Upper Peninsula: Summer Camping in Michigan

Upper Peninsula Camping

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was high on our list for our summer camping trip.  We were counting on cooler weather because it is so far north and had high expectations for beautiful sights.

Straits State Park

Most of our time in the Upper Peninsula was spent at Straits State Park in St.  Ignace.  It was a base as we traveled to surrounding areas and because it was on the Upper Peninsula side, we did not have to cross the bridge every day to reach our destinations.

We loved many things about Straits.  It was very near places we wanted to visit and offered electricity and a nearby bathhouse.  Also, the Straits of Mackinac were only about a thousand feet from our site with a killer view of Mackinac Bridge.   The only downside was our site, which was small and not level, so it would have been a good trade off to have a level site farther from the bathhouse.

The view of the Straits of Mackinac  and Mackinac Bridge from the campground was amazing.  Several of our fellow campers enjoyed getting in the water, but it was too cold for anything but toes for me.

The nighttime view of the bridge and the water was mesmerizing.  This was such a peaceful place.

We were very comfortable at Straits State Park in the evenings, but spent most of our days on short trips to surrounding areas.

Daytime Activities

St. Ignace

Our campground was in the small, but lovely town of St. Ignace and we had several meals there.  My favorite was breakfast at Java Joe’s where I had some delicious crepes.

While in St. Ignace, we visited Castle Rock, a 200-foot ancient lookout of the Ojibway Indians, referred to as Pontiac’s lookout.   It is also a spot related to the legendary Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, Babe.  We took the climb and it was quite a view.

Another spot we liked was the lighthouse.  St. Ignace has a relatively new one, Wawatam Lighthouse, built in 2006.  Its beacon is visable for over 13 miles over Lake Huron.

It was overcast and/or raining for a couple of the days we were in the area, but it did not prevent us from seeing the sights.  The temperatures were very comfortable though, with high seventies and low eighties in the daytime.  Also, the days were very long and it was not dark until well after eight p.m.

St. Ignace is also a departure location for the ferry to Mackinac Island.  We used Sheplers because they also take you under the Mackinac Bridge.

Mackinac Island

We loved the day we spent on the island; it’s a truly unique place.  Accessible only by ferry, it is on Lake Huron near the Upper and Lower peninsulas.   The island is only 3.8 square miles, yet still boasts the largest summer hotel in the world, The Grand Hotel, which opened in 1887.   The Biddle House, dating back to 1780 is also on the island.

We had lunch at the hotel.  It was pricey, but very, very good.  It was interesting to see the inside of the hotel.  You have to pay $10 each to even  get close to it, but if you have the buffet, they credit you for that amount.  I considered booking us a room for the night in the hotel until I discovered it would be $700.   Too rich for our blood!  We settled for lunch instead.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the island is that cars are not allowed, except for emergency vehicles.  Horses or bicycles are the modes of transportation.  We took the carriage tour that covered downtown and the State Park.

Arch Rock was also part of the carriage tour.

Mackinac Island is a truly magical place!  It is like stepping back to an earlier time.   In fact, the movie, “Somewhere in Time” was filmed on the island.  I will need to check on it.

I took lots of additional photos while there.  If interested, you can find them on the Big Guy Tiny Trailer Facebook page.

The Island in the  Winter

We learned something interesting about the island.  In the winter, the ferrys  shut down when the lake freezes and the only way to cross the lake is by snowmobile.  In fact, they create a path where the ice is frozen and outline it with Christmas trees to make it easier to cross the lake.  I would love to experience that!

Tahquamenon Falls

We took the scenic drive to the falls.   There were few cars along the drive and the area was generally unpopulated with very little commerce.   The Lower Falls are a series of cascades with rowboats available to rent that provide access to an island and hiking trails.

Sault Ste. Marie

Salut Ste. Marie is Michigan’s oldest city, incorporated in 1668 and is currently celebrating 350 years.  Its major attraction is the famous Soo Locks, built over 150 years ago to enable ships to navigate the 21-foot drop between Lake Superior and the lower lakes.  I never really understood locks before this visit, but now think of them as a bit like an escalator for ships.

The Corps of Engineers operate the Soo and there is a large viewing area for visitors to see ships passing through the locks.  We watched two ships pass.

