We spent our first night at Straits State Park in St Ignace, just north of the Mackinac Bridge, which brings us to …
Day 1: St Ignace to Door County
We started our drive from Straits State Park at 9:20 AM and arrived at 4:00 PM local time (Door County is in the Central Time Zone). We stopped at the Holiday for gas and coffee before leaving St Ignace, then hit US-2. We ended up stopping at the same rest area on Lake Michigan that we hit last year going in the opposite direction. There weren’t many lunch options along the way so we ended up in Cedar River at Sues Two Plaza Grill inside the Shell station/store. It doesn’t sound very exciting but I had a chicken melt that our server — who was great! — recommended. Garlic texas toast with chicken, swiss, and bacon, with fries and great slaw. And a reuben for Steve. For about $20. We might have to try the chicken melt at home!
It was a little blustery on the bridge in Green Bay, but we made it. Peninsula State Park is a very popular park, so if you want to stay there I recommend you book early. I thought we booked pretty early and even then we couldn’t find a single site for five nights. We had to book one site for a single night and the rest next door, which mean having to check in twice. We decided to go ahead and unhook the trailer, especially since checkout time was 3:00 PM. We got wood for $6.50 at the campground, then checked out the restrooms and the beach. We didn’t have a lot of trouble leveling the trailer, though a badly placed tree made backing in challenging. There are cute squirrels in the neighborhood too. Looks like snack bar at the beach is closed for the season. Today, whichever today that was!
Day 2: Eagle Hike
Our first full day in camp we did the Eagle hike. As we suspected, it wasn’t super strenuous; the difficult rating was for some spots where footing was tough due to rocks and roots. We hiked the Minnehaha trail from the campground over to the Eagle trail. I think we did it the right way in terms of tackling the up and down slope. (We did the loop clockwise.) There were great views of the rocks from the bottom, and a nice view of the bay and some villages from the top. And it wasn’t too tiring.
When we got back to camp there was a Corvette parked on our new site. Thankfully the driver was down the road talking to the camp hosts. We got a good laugh over that.
We moved the trailer over to the new site, then drove over to Bailey’s Harbor to Door County Brewing. Steve had It Just Does Funny Things and I had a peach milkshake IPA called Whatever You Like? We also had a charcuterie platter that was pretty good. Prosciutto, soppressata, another sausage, artichokes, almonds, some kind of dried fruit, pesto cheese. It was tasty but it wasn’t dinner, so we drove back to camp, picked up firewood, finished setting up and tidying up, then drove into Wild Tomato for pizza. Conveniently located right outside the state park. We split a 16” half deluxe, half sausage and pesto. It was really good. We were able to sit outside because there were lots of outdoor heaters. Kind of a chilly fall night.
Day 3: Whitefish Dunes and Cave Point County Park
We organized our time in Door County so that we could take in the scenery and some of the local restaurants while getting to and from hikes. Peninsula State Park is pretty centrally located and camping here made that easier.
After hiking Whitefish Dunes we drove over to Cave Point county park, which was just as picturesque as the photos. This is what you see when you Google search “Door County.” Oh, and our camera is misbehaving, so you might want to run that search to see better photos!
We had lunch in Jacksonport at Island Fever. We each had Door County Brewing beers. Pallet Jack IPA for Steve, and Polka King Porter for me. Both were good. We each had burritos; both needed hot sauce but were tasty.
Then we drove over to Egg Harbor. It looked more interesting driving through than once you stopped and looked in detail, but we wandered into a couple of shops and got gas. I guess we’re just not the browse-the-gift-shops type.
We stopped in Ephraim at the Old Post Office to make reservations for the fish boil tonight, then at Shopko for mouthwash for Steve. Shopko was not at all what I thought it was. Kind of a Meijer/Target kind of store. Then we hiked at Europe Bay After hiking we stopped at Grandma’s Swedish Bakery. We didn’t see anything worth buying, so we backtracked and drove up to Northport on the famously twisty road, then headed back down the coast. We stopped at Piggly Wiggly and got some local beer – Ahnapee Two Stall chocolate stout, Perky Porter, and New Glarus Spotted Cow, a cream ale.
