Michigan’s UP – Land of the Yooper!

05/21/2022 – 05/31/2022

The Journey West 2022 – Leg 5

Exploring the UP

Bill and I lived in Michigan 30+ years ago but never really made it up into the UP to fully explore the area. The biggest draw for me was the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Lake Superior, lots of waterfalls and Mackinac Island.

During the couple of years we lived in Michigan, my mom and brother came for a visit. We were all huge fans of the movie Somewhere in Time, in fact, my mom said my brother and I were even a little obsessed with it and could pretty much quote most of the lines from the movie. Anyway… we road-tripped it up to the island and had a great time! I loved the island so much that a return trip was necessary. I wanted to share this wonderful place with Bill. But first things first. To get to the Upper Peninsula one must cross the Mackinac Bridge.

The Mighty Mac

This Mackinac Bridge or Mighty Mac connects the lower peninsula to the upper peninsula crossing the Mackinac Straits; where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. The bridge is just under 5 miles long and the deck height is 200’ above the water. It is a beautiful bridge. To say I was terrified to ride over it would be an understatement. You see, it can get pretty windy going thru the straits. It can also be foggy. There are no shoulders. The max speed is 45 MPH. I had plenty to be nervous about, don’t you think? I was going to google “how many cars have fallen off the bridge” but then thought this was probably information I really didn’t want to know.

As we started our drive that morning, I began to check the bridge crossing conditions on the Mackinac Bridge Authority website. Was it windy? No, it is a relatively calm and sunny day. We get closer and I can see the towers above the hills. This is happening! I say a few prayers and get my camera ready. Once we are over the water, I really start to get nervous and on the edge of my seat.

As we start climbing the 200’ grade, I look out my window. BIG mistake! I see a little concrete barrier; probably only a foot tall, then the horizontal green pole, which is the guard rail, I suppose. It can’t be more than 3’ off the ground and then water. Dear Lord, please get us across safely. I shift my body so I am looking out Bill’s side of the coach now. But…. I have to get a look at Mackinac Island. Out of the corner of my eye I attempt to get a view; my body does not turn nor does my head…(much).

We made it across safely, I am happy to say, but it was the longest 5 minutes of my life. I thanked Jesus for answering my prayers and then I googled how many cars have fallen off the bridge. Only 2. Maybe I should have had that info before we crossed. LOL

Mackinac Island, The Jewel of the Great Lakes

We stayed at the Straits of Mackinac State Park. A beautiful park with gorgeous views of the bridge. I booked our ferry ride for 9AM with Shepler’s Ferry. They were recommended by the park and we were very impressed with their service. They picked us up along with our bikes at the campground and shuttled us to the dock. Our ride to the island included a short side trip under the Mackinac Bridge. So now I have been over and under the Mighty Mac. It was pretty impressive seeing it from this vantage point as well.

  Biking Around the Island

Being on Mackinac Island is like taking a step back in time. There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island, which also includes e-bikes. Transportation is either by horse drawn carriage or bicycles. We hopped on our bikes and began our 8.2-mile trip around the island. The road is mostly flat and offers fantastic views of Lake Huron. The water is so clear and so blue, you might think you were in the Caribbean.  There are several places to stop and take in the scenery. Also placed at intervals around the island are placards that tell stories of the Native Americans that once inhabited the area. I would recommend heading east out of town so you will be on the lakeside of the path the entire way around the island.

  Fudge

After our bike tour, we were a little hungry and decided to eat lunch at the Seabiscuit Café then do a little shopping for fudge. Mackinac Island is known for their fudge and I LOVE fudge. We decided we would do a Fudge Tasting Challenge. We visited each of the fudge shops on Main Street and bought ¼ pound from each vendor; Murdick’s, Ryba’s, Joann’s and Kilwins. Bill and I agreed that Kilwins was our least favorite. His favorite was made by Joann’s and mine was made by Ryba’s. It was all delicious, though. (except Kilwins, it just tasted sweet, no chocolate flavor was detected)

  The Grand Hotel

Now that our bellies are full, we head up to THE Grand Hotel. The hotel is gorgeous and GRAND. It boasts having the world’s largest porch with several American Flags flapping proudly in the wind. The hotel opened in July of 1887 and the nightly rates ranged from $3 to $5 a night. Ever since seeing Somewhere in Time it has been a dream of mine to stay here. I looked at the cost to stay there now… rooms start at $945/night in the high season and after Labor Day go down to $512/night. Too rich for my blood. A lot has changed since 1887.

A lot has changed since 1990, when my mom, brother and I visited as well. Back then, you could walk around the hotel lobby, see the dining room, go into the Grand Hotel museum, walk around the grounds and sit on the front porch. Now it cost $10/person to do this. We admired this beauty from afar.

