I have wanted to visit Presque Isle for as long as I can remember. What do I regret most about out trip? Not staying longer.
Presque Isle does not have its own campground in the state park. There are several campgrounds nearby that you can stay at when visiting. We chose to stay at YMCA Camp Sherwin at the recommendation of good friends of ours. Camp Sherwin is approximately 20 minutes and 10 miles from Presque Isle. It’s an extremely easy drive and is basically only 2 roads to get to the park.
This is a privately owned park. It features a swimming pool, splash pad, volleyball court, lake access (more on this later), catch and release pond, and a small camp store. It seemed as if the majority of the campsites were seasonal sites, however, there were also a fair share of regular sites as well. We stayed at site number 5 and my parents stayed in number 6. Both sites had full hookups.
The positives:
1) Full hookups
2) Pet friendly
3) Easy to get in and out of the campground
4) Camp store employees were friendly and very welcoming
The negatives:
1) Our site was very tiny. It looked like it was much larger at one time, but due to a swamp the site was cut in half. It was not possible to walk behind our camper without having our shoes completely covered in mud from the swamp.
2) We lost water two mornings in a row and it did not come back on for several hours. If this was a planned outage, we weren’t notified by the campground prior to our stay or upon check-in
3) The campground also holds summer camp. The day we were leaving (Monday) there were summer camp kids EVERYWHERE
4) Lake access — the only way to get to the lake was by using wooden stairs that were uneven, steep, and slightly crooked. This is not an exaggerated statement.
Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at YMCA Camp Sherwin and would return when wanting to visit Presque Isle in the future.
Presque Isle State Park
Scenic Boat Tour — We booked tickets in advance for the scenic boat tour and it was really cool! There are several time slots throughout the day you can choose from. For our tour, there were only about 10 other people in addition to our family. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and seemed to enjoy giving us all a tour. I would definitely recommend doing this tour if possible.
Tom Ridge Environmental Center — The Tom Ridge Center had a gift shop with really cool stuff I haven’t seen anywhere else in a gift shop. There were things there for adults as well as kids. They even had a rack of pet items. There was an information desk with several employees and pamphlets. It also features displays and exhibits of fish, water levels of Presque Isle, and much more. We were in the museum for over an hour checking it out. It’s free to go into the center. Highly recommend!
Lighthouses — We visited three different lighthouses including Presque Isle Lighthouse, Erie Harbor North Pier Light, and Erie Land Lighthouse. Peep our photos of them on Youtube!
Presque Isle Lighthouse — We paid to climb this and it was so worth it! I am super claustrophobic and scared of heights too. Climbing this tower did not bother me at all. The stairs wind up throughout the lighthouse to the top and there is a staff member at the top giving more information in addition to what you get when you enter the lighthouse at the bottom.
Erie Harbor North Pier Light — When we visited this lighthouse there was a torrential downpour going on. I wish I was kidding. We walked the whole way out to see the lighthouse and were completely soaked when we got back in the car. The concrete to go to the lighthouse is a tad slippery, be careful when walking out in the rain. This lighthouse is wheelchair accessible. Be careful though, there are no guard rails and it would be extremely easy to fall into the water (and it would be a far fall).
Erie Land Lighthouse — This lighthouse is in an interesting part of town at the end of a dead end road. The lighthouse itself is beautiful, but getting to it isn’t the most scenic. The day we went the lighthouse was not open for tours.
Port Erie Bicentennial Tower — Going to the top of the tower is not pet friendly so we weren’t able to pay and go to the top, but we did go up as high as we could (for free) and it was still a lot of fun. Parking was atrocious, and there were people everywhere. If you have a Chevy Silverado 2500, you won’t fit in the spots easily 😉
My very brief summaries don’t even begin to describe Presque Isle. Please check out my Youtube video to see how beautiful Erie is, and how much fun we had. Have any questions about what we saw? Comment below and I’ll be sure to get back to you!
Originally published at http://theblogofkaliann.wordpress.com on July 9, 2021.