For dinner we tried something local: a fish boil. We had no idea what a fish boil was or that such a thing existed until we started researching Door County. Once we found out what a fish boil was, we had to try one. We picked the Old Post Office since it had good reviews and was close to the state park. A fish boil is basically boiled fish, potatoes, and onions. To entertain the tourists, a shot of kerosene at the end increases the flames and causes a boilover.
The flame up was impressive, and the food was really good. Who knew boiled onion was so tasty? Or that simple fish, potatoes, onion, coleslaw, fresh bread, and cherry pie so satisfying? All of that was included in the price, with $2 extra for ice cream. The service was really good too. They actually come around and remove the fish bones for you, which is really nice because they are not filets and removing the bones would be a real pain.
Day 5: Touring Door County
Before touring Door County we ate breakfast out at Julie’s, right outside the park. Steve had a farmer’s omelette and I had french toast stuffed with cherries and cream cheese and served with whipped cream. Yum! The cherries were just tart enough. Oh and latte. Service wasn’t great – he forgot us – but okay.
We had already covered a good part of the Door County peninsula on our way to and from our different hikes, so our last day was spent filling in any gaps and sightseeing in the villages along the way. We drove south from Peninsula State Park on 42 to Egg Harbor, then took county roads G and B along the coast toward Sturgeon Bay. We saw some nice big old houses along the coast. Then we cut across the peninsula on T and drove up the Lake Michigan side. We went all the way up the coast to county road Q, stopping at the Cana Island lighthouse. We didn’t go out to the island but watched the tractor pull people across the straight in a wagon.
Then we crossed back over to the bayside at Ephraim and walked around a bit, then stopped for gas, then onto Sister Bay. We stopped in Sister Bay for lunch at Al Johnson’s, since they were closing early for an employee party. Steve had a chicken sandwich and corn and sausage chowder. I had fish and chips. My fish and chips were so so. The lingonberry ice tea was very good. The gift shop was full of Nordic stuff. And the turf roof with the goats was fun. No goats when we were there for lunch, but we got to see them on a previous drive through the area.
We had goat’s milk gelato at the Door County Creamery. Stracciatella for Steve, Salted Caramel for me. I tried the olive oil and sea salt flavor but it wasn’t as interesting as it sounded. And I wouldn’t have known it was goat’s milk if you hadn’t told me. Then we got ice and headed into Fish Creek to walk around, then back to camp to hitch up the trailer for an early start. We also walked down to the beach and stuck our feet in the water. It was super cold, as we expected!
All told we put 257 miles on around Door County, between our day of touring and our hikes. We can see why it’s called the “Cape Cod of the Midwest.” It does have a kind of New England feel to it, mixed with some midwestern farm. I will say the villages look more cute and beguiling as you drive through them than they do when you actually start walking around. Then again we’ve never been big on twee gift shops or pricey art galleries and this just reinforced that those aren’t our thing! We like our wilderness a little more rough and well, wild.
Essentials
Lodging
Peninsula State Park is HUGE. (And hugely popular, so book early.) It has lots of hiking and biking trails, multiple campgrounds, beaches, a lighthouse, even a golf course! The firewood was well stocked. The showerhead in the camp shower was awful at first, we couldn’t adjust the temperature, but we did get clean. The beach near the campground was pleasant. Somewhat confused reservation process. We ended up with two sites in South Nicolet campground. (We couldn’t get five nights on the same site.) Site #746 was really nice and secluded. Site #748 had no privacy at all.
Dining
Dining options are scattered throughout the local villages. There’s a Piggly Wiggly for groceries.
Transportation
We were pulling our trailer so we had our own vehicle. You’ll want a car to get around.