If you’ve never driven northern Michigan in October, put it on your list. Move something else to make room for it if you have to. I’m not being dramatic; I’m being accurate. We’ve been making this trip for a few years now, and every time we come home, I find myself already looking forward to the next one.

This is the story of our most recent run through the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Michigan from a surprise art park in Indianapolis to the shores of Lake Michigan, an apple festival, a lighthouse, vintage RVs, and a campground where the main attraction was equal parts feathered and edible. And then, at the end of it all, Sleeping Bear Dunes is at peak color. Some trips deliver. This one over-delivered.

Watch the full video companion to this post — every stop on this trip, filmed and narrated. YouTube video here

The Stopover That Brought Back Fond Memories: Indianapolis

We broke the drive north into two days, spending our first night at the Indianapolis KOA Holiday, a reliable, well-run stop that we’ve used before as a staging ground heading into the Midwest. But this time Ginny spotted a familiar stop on the map we visited numerous years ago: the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park, better known as “100 Acres,” right on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

One hundred acres of woodlands, wetlands, and a 35-acre lake dotted with large-scale outdoor sculptures you’re actually encouraged to climb on and interact with. Free admission. No tour group required. We spent three hours there and left wishing we’d had three more.

Camp Turkeyville RV Resort: We Need to Talk About the Turkeys

Our first major stop heading north was Camp Turkey Creek RV Resort, and I want to be clear before I say anything else: the name is completely literal. Live turkeys in a very large penned area. Curious, unhurried, completely at home among the commotion of the RV resort. Ginny and I spent twenty minutes following them around, trying to get the perfect photo. I spent those same twenty minutes trying not to name any of them.

I named one anyway. Steve

That evening, the camp restaurant served a turkey dinner. I won’t speculate on the relationship between Steve and what appeared on my plate. What I will say is that the dinner was very good, the campground was well-maintained and genuinely friendly, and the fall color coming into the trees around our site told us we were heading in exactly the right direction.

 

 

Petoskey: Stone Hunting on the Shores of Lake Michigan

Sun Outdoors Petoskey gave us a perfect base for a few days on Little Traverse Bay, and the town of Petoskey delivered everything northern Michigan is supposed to be: water views, Victorian-era downtown architecture, good food, and one of the most satisfying low-key activities I’ve come across in years of RV travel: hunting Petoskey stones on the beach.

If you’re not familiar, a Petoskey stone isn’t technically a stone. It’s a fossil. Fossilized rugose coral from roughly 350 million years ago, when Michigan sat near the equator beneath a warm, shallow sea. Glaciers carried them north and deposited them across the shorelines of Lake Michigan. Michigan named it the official state stone in 1965.

The trick is to get to the waterline where the stones are wet. Dry, they look like any smooth gray rock. Wet, the pattern emerges unmistakably: small hexagonal cells radiating from a dark center, the ghost of an ancient coral colony.

Ginny found one before I did. I was picking up stones, thinking I had found one 🙂 

Charlevoix Apple Festival: The Trip Shifts Into Another Gear

From Petoskey, we followed the Lake Michigan shoreline south to Charlevoix, arriving right in the middle of the annual Apple Festival, which turned out to be one of those happy accidents that RV travel produces regularly if you’re paying attention.

Charlevoix earns its reputation. The harbor is picture-perfect, the fall color along the main street was peaking, and the festival atmosphere — local orchards, fresh cider, homemade pies that set an unfair standard for all future pies — made the whole stop feel like the trip was finding its rhythm. We walked, we ate, we bought apples we absolutely did not need given our refrigerator space, and we didn’t regret any of it.

Indigo Bluffs and the Leelanau Peninsula Drive

Indigo Bluffs RV Resort gave us an exceptional home base for the final stretch, tucked into Leelanau County in the northwestern corner of the Lower Peninsula, which is precisely where you want to be when Michigan’s fall color peaks.

We spent a day simply driving. No agenda, no must-hit landmarks, no schedule. The M-22 highway along the Lake Michigan coast through this stretch of the Leelanau Peninsula is one of those drives that makes you grateful for the life that puts you behind that wheel. From the bluffs above Glen Lake, you can see the lake, the dunes, and the full spectrum of October color all in the same glance. Ginny had her camera out the entire drive. I kept my eyes on the road and tried to describe what I was seeing without pulling over every five minutes.

I pulled over six times. Worth it every time.

Sleeping Bear Dunes: The One You Came For.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Thirty-five miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. Dunes rising 450 feet above the water. Dense beech and maple forest at full peak color behind them. The Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive connecting overlook after overlook, each one stopping you cold.

There’s an Ojibwe legend behind the park’s name: a mother bear swam Lake Michigan with her two cubs to escape a forest fire. She made it to shore and climbed a high bluff to wait. The cubs never arrived. The Great Spirit transformed the mother into the Sleeping Bear dune, and the cubs into North and South Manitou islands offshore. I think about that story every time I look at those dunes.

Elkhart, Indiana: The RV Hall of Fame

We couldn’t drive home through Indiana without stopping in Elkhart, the self-described RV capital of the world, where roughly 80 percent of all RVs manufactured in North America are built within a short radius of town. Right in the middle of it sits the RV and Motorhome Hall of Fame and Museum.

As a former Registered RV Technician, I had a personal interest beyond the tourism angle. The museum traces the full arc of the industry — from converted automobiles and early tent trailers to the modern Class A coaches and fifth wheels that define the category today. The Hall of Fame section honors the designers, manufacturers, and dealers who shaped what recreational vehicle travel looks like. It’s thoughtfully curated, and if you have any genuine connection to this lifestyle, you’ll find yourself spending more time here than you planned. Those of you who follow Keep Your Daydreams will be delighted to find “The Bird”.

Final Thoughts

Michigan in the fall is one of those trips that gets better every time we do it. The foliage, the stones, the festivals, the history, and the people you meet at campgrounds that feel less like parking lots and more like small communities. That’s what this life is about for us.

If this trip goes on your list, and I genuinely hope it does, time it for the color. Late September through mid-October in the northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula. Watch the fall color forecast maps as you get closer, and build in flexibility to stay an extra day somewhere that earns it.

And if you make it to Sleeping Bear Dunes, stand at that overlook for a few minutes longer than feels necessary. Trust me on this one.

Campgrounds on This Trip

• Indianapolis KOA Holiday — Indianapolis, IN
• Camp Turkeyville RV Resort — Northern Michigan
• Sun Outdoors Petoskey — Petoskey, MI
• Indigo Bluffs RV Resort — Glen Arbor, MI