We pedaled over to the Mission Point Resort and enjoyed the use of their soft green grass and Adirondack chairs for free. This was a perfect spot to enjoy the warm sunshine on our faces, watch boats pass by and have a little snooze before catching the ferry back to St Ignace.

Our day on Mackinac Island was nearly perfect. There was one thing, or I should say pest, that kept it from being the most perfect day. The midge fly, about the size of a mosquito though they do not bite. They hatch from the water in the spring and are only around for a couple of weeks.  Since this spring was on the cool side, there were more of them than usual. They were ALL OVER THE PLACE… IN SWARMS. We rode through clouds of them on our bike ride. You had to be careful and make sure your mouth was closed or risk inhaling them. Bill made that mistake and choked on one. I’m sure I swallowed a couple myself.  A mask would have been handy today. 😉

Small Towns and a National Park in the UP

We made the short 2 hour drive to our next home base at the KOA in Munising. The park was nice and our site was large. However, we ran into another nasty pest. The mosquito. Florida has nothing on Michigan when it comes to mosquitos. I think it might be considered their state bird, I don’t know. I do know they were horrible. My mosquito bites had mosquito bites by the end of our stay here. And that’s with repellant.

We will be here for 7 days, which will include a nice long weekend, to explore the area and it’s a good thing because there is so much to see and do here. Let’s start with a drive over to Marquette.

Marquette

Marquette is about 45 minutes from Munising, along Lake Superior and home to Northern Michigan University. Since the weather was chilly, cloudy and a little rainy, we decided to take the day and check the area out.

  Pocket Docks

We drove around the Harbor and learned a little about the Ore industry and how the first iron ore pocket dock came to be. Back in 1857, transfer of the iron ore from the trams to the schooners was very slow; 20-30 men would shovel the ore from wheelbarrows onto the boats. It took about 6 days to do this. This led to the birth of the pocket ore dock. The pockets would be loaded with ore from the trams and then it would be dispensed to the ships below. With 27 pockets or chutes on each dock, multiple boats could be loaded at one time reducing the time from days to hours. This particular one is no longer in use, but as we toured Lake Superior, we saw many docks still being used. The U.P. has produced over one billion tons of iron ore since mining began in 1846.

  Presque Isle Park

At the end of the harbor drive is the entrance to Presque Isle Park. While we waited for the Peter White Drive to open, we walked out to the lake to get a better view of the lighthouse and look for agates. I think we may have found a few. Once we get them back to Portland and shined up, we’ll know for sure.

Peter White Drive runs through the park. It is closed to motor vehicles at certain times during the day so bicyclists and foot traffic full use of the area. The drive only took about 30 minutes and we got out at Black Rocks to look around. During the summer months Black Rocks is a very popular spot to jump off the rocky cliffs into Lake Superior. Today there was no swimming, too cold and too stormy but the rock hunting was off the charts. I could have spent hours digging through all the rocks to find the perfect agate but my stomach was beginning to grumble.

  Pasties

If you are in the U.P. you must, absolutely must, try a pasty (pronounced with short a). It is based on the Cornish pasty and is basically a meat pie. The pasty was a way for the miners to have a hot meat & potato meal in a handheld pocket. It is small, filling and easily portable. Pasties can be eaten plain, with brown gravy or the more popular condiment ketchup. Stay tuned for a pasty recipe as I will be experimenting to make them my own.

We found Jean Kay’s and headed over to try them out. They were superb! Jean Kay’s is family owned and we talked to the owner while we were eating. Super friendly, as we found almost everyone in the UP to be. 😊 Anyway, Brian (the owner) began the business when he was 19 years old. He uses his grandma’s recipe and makes them fresh every day. He finally retired and sold the business but then bought it back 7 years later when he felt that quality had declined and yet continued to use his mother’s name. So today, Jean Kay’s is once again making fresh homemade pasties just like grandma did. They were delicious and we bought a dozen mini-pasties to take home with us.

Munising

Our home base for the week is Munising. A small little town on South Bay in Lake Superior and gateway to Pictured Rocks National Park. We enjoyed this little town very much. There were several gift shops, places to purchase smoked whitefish and a quilt shop! Of course I had to check that out. The owner was super sweet and gave us the run down of her favorite place for pasties and “must-dos” in the area and that we had to go look for the elusive blue slag. This place easily became one of my favorite stops.

More Pasties

After talking to several people in town we found that the two local pasty shops were favored for different reasons. It’s another food challenge for the Class-A Nomads! We bought 2 pasties from Muldoon’s and 2 from Miners and did a comparison. Bill and I both agreed Miners was the best, in our opinion. Their crust to filling ratio was perfect. Muldoon’s seemed to have too much crust and more potatoes than meat. But… Jean Kay’s in Marquette was still our favorite.

