I have had a few friends ask me for the itinerary of our UP trip, so here it is!
We left early morning and made our way up to the UP. We crossed the bridge and had lunch in St. Ignace. We continued on to Paradise, Michigan to see Tahquamenon Falls.
We started with the lower falls. I was under the impression that there were 2 falls: one smaller one and one larger one, but that is not the case. The lower falls are made up of several hiking trails and quite a few areas with different waterfalls. We would walk the trail, come up to a fall and stay a bit. For most of the falls, you can get close or even get your feet in the shallow parts of the water.
The upper falls has the larger, most recognizable falls. You walk a short path to a deck area that gets you pretty close to the edge. Its a beautiful view, and you can feel the mist that comes up from the falls. There are also trails to get a more panoramic view of the falls.
After this, we had dinner at Tahquamenon Brewery which is on the grounds of the upper falls. It has a nice patio area and a large dining room. Joe recommends the pasty which smelled amazing!
We checked into our hotel, the Magnuson Grand Hotel. Our room had a great balcony view to Lake Superior and the hotel has a little beach area. While the water was still pretty cold, we did see a couple of beach goers and even one brave swimmer!
Whitefish Point/ Grand Marais/ Munising
We woke up, had a quick breakfast in the hotel and made our way to Whitefish Point. There is a lighthouse, beach area (great for rock hunting) and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The museum has a few different parts. The main building has artifacts and history on the shipwrecks of the area, most notably the Edmund Fitzgerald. The bell from the ship resides here. There is a nicely done movie on the sinking of the ship... bring tissues. There is also a building where you can tour the house area of the light house and learn some of the history of lighthouse keepers. The boys enjoyed it.
We needed to make our way out to our hotel in Munising, which was about an hour and a half away. Cell service started getting spotty and it was time to pull out the old Michigan map. Here's a tip: make sure your Michigan map is up to date and not the same map that has been in every car you have driven since 1996, like mine. We somehow managed to navigate ourselves to Grand Marais and had lunch at Lake Superior Brewing Company. This was a charming, rustic local watering hole that had good beer, good food (the fried whitefish basket was amazing!) and the boys enjoyed the homemade cream soda.
Back to the old Michigan map, we took a desolate, beautifully scenic, albeit bumpy dirt road which ran along Lake Superior. We pulled over at a beach and had a large stretch of beach with awesome rock hunting almost to ourselves (besides one other gentleman way down the way.)
We made it to the Munising area in time for dinner. This is a "larger" town than Paradise, Whitefish or Grand Marais. We had dinner at Border Grill and took the boys to mini golf before making it to AmericInn Hotel. There was no beach at this hotel, but it did have a very nice pool area with a large slide (that was closed) and a smaller frog slide that was popular with the boys.
We got up early, met up with friends and made it to the dock of Pictured Rocks Cruise Line. We had booked tickets in advance for the 10am cruise. The cruise took about 2 hours; an hour out and an hour back. There is an upper, outdoor deck area that everyone flocked to but my pro tip would be to go to the bottom, indoor deck. There was almost no one there and the views from the bottom help you get the magnitude of the size of the rocks. Joe and Nate started off on the top, but moved to the bottom. They said it was easier to see as people weren't in their way and it wasn't as windy or loud. You are able to move on the boat, so if you don't like your seat, feel free to move. Obviously, one side of the boat will be closer to the rocks on the way out, and the other closer on the way back. The back deck is available for anyone to take pictures at any time. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip and I definitely hope to go back. I have never seen a more beautiful part of nature.
We stopped for lunch at By George Brewing Company. It was very kid friendly and had great beer. After lunch, we made our way to Ishpeming where we rented a VRBO cabin with our friends for the next few nights.
We woke up and explored downtown Marquette. Marquette is one of the biggest cities in the UP. It has a quaint downtown with lots of shopping and restaurants. We spent the morning walking around, we saw the Ore Docks which are large structures from the days when Marquette was an ore shipping hub. We took pictures with one that is not in operation, but were told there is one still in operation not far from that one. We stopped and had drinks at Black Rocks Brewery. After that, we had lunch at Stucky's. Great food was had all around. After lunch, we went to McCarty Cove, which has a very charming light house and is a great beach spot. It was pretty windy the day we were there, so there were no swimmers, but I could imagine it being very popular on a hot, calm day. We climbed up to the light house, climbed black rocks and enjoyed a beautiful day in a beautiful city.
For dinner, we went into downtown Ishpeming. We went to a client of Joe's, Cognition Brewery. It was a cool little spot with great beer. Ishpeming is a pretty, sleepy town, most known for being the place where they filmed the movie Anatomy of a Murder, starring Jimmy Stewart.
We went to dinner at Congress Pizza. Now, I will admit to being kind of a snob about it at first. At first glance, the place looked like a hole in the wall, and I was afraid of what we were getting ourselves into. I could have not been more wrong about the place. The people were very friendly, the place is historic, not hole in the wall, and the pizza is probably about the best pizza I've had in a very long time. I wish I could have them ship me some pesto chicken pizza right now. Definitely worth a visit!
The next morning we went to a spot that was about an hour drive West from Ishpeming. It is actually a roadside park, but definitely the most scenic and interesting roadside park I have ever visited. Canyon Falls is nicknamed Michigan's Grand Canyon. After a short but quite treacherous hike (don't let the kids get too far ahead!) you come upon a decent sized waterfall flowing past a large gorge. It was kind of surreal that this gem is hiding just off the side of the road!
