Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Rain was forecast for all of Thursday and we talked about delaying our departure until Friday. But when we awoke it was just drizzling so we forged ahead. The 60 miles we traveled west to I-75 were driven in a light rain but then the sun broke through and the rest of the day was beautiful. Except there was a lot of fog over the straits and the Mackinac Bridge was almost invisible! It was $7 to drive across the 5 mile bridge to the Upper Peninsula and then we turned west on US 2. We had another hour or so to drive to Germfask and we got settled into our site with no problem. This is the view of the site across from us. Someone was in it when we arrived so we’re across the road.


We decided to take the 7 mile drive through the Seney National Wildlife Refuge in the afternoon. It’s a beautiful ride and we saw trumpeter swans, a pair of coyotes, turtles on a log and two different beavers slapping the water with their tails and diving down. Afterwards we stopped at a diner for a bite to eat and had a nice conversation with the lady who owned the place. We drove to Curtis, MI and stopped at an old fashioned ice cream parlor for a cone. We both had Peanut Butter Mackinac Island Fudge! We found out later we had driven right past Pat and Bill’s house.

The next day we arrived at their house to spend the day. Their drive is ¼ mile long and was edged with beautiful ferns.


It was a bit too rough to go out on Big Manistique Lake so we put that off for another day.


The view out their front door is breathtaking. We saw an eagle soar by and enjoyed the hummingbirds that came to the feeders on their front windows. What a pretty, pretty place (in the summer). The 10 feet of snow in the winter doesn’t bother them apparently. Pat fixed a delicious dinner and about 8 pm we left for home.


We headed to Munising and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Saturday morning. We made it in time for the 10 o’clock cruise. I learned Lake Superior shoreline if stretched out would reach from NYC to Liverpool, England. Also, there is enough water in the lake to cover the entire continental US with 5 feet of water. The pictured rocks can only be seen by boat from the water.



Our first stop was Miner’s Castle. There are overlooks above and we intended to walk there later but ran out of time.


We saw several waterfalls that normally would not be running this late in summer but they’ve had so much rain they are still flowing.


We passed Painted Coves, Indian Head and the Grand Portal. Boats used to go through it but there’s been a rock fall that blocked access.




We sailed into Chapel Cove to get an idea of the height and color of the rocks.


We passed the Eastern Channel lighthouse on the way in and out. The cruise was about 2.5 hours long.


We ate lunch at the Navigator Restaurant and then drove to the trailhead for the Miner’s Falls. It was a 1.2 mile hike with 49 stairs down (and then up), to see the falls.


We wanted to take the trail to the top of Miner’s Castle to the overlooks too but we also wanted to attend church at 4 p.m. so we went back into town to do that.

After church we drove west into Christmas, MI and stopped at the Kewadin Casino there. We didn’t stay long. Ted made a few bucks, I lost a few but we learned there is RV parking with electric in their parking lot. We took a few pictures of the Christmas theme and headed back east. We stopped for fuel and another ice cream cone (!) before heading back home.




We’ve not needed A/C during our time here. It was 63 inside the RV this morning. However, the mosquitoes could carry you away. Ted smacked one and we ended up with a 3 inch streak of blood on the alabaster couch. I got it out right away but there was enough to do DNA testing on it!

Today Ted is golfing with Bill in a Chamber of Commerce scramble. I did laundry, cleaned inside a bit and made a key lime pie to take to Pat and Bill’s house for dinner. Hopefully I’ll get to publish this post using their wifi.