"If You Seek a Pleasant Peninsula, Look About You"
If you're looking for a laid-back, no-frills getaway full of sandy feet and comfort food, Michigan's Upper Peninsula is for you. This is a trip that encourages a laid-back pace, pulling off at beaches and waterfalls on a whim, and soaking in the beauty of the rustic U.P. Here is the route for a four-night trip that will get you a saying yah to da U.P.
St. Ignace
Soon after you pass over the Mackinac Bridge, look out for
Castle Rock, three miles north of downtown St. Ignace. A rite of passage for Michiganders is posing for a picture with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. The stairs leading to the top of the limestone tower reward you with view of the Mighty Mac, Mackinac Island, and Lakes Huron and Michigan. Be sure to bring cash for the $1 per person admission. Dogs are welcome, too, and they even get a biscuit after climbing to the top and back.
The Soo
A quick 45 minute drive north on I-75, Sault St. Marie is a great stop for the night. Huge freightors pass through the locks on their way to and from Duluth, the western-most port in the Great Lakes. We stayed at the
Ramada Plaza Hotel Ojibway because of their pet-friendly policy, and our room was spacious, clean, and had an incredible location where everything seemed across the street or a single block away. Great spots include the
Lock View Restaurant (with a super cute motel next door),
Soo Brewing Company and
Zak's Kandy Haus for Michigan-made ice cream to enjoy as you walk along the locks.
Tahquamenon Falls & Vicinity
On the morning of day two, we headed west to
Tahquamenon Falls State Park. The dark brown, tannin-rich water was quickly dubbed "root beer" by my four and six-year-old, and they giggled every time the saw pools of foam along the edges of the falls. Lower and Upper Falls are both very accessible with paved paths and outstanding views of the many waterfalls for the mobility challenged. Another added bonus at the Upper Falls is the huge deck with
a brewery, perfect for a beverage and lunch in the sun. All areas were welcoming to dogs, too.
After leaving the falls, we capped off the afternoon with a stop in the U.P.'s version of Florida gator farms --
Oswald's Bear Ranch. My mom has a tale from her youth of a trip to the U.P. where they brought jars of honey to the dump to attract bears, and they then watched from their cars (kind of like in
The Great Outdoors!), so perhaps I was chasing her memory. I was admittedly leery when I first heard about it, but several recommendations and $20 for our carload later, we found ourselves on the other side of a chain link fence of some giant black bears. We toured five enclosures, and my kids were especially excited to see the baby bears and feeding time for the large males. This is the one thing from the trip that they're still talking about days later.
Pictured Rocks & Vicinity
At the end of day two we checked into our motel in Munising for two nights and headed out for
inventive pizza (pizza alla vodka was our favorite). We stayed at a motel we'd been to years ago, but I think we'd check out
Sunset Motel on the Bay the next time we were in town.
The morning of day three we checked in at the Pictured Rocks
visitor center and got ideas for several short hikes to picturesque spots in the park. All paths were under 1/2 mile each way and had good hiking conditions, a requirement of ours given the extreme amounts of rain the region got that spring. What made for awesome, gushing waterfalls also made for muddy paths we wanted to avoid. Moving from Munising to Grand Marais, we hiked to sand dunes, beaches, and waterfalls (moving along the coast from west to east) at:
Munising Falls
Miners Castle (this is several miles off the road, so we went here after lunch on our way back to Munising)
Twelvemile Beach
Log Slide
Sable Falls
Our route ended in the lovely Grand Marais, and we had tasty beer and lunch at
Lake Superior Brewing Co. There is a well-stocked outfitter across the street (one of the only we found in the Pictured Rocks area) and a kitchy roadside attraction at the end of the block, the
Pickle Barrel House.
That evening we had loaded hot dogs at
Johnny Dogs and hopped on board a 7:30 sunset boat tour of Pictured Rocks; most of the park can only be seen from the water, so this is completely worth it, and afternoon and evening trips are the best for seeing the sun on the rocks (as opposed to the shaded rocks in the morning). The early evening sun was rosy and made for an outstanding tour. If you're traveling with little kids, I do advise bringing snacks and drinks of your own to help coax them through the 2.5 hour trip.
There are many other waterfalls around Munising, so be on the lookout for signs and information in brochures. Check-in at Munising Visitors Bureau (422 E. Munising Ave.) for a map of all 17 waterfalls in Alger County. A couple falls to get you started are:
Tannery Falls (the wooden stairs are opposite the road leading to Munising Falls)
Wagner Falls (on M94, 1/4 mile west of the M94/M28 junction)
Driving through the U.P. you'll see signs for pasties (pronounced
pah-stee, NOT
pay-stee) about every three miles. A favorite of hard-larboring miners, these hearty meat and potato meals are wrapped up in sturdy yet delicious pastry. It's completely against the rules to visit the U.P. without dining on a pasty, so stop by
Muldoon's and stock up before leaving Munising. Don't miss out on the apple pie pasty, too. It's freaking amazing.
Marquette
On a whim, we decided to travel to Marquette for lunch and a little exploring on the morning of day four. The drive there had lots of opportunities to pull over for beaches and waterfalls, so keep your eyes open for places to explore.
Marquette is a lovely college town with beautiful architecture and outstanding views of Lake Superior. We had lunch downtown and then walked to a huge park by the water. There was a sprawling wooden play structure for the kids, and ice cream cones from the concession stand helped up lure them away from the swings and gave them something to munch on during our walk back to the car.
Manistique & Vicinity
From Marquette, we drove south to Palms Book State Park, home of
Kitch-iti-kipi, The Big Spring. This jewel-like spring pumps out 10,000 gallons of 45 degree water a minute. This incredibly clear blue-green water is uniquely accessible via an observation raft (ours was powered by tween siblings who took turns spinning the large wheel) that floats out over the spring. A cutout section in the middle of the raft permits views of the huge trout swimming as well as the bubbling sand on the floor of the spring. The park is dog-friendly and has paved paths for wheelchairs, too.
That evening we checked into what is easily the cleanest, tidiest motels I've ever stayed in, the
Star Motel in Manistique. This sleepy city has a beautiful red lighthouse that you can hike to (the parking lot is hard to find because it's tucked behind the Hardee's) as well as a series of parks along Lake Michigan that are easy to pull into for short hikes or a picnic. We grabbed dinner from Clyde's Drive-In and had tasty burgers and curly fries at a picnic table overlooking the lake.
On day five, we headed home by following the lake back to St. Ignace. Again, we looked for scenic spots to pull over and explore Lake Michigan's shore and happily splashed in the cold surf.
As we traveled south on I-75, we made a 20 minute detour to Petoskey for lunch, to avoid fast food on the highway, and shopping at Bill's Farm Market to stock up on produce. We got home around dinner time, and we feasted on pasties and fresh berries while talking about our favorite meals, hikes, and sights from our wonderful time in the U.P.
Final Tips
Many of my recommendations came from an excellent guide book,
Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Paul Vachon. I found it to be up to date and full of reliable recommendations for food, lodging, and attractions.
If you have your choice of days, I'd recommend going Wednesday through Sunday; a couple restaurants we went to were closed on Monday and Tuesday.
Bring a cooler so you can bring home pasties, whitefish spread, and anything else that temps you.
Bring good bug spray and clothes for a variety of cool and warm weathers if traveling in the summer. The forecast for our trip looked like it was going to be in the 60s, but a couple days were warm enough for shorts and t-shirts (which I'd mistakingly packed little of).
If you're traveling with kids, here are some
tips and tricks.
Looking for something more luxurious? I've got that covered
here.
