This isn't the first time I have written about Mitchell State Park in Cadillac, MI. Guess what... it probably won't be the last time either. Mitchell is one of our favorite parks to visit. Especially when Autumn comes around.
If you are looking for the whole seclusion type thing, this park is not your cup of tea. It sits right off of busy highway 115 which crosses the channel connecting Lake Mitchell and Lake Cadillac. It really doesn't take long until you start to drown out all of the road noise and sink into complete relaxation mode.
As you will see in the pictures, my dog is the queen of relaxation mode...
Cadillac is actually fairly large if you make the short drive around Lake Cadillac and venture into town. They have several of the big box stores as well as a growing downtown district with several highly regarded restaurants and bars.
Since we had to work all day on Friday and didn't pull into the campground until around 6 PM, we decided to just get take-out from a place in town. Clam Lake Beer Company ended up being the winner and maybe we were just hungry, but it was fantastic.
I got the Cuban sandwich with fries. It had awesome flavor and they used naan instead of traditional bread which gave it a nice touch.
I didn't get pictures, but everyone else loved their food as well. Due to Covid the business is running a limited menu right now, so it did take us a couple of tries to find something from the online menu that they were actually serving.
The majority of the weekend was spent around the fire pit relaxing and enjoying some great conversation with our friends.
This is what I spent most of the day Saturday looking at. When my eyes were actually open of course. I have a tendency to nap in my lounge chair.
Jovi had plenty of squirrels to watch and pretend to chase.
Typically when we come to this park in the Fall, there is hardly anyone here. We get to pick from pretty much any site we want and we usually try to get right on the channel that connects the two lakes.
This year (again due to Covid), things have been absolutely crazy. With many kids doing virtual learning and other options off the table for travel, the campgrounds have been packed. Mitchell was no exception. By the time Saturday morning rolled around I don't think there was an empty spot in the whole campground.
We have one more trip planned in a couple of weeks and it literally took us an hour to find a state park that had availability for us. That is just how crazy things are this year.
Cadillac is a fairly close trip for us, so I didn't feel bad about transporting some of the wood from the branch that fell on our deck this past Summer. Having sat outside most of the summer it was well seasoned and it burned nicely.
It was great to get some enjoyment out of something that caused us such grief.
Good thing Jovi gets a bath after each camping trip. For some reason she just loves to lay on the ground, even though we bought her a nice cot to sleep on.
Cadillac really is a cool area. Especially if you are able to spend a good number of days there and you have a boat. My friend has brought his a number of times when we are camping here and we typically spend most of our day out on the lake.
The town sits right on the boarder of the Manistee National Forest, so there is plenty of outdoor stuff to do as well if you feel like getting away from the town. In the Winter Cadillac bustles with snowmobiler's and ice fishermen.
On our way up to Cadillac we noticed a billboard that was advertising this party store that specialized in Whiskey. Being a fan of the stuff my buddy and I decided to take a ride on Saturday and see what they had.
I picked up these two bottles that had been on my list of ones to try. My friend got a bottle of Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Select barrel strength. At a whopping 125 proof it was pretty much a one and done night for him. I have yet to crack mine open yet, but I have a feeling that will be resolved Friday night.
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All pictures taken by myself or @mrsbozz