Canada and the United States both have locks along the Saint Mary’s River, which is the connecting waterway to Lakes Superior and Huron.  The locks on the Canadian side are used exclusively for recreational vessels.   In the photo below, the bridge on the left leads to Canada.  We were very close, but did not cross the border because we did not have our passports.  Also, we want to see much more when we eventually go to Canada.

The Soo Locks are attributed to enable $500.4 billion of iron ore to be shipped through each year.   They are an important resource for this country and have a major impact on the economy.   The Visitor Center had  an abundance of information about the locks and the their history, including videos.

While in the city, we had a nice lunch at Karl’s Cuisine just down the street from the entrance to the locks. We had a killer bread pudding there.

Shipwreck Museum and Whitefish Point

Whitefish Point is located at a spot on Lake Superior where many shipwrecks have occurred, including the famous Edmund Fitzgerald that sank in 1975, burying 29 crewmen.   Gordon Lightfoot tells its story by a song by the same name.

The bell was retrieved in a burial ceremony twenty years later and a replacement bell with the names of all the crew was installed on the sunken ship.

The museum had many artifacts about the ships that have gone down in the nearby treacherous waters.  There was also a film about the retrieval of the Fitzgerald bell.

For a small additional fee, you can climb the light station, which  I did.  It was a tight, steep climb, but the view from the top was nice and the tour guide had lots of good information about the area and its history.

That is Lake Superior below, the largest lake in the world based on surface area.

Munising

We chose the Munising area to also visit because we wanted to camp in a more remote area of the Upper Peninsula and we wanted to see Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

We visited Pictured Rocks on our way to Munising.  Pictured Rocks are sandstone cliffs along Lake Superior that tower as high as 200 feet.  There are many access points for boating and hiking.  My husband’s bad leg and my bad shoulder would have made many of the cool spots difficult for us.  However, one of the more spectators views, Miners Castle,  has a lookout view that was easily accessible.

The view was truly beautiful.  We spent about an hour at the viewing area and then headed to our campground.

Widewaters  Campground

Widewaters is part of the Hiawatha National Forest and is located between Irwin Lake and the Indian River.  It was truly remote!   There was no one to check in with when we arrived, but they had our site reserved with our name.

We had a lovely, large, partially-shaded lot.  Also,  temperatures were very comfortable during our stay, bugs were not an issue, and there were well-maintained vault toilets just across the street.  We were aware that there were no electrical hookups and no showers. As we were only there for one night, we felt we could survive.

However, we were expecting access to water near our site, based on the map of the campground.  We never found it and I searched twice.  Despite the lack of any amenities beyond the vault toilets, we enjoyed our time there.

It was our first opportunity to try out our solar panels and we at least had a chance to become more familiar with them.  We used them more extensively on our way home in Kentucky.   I have written what we learned about them in a separate post.  Solar Panels for Newbies, Access to New Places

We took a short walk to the Indian River, which is on one side of the campground.  It was lovely with the shadow of the trees reflected on the water.

The cool temperatures and the lack of hookups meant that we could sleep in the peaceful quiet of the forest without the noise of a fan. I loved that part of our time there!

Regrets

We had a fabulous time in the Upper Peninsula and I don’t regret anything that we did.  We tried to squeeze as much as we could during our time there. I do regret that we did not squeeze just a few more things into the trip.

• We did not see the Upper Tahquamenon Falls.  We were both a little tired when we got to the park and had been driving quite a bit.  Also, we have seen quite a few waterfalls lately, so we just left after the Lower Falls.   But, we were so close and now looking at the literature, I have major regrets.
• I would have liked to have stayed a night near Marquette, the largest city in the Upper Peninsula.  We saw the small city of St. Ignace with many nearby attractions and remote Munising, but not we did not see the city in which most Upper Peninsula residents live.
• I think we would have enjoyed Shepler’s Lighthouse Cruise along the straits.   There was just not enough time.
• We did not get an opportunity to try a pastie, an Upper Peninsula traditional meat pie that is eaten by hand.  When we were near a place that had them, we were not hungry and when we wanted one, there were none nearby.

So we will just have to return to the Upper Peninsula.  Once was not enough!