Camping on South Manitou Island

Last weekend was probably my favorite weekend of the entire summer. We headed up to South Manitou Island to go camping with a group of our closest friends. We all arrived to Leland, checked in, ate the most amazing sandwiches in Historic Fishtown, and took the 2-hour ferry over to South Manitou Island. We were able to see the North Manitou Shoal Lighthouse too! We stayed at the Bay Campground, which is closest to the dock and the only campground on the island with clean water to drink. I loved my time on the island. I had been once before, but this experience was totally different. We ended up taking a really long (and hard) hike up to see the Francisco Morazan shipwreck, and to see the Valley of the Giants, some of the oldest cedar trees in Michigan. Afterwards, we hiked up this giant dune, and ran down. We went swimming in (freezing) Lake Michigan, I collected rocks on the beach, and we had the longest hike back all along the beach. At night, we'd sit around the campfire, cook tons of food and s'mores, and relax. At night, we'd walk across our campsite to the beach and turn off our flashlights to see the insanely amazing starry sky. It was unreal. I can't wait to go back already.