The Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Ugh… it’s stuck!
Introduction
A lot had happened since my last trip, not only had I gotten more confident behind the camera by going out to shoot every other weekend but I had also graduated from Purdue and had come right back to start a Master’s degree, but more importantly, my younger brother started his freshman year at Purdue in the First Year Engineering Program. This was the first time in around 4 years that I was back with my brother for more than 2 weeks, because of this I wanted to go exploring with him and with Fall break around the corner it was the perfect time to plan another adventure.
Because Fall break was not too long and since we did not want to fly anywhere we decided to explore the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as I had heard from a couple of friends that it was a great place to visit, especially during Fall. And after planning our route and the places we wanted to go to, it all boiled down to waiting for our vacation to start.
Mackinac Island
We drove through the night to our first destination, Mackinac City. The plan was to get there around 2 – 3 am, sleep in our cars and wake up around 7 am to catch one of the first boats into Mackinac Island. The plan went well and we arrived at the docking area around 3 am, where we promptly dozed off for the few hours we had before catching the boat into Mackinac Island.
After a couple of hours of much needed sleep we woke up a bit later than expected at around 9:00 am. There were already people in line waiting for one of the ferries. Seeing this, we got out of our cars, packed up our cameras, some snacks and headed for the line.
It was a chilly morning and even though I was still tired, the cold air woke me up in no time and I could not wait to get into the ferry. Thankfully, the line was moving fast and before I knew it, I was sitting next to a window waiting to leave the dock.
My window view in the ferry.
The boat ride to the island went by fast and before I knew it Mackinac Island was fast approaching in the horizon. I could see many buildings in the shore and the island itself seemed pretty big, so I got very excited and told my brother to take a look through my window.
After the boat docked in the island we were quickly met with a busy street filled with people, stores and horses! We walked around the ‘downtown’ area for a bit looking at all the stores and things to do in the island before finding out about the Grand Hotel and its buffet styled lunches.
Since everything was relatively close in the island we opted to walk instead of renting bikes or using the horse carriages. This was great because as we explored we were able to stop and take a look at everything the island had to offer… and trust me, we stopped a lot! The views were just amazing.
Sings like these were plentiful in Mackinac Island!
After walking for some time, we finally saw the Grand Hotel – it was a huge hotel, that had this timeless yet modern look to it, with a beautiful garden surrounding it and well-dressed ushers all around, I felt as if I was transported to another time.
The Grand Hotel. The garden is visible in the lower left part of the photo.
Once inside the lobby we paid for our lunches and the receptionists told us we would need to wait around 30 minutes before they opened the dining hall and she recommended us some places around the hotel we could check out. But, we decided to wait outside near some neatly arranged flags and flowers with a great view of the lake.
As soon as noon rolled around we all went back to the dining area and headed into the dining room. The room itself was big and very well decorated, but most importantly the food was plentiful! We spent about an hour and a half just eating and chatting about the day and what we wanted to do next. After lunch was over, we ended up deciding to rent some bikes and cruise around the island.
We left the dining hall at around 1:30 and we still had a couple of hours of touring the island, we made our way back to the docking area and found a bike shop where we could rent some bikes. All of us rented tandem bikes and it was my first experience in one… but after a couple of crash landings my brother and I got the hang of it.
My brother and I attempting to ride a tandem bicycle for the first time.
The island itself, since there are no cars is quite bike friendly and we went through the cycling path that circled it, it was a lot of fun!
After looping the island, we returned our bikes, hopped on the boat and headed back to Mackinac City. From there, we would head to the KOA we had for the night and camp.
Exploring the UP
After a fun day at Mackinac Island, we decided to take a ‘scenic route’ and drive through back roads in the UP to try and get as close as possible to Pictured Rocks national lakeshore. One of my friends found a route that would get us to a town that was relatively close to the shore and the drive was supposed to be scenic and at some instances it seemed to be for ‘off-road cars’, luckily the Touareg that my friend was driving and my 4Runner would be enough to handle the muddy and mostly rocky roads that we would be traveling on.
One of the many dirt roads we took during the trip.
The drive through these roads was a lot of fun and there a lot of hidden gems we found along the way, like the seemingly abandoned gas station seen below. Strangely enough, when we stopped for pictures, not 5 minutes later a car shows up and it was the owner of the land that had the gas station and the adjacent house!
A gas station, literally in the middle of nowhere.
She told us about how she was intending to sell it as she could not stand the cold winters anymore and jokingly offered us a ‘bargain deal’ on it, one that we had to pass hahahaha :).
After the encounter with the abandoned gas station we came close to an area that had some sand dunes with tire tracks on them, we concluded that it must be a local spot for people to take their 4x4s on a quick spin and being the young adventurous types that we were, we didn’t hesitate for a second and took my 4Runner for a spin on the sand dunes. It performed quite well! Until it got stuck that is…
My poor car stuck on a sand dune.
My friends and I tried everything to try and get it out, but the more we did – the more the car sank into the sand. We tried waiting for someone to drive by us to see if they had a strap to pull my car out with, but in the hour that we waited not a single car went by. I was starting to get worried and I told my friends our best bet was for them to drive the other car and get a tow truck to come and pull me out – a last minute solution.
They both agreed and went on to find a tow truck, I stayed back with my brother and 2 other friends, but not 10 minutes later did I see their car driving back. They quickly got out and told us that they found somebody that didn’t live too far that had some recovery gear and that he would be willing to help us!
I waited for the guy to come and sure enough, not 5 minutes after my friends told me, a jeep with an older gentleman came. He greeted us, took one look at my car, laughed for a bit and told me I would be out in 10 seconds. We put the recovery strap in my hitch and attached it to his front winch and I got in my car. He was able to pull me out quite easily and I felt so relieved! I tried giving him $20 for his troubles, but he wouldn’t take it and as fast as he came, he quickly left. People in the UP were so nice to us and this extreme act of kindness proved it for me.
After getting the car out, we looked at our watch and saw that we had lost about 2 hours. Not too much, but enough that we needed to get back on the road ASAP. So, we did and drove to a nearby town for lunch.
Once lunch was over, we hit the road again, trying to get to our second camping location – Tahquamenon Falls State Park.
The drive to Tahquamenon followed an old dirt road with trees whose leaves were turning, they were quite beautiful!
We reached Tahquamenon around 6 pm and we decided to call it a day. We cooked some of the food we had and went to bed early.
Wildlife Refuge
The following morning marked a new day and I was very excited. One of my friends had found a wildlife refuge in the area where we intended to stay and we were eager to see what kind of wildlife we could find.
The drive to the refuge was going to take some time as we were a bit of a ways from it, but we still had some fun!
We arrived at the refuge around 5:00 pm – perfect for wildlife spotting as the sun was about to set and the day was not too hot.
Unfortunately, even though the refuge was big we did not see many animals and the only pictures I was left with were of these swans:
A couple of swans in the wildlife refuge.
Although the refuge was a bit of a bust, the day was still great! We were very close to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (the last location of our trip) and we had taken a picture with the sign earlier:
We decided we should pose with out dirty cars for this picture.
That night, we decided to stay in a hotel as we were tired from camping.
Pictured Rocks
The last day of our trip was spent in a boat that took us through the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, the boat ride was great and the lakeshore was amazing! The erosion caused by the ocean was very evident across the whole shore.
Part of the coast in Pictured Rocks. The erosion is clearly visible throughout the coast.
The boat trip was not too long and we made it back to our cars around noon when we promptly started out long trip home.