After the morning adventure at the gorge, we spent the remainder of the day wandering through Marquette. We had a beverage at Ore Dock Brewing Company, let the kids play at a park and had dinner at a very delicious Caribbean restaurant.
If we had more time (and maybe not as tired children) we would definitely have liked to check out Sugarloaf. It is said to have the highest and best views in Marquette. Sugarloaf will definitely be on our list on our next trip.
We said goodbye to our friends and the cabin and met up with my parents in Ishpeming to start our 3 hour trek West to the Porcupine Mountains.
There were 3 portions of the mountain area that we visited. We started at the Western most point and worked our way back. The first stop was Presque Isle. This is a trail to a suspension bridge, and if you have a fear of bouncy bridges over a deep gorge, then I would suggest running over it quickly and not looking down. On the other side, a small hike gets you to a beautiful beach area on Lake Superior. There are lots of beach rocks, and lots of mosquitoes so dress in light layers and bring the bug spray.
It was about a 30 minute drive to the next area, Summit Peak. This part has the highest point of the Porcupine Mountains. The hike is a quite steep and treacherous hike. There are a lot of stairs and steep climbing, so factor that in if you are with children and/or people with limited abilities. After climbing some natural hills, you do make it to a wooden boardwalk and stairs that takes you to a deck with expansive views of the tree covered mountains. It's literally a breath of fresh air up there. Going on, a wooden path continues to take you to a tower with the highest view.
After another 20 or so minute drive back East, we made it to Lake of the Clouds. This is a very short, wooden path walk to the most awe inspiring view of the trip for me. It's hard to put into words, or even pictures the feeling you get when you come upon Lake of the Clouds. You feel like you are on top of the world. Even on a cloudy day, the beauty was incomparable. There is a deck viewing area, or you can follow an old stone wall which brings you to a rocky platform to look out even higher. We spent quite a bit of time here just admiring the view and taking it all in. It's too bad for me that it is so far to the West in the Peninsula, because I would love to come back here regularly.
We made our way to our hotel in Silver City, the AmericInn. This hotel has a great beach area with bonfire pits and picnic tables. Since Grandma and Grandpa were on the trip, the boys spent the night in their hotel room and that gave Joe and I an opportunity to have a drink at the hotel bar which was a great rustic, local watering hole. We then went to the beach to watch the most incredible sunset I have ever seen. We chatted with other hotel guests, had another drink at the bar, and then went out to the bonfires to chat with more guests. It was a beautiful night in a beautiful place.
We left Silver City and made the long 3 hour trip back East to Manistique. The boys were pretty great road trippers the whole trip, even in the long stretches between UP spots.
We pulled into the state park leading into Kitch-Iti-Kipi (Kitch-Iti-Kipi means big spring.) After you park, you walk down a short path to what looks like a small lake. We waited a few minutes on the path for a little ferry to take us out onto the water. Since it was a Monday afternoon, we didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes. We heard that on weekends and popular times, it can be more of a line, but thankfully, we didn't have that experience.
I have to say, I didn't know what my expectations were, but this spot is such a gem! I had never seen anything like it. The water is so clear blue/green, it looks otherworldly. The ferry is powered by a large, metal steering wheel that visitors can take turns operating. The boys got a kick out of steering! On the ferry, the center part is glass, so you can see straight down into the water at the fish and the bubbling springs. You can see every fish in the water, every tree that has fallen in. It is such a pristine piece of nature.
After that, we had dinner and ice cream in downtown Manistique. Manistique sits on the northern part of Lake Michigan. There is a charming lighthouse with a winding boardwalk that we tried to walk on, but it gets very windy and cool, so we made it out to the beach, finished our ice cream and called it a day.
We made our way back home on Tuesday morning, stopping in Mackinaw City to bring home some fudge and Whitefish dip. We recommend Krueger's Fish Market. It was delicious! We stopped for lunch at Clam Lake Brewery in Cadillac. It was a great pit stop.
Pro Tips and things we might do differently next time:
- The UP is very spread out and it took us a while to get from place to place. In between the "cities" we visited, the area is pretty unpopulated. There are large portions of road where all you can see is forest and wildlife, very few homes and even fewer gas stations for miles. Plan accordingly!
- Get an updated map, cell service is spotty and you can't always rely on using GPS.
- Going from town to town, weather and temperatures can shift dramatically. We went from Silver City where it was already 85 in the morning to Manistique where it was only 65 in the afternoon.
- Get a recreational State Park Pass. It saved us time pulling into the state parks.
- Make sure to bring plenty of bug spray, and on very wooded trails, we even saw people wear head nets. I used a more natural brand of spray and didn't get many bites. I am usually not bothered by mosquitoes though, so some people may want to be sure to use a spray with DEET.
- Wear light layers, with breathable material. It can get hot, but I'd rather be hot then covered in bug bites!
- The best way to see Pictured Rocks is by boat, so book a cruise ahead of time. (See above regarding seating on the boat.)
- You can do a Pictured Rocks group kayak excursion, which we would like to do in the future.
- You can also hike Pictured Rocks. We opted not to this time with small kids, but the trails and beach looked great from the boat.
- We would definitely like to visit Sugarloaf in Marquette (planned to, but ran out of time.)
- Our next trip to the UP we would probably split into 2 trips, one on the West side and one on the East side. We really enjoyed the Porcupine Mountains and would love to see more of the West side, particularly the Keewenaw Peninsula and Copper Harbor area.
I hope this helps all who have asked for our recommendations. Can I tag along on your trip please?
Thanks for the time and energy you spent.
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