of us hanging out around big fires.

Jennifer and I are not normally fans of big campgrounds but when you are gathered with family, they can be awesome… as this one was! 

Be sure to check the video to see what Bo thought of the Halloween decorations.

Who was the video crew?

I know many of you are curious about the crew doing the video on us. As soon as they have it edited and release it, I will add a link to it to this post and share it on social media. 

What did we buy?

Meanwhile, if you are interested in the items we bought in the video, go to https://rvlifestyle.com/campingworld  We have linked them there. And you can get a 10% discount if you use the promo code rvlifestyle on purchases over $99.

Crane's U-Pick Apples

The Apple Orchard we visited with the video crew was Crane's U-Pick in Fennville, MI – http://craneorchards.com/  

The trees were heavily loaded with beautiful bright red apples of every variety. Dogs are not allowed but we had a slight glitch when the center door to our RV opened while we were being videoed driving up at a spot where we were to go picking. Bo bolted out the open door and ran wildly up and down between the trees until we could catch him and get him back in the RV.

But he managed to snag a couple apples.

Bo loves apples. We give them to him as a treat. When he saw so many lying on the ground under the trees he thought he was in paradise. We captured some of that in the video.

We're not ready to end the camping season!

We know this has been a tough year for many. We hope this video brought a smile to your face and that you'll be able to have similar fun when the 2021 season begins.

Meantime, Jen and I still have a few more trips in mind before the holidays. We're just going to have to head further south to avoid the cold weather.

Happy Trails!

Get more RV travel ideas, tips, news, and perks!

Each Monday Mike and Jennifer Wendland publish the insiders RV Lifestyle Newsletter, where they share weekly articles about RV travel that inspire and inform. As soon as you sign up, we'll send you for free the RV travel checklist that Jennifer and Mike use. You can save it to your computer and print it out for every trip like we do. No more forgetting things!  Plus, besides the insider's newsletter each Monday, you'll get lots of special perks and RV discounts. 
Enter your info below and you are in!
[mc4wp_form id=”49345″]

 
 

Comments are closed.