Glass Slag

Taking the “quilt lady” up on her challenge, we headed out to the Bay Furnace to search for slag. Slag is the waste matter that separates from metals during the smelting of ore. We did not find any of the blue slag, but did find some shades of green, black and purple. We can’t wait to get these tumbled too. The furnace these came from was used during 1870-1877.

Manistique

  Kitch-iti-kipi

The weather in the Munising area was still rainy so we decided to drive over to Kitch-iti-kipi Spring per the “quilt lady’s” recommendation. She assured us it would be worth the gas. Off we go on a forest road with no map and very little to no cell signal. We were doing fine until the Google Maps told us to turn on a road that wasn’t there. Anyway, we finally made it over to the spring and during the drive the sun decided to come out. Yay! I have missed that warm glow.

The spring is beautiful, not FL spring beautiful but beautiful in it’s own right. The water is about 45’ deep and approximately 10,000 gallons of water flow from it per minute. Oh, and it is a chilling 45°. So all y’all that think FL springs are cold at 72°? I ask you to step into this water. 😊 Hopping on the hand-operated raft, the guide pulled us across the spring and we were able to see the water bubbling up and trout swimming around. The water then makes its way out to Indian Lake. There isn’t really a lot to do here, but worth the 30-minute stop.

 Lighthouses and Drive-Ins

On to the little town of Manistique that sits at the top of Lake Michigan. Again, not a lot to do here, but the sun is shining and we are enjoying the blue skies that have not been seen for several days. Another lighthouse is spotted and the lake is calm, so we decide to take a walk out to it. Since no one else was around, Kona was freed from her leash. She was very happy to run around unrestrained.

Time to get a bite to eat and we found a cute little drive-in. Yes, a real drive-in, where you park your car, the waitress comes to get your order and then delivers your food on one of those cute trays that hook to your car window. How fun! What would have been more fun is if they were wearing roller skates. LOL Clyde’s Drive-in has been in business since 1949. We ordered a couple of burgers, fries and onion rings. They were all delish. Bill’s burger, The Big C with cheese, was HUGE. I don’t even know how he got his mouth around the thing, but he did and enjoyed every bite. I am incredibly happy we found this little gem.

  Jeep Fun

Time to head back to our camp in Munising. As we are driving out, we notice a sign with a jeep on it. Curiosity got the better of us and we end up finding an old rail line that has been made into an ORV/Snowmobile Trail. It runs 32 miles from Manistique north to the Munising area. We rode the trail as far as we could and even met another jeep family on the journey. There were a lot of mud puddles to splash in and markers highlighting the former rail line along the way. A great ending to a very good day.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Finally Memorial Day weekend has arrived and we have 3 days to explore the park. We hiked, we saw so many beautiful waterfalls, drove Hwy M-58 from Munising up to Grand Marais and took a sunset cruise along the lakeshore. It was three very active and fun-filled days!

  Hiking, Waterfalls & Lighthouses

I planned our days so we would have a little hiking, driving and waterfalls without over doing it. Several of the waterfalls we saw were along the road or just a short distance from the parking area. Let me share a little about each of the ones we saw. All are located in the park or within a 30-minute drive of Munising and all are worth seeing if you are a waterfall lover like me.

  Alger, Wagner & Munising and Au Train Falls

Alger Falls is right along Hwy M-28. There is a little pull out and they are right there. A little path will lead you around the falls and you can walk over to the base and even up the side.

Wagner Falls is maybe 2 miles from Alger on Hwy M-94. A short walk leads you to the base of these beautiful falls. Along the little creek and falls were these pretty little yellow wild marigolds. Sadly, I was not able to capture their beauty with the camera on my cell phone.

A little further down on Hwy M-94 is Au Train Falls on the Au Train River. The road/trail down to the falls is a little steep but easy to walk. These falls were gorgeous and probably my favorite. Very hard to describe but the rock extends across the width of the river and cascades down about 40’ or so. It looked like stair steps all the way down and the water trickled down to the end where it fell and the river began again.

Munising Falls is located at the national park visitor center. A short walk along Munising Creek leads to this 50’ waterfall where the water falls delicately over the sandstone cliff.

  Miners and Sable Falls and Au Sable Lighthouse

About 4 miles off of M-58 is the trailhead to Miners Falls. After applying mosquito repellant, we headed out to Miners Falls. Mosquito repellant is something you want to make sure you have a good supply of. It’s a quick ½ mile out and 64 steps down for a great view of the falls for a total 1-mile round trip. We then made the short drive down to the cliffs to see Miners Castle.

Heading back out to M-58 we continued our drive towards Grand Marais. The road winds its way thru a nice forest with access roads to more trails, lakes, waterfalls and campgrounds. We continue on to Au Sable Light Station. The trail out to the lighthouse is a 3-mile round trip walk on a flat gravel road along Lake Superior. Did you know the stretch of shore between Grand Marais and Whitefish point is known as the “Graveyard of the Great Lakes”? 3-miles didn’t sound that far, but I was glad when we got back to the jeep.

