“There’s no place like home.” And as we entered the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, it really was a homecoming. As a Michigander from southern lower, I haven’t spent a lot of time “up north,” and Bubba even less, but the beauty is like none other.
We spent our first few nights near the town of Iron Mountain (and as ex-Coloradans, we understand that Michigan uses the term “mountain” loosely!), and as usual hunted for good kayaking places, plentiful up north. We spent a couple lovely days on Bass Lake (though no bass were found!) and on the Menominee River (not to be confused with the song from the 70s, “Men ahmenah”). 🙂 This is where we discovered the reason campgrounds in Michigan as so full; according to the owner of the park in Iron Mountain, Michiganders that may have vacationed in Canada have stuck close to home and are filling Michigan campgrounds. But we found something to do, as always! Check this out…
Moving on to Munising, a cool little town right on the south shoreline of Lake Superior, we went sight-seeing, kayaked, and took an awesome boat trip out to Pictured Rocks, a 16-mile stretch of fascinating cliffs along the lakeshore. Michigan is doing a wonderful job of controlling Covid-19, with mandatory masks in public and social distancing. We didn’t want to get off the boat!
And here’s a bucket list item, especially for Michiganders: Pictured Rocks National Shoreline. The waters are turquoise and the cliffs display all the colors of the rainbow. Though the sky was gloomy, the cliffs were anything but. Check it out (as usual, click on an image to see a larger version).
Here’s another short video of kayaking the AuTrain River, that feeds into Lake Superior.
Leaving Munising behind, we crossed the Mackinac (pronounced “Mackinaw”) Bridge, the strait between Lake Michigan to the west and Lake Huron to the east. So beautiful.
Then it was on to our next campground in Mancelona, the only place I could find an available campsite! But it left us a pretty easy drive to Petoskey on Lake Michigan, another cool lake town. Great shopping (the home of dun workin’, for those of you in the know!). We also did a bit of kayaking and hiking while we were there.
Then on to Manistee near the Lake Michigan coastline. (Lots of “M” towns in Michigan!) A day of kayaking and chasing swans, even a pontoon boat rental day on Lake Manistee and the Manistee River, cruising towards Lake Michigan. Rental rules prevented us from going out onto the big lake, darn!
Then fulfilling a childhood dream of mine, we were able to find 2 available nights at a Lake Michigan park (Mears State Park near Pentwater). Packed in like sardines but I absolutely LOVED it… a couple hundred yards from the beach, RV surrounded by sand, “ass in a lawn chair, toes in the sand, cold beer in my hand!” Spent our one full day on the beach, then evening watching the sun go down. Perfect. (Please forgive the 20,000 sunset photos)
Eventually we waved farewell to northern Michigan and are now farther south for time with family and fun on two inland Michigan lakes, Lake Osterhout near South Haven and Gull Lake, near Kalamazoo/Richland. What could be better?!