St. Clair lake and st. Clair river what to see
 

Ok, looking to take my 31' cc from lake Erie western basin next week for one week vacation. Would like to burn some gas and site see with 3 of my kids. My kids are 10,11,12! Looking to go up through Detroit river and stay some where around the mouth of Detroit river and lake st. Clair or in lake st. Clair, for a night need a dock and a room for all of us. Any suggestions.

I would rather spend the night somewhere cool in lake st. Clair. Stay in the lake for 2 days. Then journey through to st. Clair river for a few more days! I was in the river several years ago and just drove through it! I could not believe this was a river! It was so beautiful!

I am looking for suggestions on things to see and do, places to eat and stay! Any info, phone numbers suggestions. Things to beware of etc.

I am looking for somewhere to dock the boat and somewhere to site see and sleep?

Things to consider it giving me your suggestion are listed below...
1. I have 3 kids that would like to consider accommodating!
2. Can hang at a nice marina, or nice little walking town to site see
3. Any place to stop on the way. Good eats, drinks, beautiful unique places to show the kids. Places to swim?


This place has always been a great place for info!
Thanks in advance for your help!

Any great fireworks!

On Belle Isle theres a pretty good maritime great lakes ship museum and believe it or not they have a world class botanical garden thats way cool just across the street, not sure where you would dock though. Maybe a run by the old Boblo island and dont forget on the way up you can run the Livingston channel and on the way back the west side of Grosse Isle is pretty nice. Dump ya out pretty much the same place.

The channel on west side of Belle isle is the legendary rooster tail turn and the home of the Detroit Gold cup hydroplane races. Very historical

If you are up in the city of St Clair you can pop into the pine river and dock right there. Couple great restaurants on the north side within a block. Murphys Inn and Pepper Joes top the list. You night get lucky and run into the world famous champion offshore racer Ed Smith :D

Nice marina in Det with a shuttle to downtown hotels, eats etc...

Plenty of marinas in lsc. Not really within walking distance of hotels.

Jefferson Beach & Miller Marina is about 10 miles from Det.
Mac&Rays is up in Anchor bay.
Algonac Harbor club is on yhe North channel.

Restaurants:

Brownies and the Beach Grill in st Clair Shores. Browns on Harsens Island (off Middle Channel)

The city of St Clair is awesome with nice marina, good restaurants, hotel and all within walking distance.

Port Huron is nice as well and the last stop before lk Huron.

Hit me up if your passing through on Wed. I'll have two 11yr and one 10yr old with me lol.

Here's what you don't want to see....

The ship wreck in middle channel up close and personal with your drives hanging up on it.

It's labeled on most GPS units. I chose to ignore it prior to hitting it with a buddies boat tho.

Whoops! LOL

:lolhit::lolhit::lolhit:

Where is that at, have been thru there and never knew it, I drove onto the sandbar once near st claire shores and luckily was able to back off of it (was like getting stuck in glue), I guess thoses buoys were there for a reason! I have a gps but never use it on the boat for navigation, thanks, Smitty

On the right as you go to browns bar

Just got home from there!!

We stayed at the St. Clair Boat Harbor ( may be the one Glassdave was referring too in the Pine River ) Awesome marina with new floating docks and upgraded bath/shower house's.. We ate at both Pepper Joe's and Murphy's I liked Murphy's better they had awesome pizza...

There is a shuttle that runs 24-7 from the marina to anywhere that you want to go, also the St. Clair inn is just down the street so your kids will have accomidations..

I do know that there is a walking path that runs down next to river, I never used it but I'm sure it's pretty cool..

The Marina is 22 mi. from Lake St. Clair and 17mi from Lake Huron!! Definitely recommend cruising up to Lake Huron and just explore and do whatever, in my opinion the most beautiful water I've ever seen, The black River is just before the bridge on the right there are a few restuarants down there also!!!

Good Luck!!

Jeff

I like that place, good food and kinda out of the way.


Oh . . . by the way, Nothing is "on the right" when your on the water. Its north south east or west and of course port and starboard lol :D


yep, thats the one they have done a lot of improvements to that place last couple years. Murphs pizza is the best. There house pizza rules!

Well I was driving a fountain so the controls were on my LEFT and the wreck was to my RIGHT till I drifted over and ontop of it lol

If you go through West side of Belle Isle, it is no wake between the Island and Detroit shoreline, also stay to the port side shoreline cause it is shallow(its called scott middle grounds) Then pull into sinbads or roostertail inn for a drink. I also do recommend Browns on the middle channel. Even though it is out of the way, you NEED a Madison burger. They are the best. Also I would call MacRay Harbor. Beautiful place to stay and sometimes they have furnished condos available to rent. Wed. They will have a beautiful fireworks show. Harrison twp also has free shuttles to take you were ever you want to go in there city. I would also call the concord inn hotel on Gratiot st. They may have a shuttle to pick you up from the marina. I know they dropped my off at my marina once but I was hammered so details were a little fuzzy.

288 Kid...must have been Brokeback Fountain

We've been running the St. Clair River up to Lake Huron a lot this year. There are several historic lights. There is a restored lightstation near Algonac. A relocated historic range light at Marine City & the Huron lightship is near there too. Then you will get to Port Huron and you can run up the Black River a ways if you like. You can eat and gas up there. Then continuing up the St. Clair the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse is on the American side and is Michigan's oldest light. Go under the bridge and out a ways and there is a modern light marking the entrance to the shipping channel. Then if you back track a bit and on the American side of Lake Huron is a really nice public beach where there will be a lot of boats anchored on the sandbar and lots of people on the beach. There is a small convenience store in easy walking distance that sells booze too. Lake St. Clair also has lots to see & do and I also recommend Brown's Bar. Be VERY careful entering and leaving the middle channel as it curves just north of Sand Island and you do not want to discover sand island! Study your charts, pay attention to your GPS and watch for the navigation aids. Have fun. These waters are some of the best boating anywhere. (have a can of insect repellent on board just in case the black flies are out)

this should also help you.

http://www.derankinservicesolutions....l-detroit.html

You can click and unclick to see dangers, marina, restaurants off to the left hand side

The website LSCN.net has lots of info on Lake St. Clair and also an excellent waypoint map of the lake that will help you mark all the hazards and channels, Very helpful. My favorite place are Mac Rays, Algonac Harbour Club, and The St. Clair Marina in the town of St. Clair. I would take the South (shipping channel) when heading north. Then the North channel when coming back south. The North channel and Middle channel are tricky to find without GPS.

I think fabio took a likin' to you boy'.......

You guys rock! Lots of info. To look into? Will let you know in a week what we did and where we went!

Hope you have a great week. Weather is looking good for ya