Last stop of the day was at Sable Falls just outside of Grand Marais. The short trail from the parking lot leads to a set of 168 steps down to see the falls. You know what that means, right? 168 steps back up. This at the end of the day? When we have already hiked about 5 miles? You betcha! The decent was easy and the falls are beautiful. Bill was ready to go almost as soon as we got there, (picture Chevy Chase at the Grand Canyon in Vacation). I wanted to chill and enjoy the moment. If I’m being truthful, though, I was delaying that climb back up the stairs. Womp Womp

Heading back up the stairs I had to stop several times to rest my weary legs and let my heart rate fall back into the “cardio zone”. Bill kept on going. I’m thinking, “Where is he getting all this energy?” When I finally make it back to the jeep I say in my most snarky voice, “Gee, thanks for waiting…” His reply was, “If I stopped, I would have been D-U-N, done.” Okay, got it. I’m done too. Well… not quite…

I wanted to go to Agate Beach in Grand Marais and do a little rock hunting. We found several winners to add to our collection. I cannot wait to get these in the rock tumbler and see how they shine up. I know there we found some treasures. Now, it is time to rest up because tomorrow we have a 6 mile hike. 😐

  Chapel Falls and Rock

After a nice big breakfast we head out for our long hike. I am excited for what we are going to get to see and the exercise we are going to get. When I was doing research on “things to do” I came across a blog discussing this hike. It basically said, if you hike out to the falls you might as well keep going to Chapel Rock. After all, you are already half way there, it’s just another 1.5 miles and the payoff is worth it. Made sense to me.

We drive out to the trailhead, which is about 5 miles off M-58 on a mostly dirt and muddy road. The parking lot is full and we have to park about ¼ mile away and walk back. The mosquito repellant is slathered on and we start our journey. The wide trail leads through a lush green forest and we finally make it to the falls. Again, another amazing sight. We take a quick rest, snap a few pics and continue on to Chapel Rock.

The trail quickly narrows and for the next mile it seems like we are hiking thru a swamp. Remember all the rain we’ve had this week? We navigate puddle after puddle, jumping from branch to branch, trying to keep from sinking to our shins in mud and muck. The trails that went off to the sides, over and around this mess told me this mud is not unusual. I did not get any pictures of the muddy mess because I was too busy trying to get through it.

We finally made it out to the rock and WHOA! Very cool. The blogger was right, definitely worth the extra mileage to get here. At one point in time, this rock was part of the mainland but weather, wind, rain, waves, ice and erosion have caused it to separate. The tree fought to stay alive and grew its roots across the opening as the erosion was happening. It still gets all the nutrients and water it needs to live from the bridge it created over to the mainland.

After we have a nice rest, it was time to walk the 3 ¼ miles back to the jeep (sigh). Back through all that mud…(sigh) Okay, let’s get it done. I start my stopwatch to see how long it takes us to get back and off we go. It seemed like we were going slower with more breaks but once we got back to the jeep, I compared our time out vs our time back there was only 1 minute difference. Really?? Wow! It took us 1 hour 23 minutes to get there and 1 hour 24 minutes to get back. I am exhausted and my legs feel like jello but I feel AWESOME!

  Pictured Rocks Cruise

The piece de resistance of our week here was the cruise along Pictured Rocks. They are breathtakingly gorgeous! We chose to go with the cruise company endorsed by the NPS, Pictured Rocks Cruises. The sunset cruise is the most popular and there is a choice to extend the trip to Spray Falls. This is what we did and I highly recommend spending the few extra dollars for Spray Falls.

Once again, clouds and a little rain were involved. The shoreline was amazing. Colors of yellow, orange, black and teal all created by the minerals in the different layers of rock. The water was clear and a splendid blue. If only the sun was shining everything would have sparkled so much more. It was one ooh and ahh after another and we were blessed with a small peak of the setting sun through the clouds. Take the cruise. Period. You won’t be sorry. Enjoy the slide show 😊

The Upper Peninsula was everything I wanted it to be. The lake is amazing! The waterfalls are incredible! The cliffs and rocks, marvelous! The people are super friendly. The pasties, mmmmm. If they could find a way to get rid of those pesky mosquitos, this place would be perfect!!

Let me leave you with a few tid-bits on Lake Superior

• It is the world’s largest freshwater lake
• The water from the lake would fill a pool the size of the continental U.S. to a depth of 5 feet.
• The largest waves ever recorded on Lake Superior were 28.8 feet high and were recorded in October of 2017
• It is the coldest of the Great Lakes with an average temperature of between 36 and 39 F
• Agates are one of the most sought after souvenirs from the area (hope I found one)