In case you haven’t already guessed, I am talking about Michigan. The state motto for Michigan is “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you”. I would probably amend that to “if you seek a beautiful peninsula, look about you”. Most people think only of Detroit when they think of Michigan, but I can tell you there is so much more to this state, especially if you head “Up North”. Most people from Michigan (myself included) know that once you get out of the big cities in the southern half of “the mitten”, and travel northward to the “U-P” (that’s Upper Peninsula to all you non-Michiganders), that’s where it’s God’s country!
Trip #3 this year took Trace and me back to places where I spent a lot of summer vacations growing up. And while I cherish all the memories I have of those vacations, I think that I appreciate the beauty of these places so much more now. I hope that the photos I took, and will share with you now, do justice to these places.
But first, some important information about the State of Michigan. As you know, there are two peninsulas that make up the State of Michigan. There is the Lower Peninsula, often referred to as “the Mitten”. Then there is the Upper Peninsula, often called the “U-P”. And there is this friendly rivalry between folks in “the mitten” and folks in the “U-P”. Folks in “the mitten” refer to their neighbors in the “U-P” as “Yoopers”, while the Yoopers refer their neighbors in the mitten as “Trolls”. Now, you may be wondering why Trolls? Well, that’s because folks living in the mitten are “below the bridge” or south of the Mackinac Bridge as viewed on the map. The Mackinac Bridge, or the “Mighty Mac” as it’s known by, stretches across the Straits of Mackinac and connects the U-P with the mitten. But I digress….
Trace and I flew into Grand Rapids, Michigan and then drove up the west coastline of the mitten to the Mackinac Bridge and crossed it into the U-P. We stayed just across the bridge in the town of St. Ignace. Then each day we took trips throughout the U-P and the northern part of the mitten. If there was any one theme to this vacation, it was water! But then that’s what the Great Lakes State is known for! So, without more of my ramblings, here are some of the photos that I took on this trip. I hope y’all enjoy them as much as I did taking them.
Sunrise over Lake Huron — This was the view from the balcony of our hotel room! That land mass off to the right is Mackinac Island. There will be more photos of that later. The haze in the air was due to the fires that were raging in Canada.The Mackinac Bridge (aka “The Mighty Mac”). This bridge is truly an engineering marvel. End to end it is approximately 5 miles long. It was built between 1954 and 1957 for a cost of $99.8 million. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. The towers are 550 feet tall. The roadbed on the suspension part of the bridge is a minimum of 148 feet above the water to allow for the passing of freighters and large sailing vessels. The bridge is able to withstand the crushing ice of winters and winds of up to 632 mph. If you take a look at the cars on the bridge, you can get a feel for how big that bridge really is. What is really bazaar is that on a windy day, you can actually feel the bridge move as you drive across it.
Mackinac Island
The next bunch of pictures is from Mackinac Island. This place is like stepping back in time. There are NO motor vehicles allowed on the island. You get around via horse drawn carriages or bicycles. State Highway M185 goes around the perimeter of the island and it is the only highway in America where no motor vehicles are allowed. Movies have been filmed there (like “Somewhere in Time” with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve; and “This Time for Keeps” with Esther Williams and Jimmy Durante). But hey, let the pictures tell the story:
This is the historic Grand Hotel. It was built in 1887. It boasts the longest porch in America at 660 feet. Believe it or not, years ago Trace, Will, and I actually spent a night at this hotel. We travelled up here with my sister and her husband and had made reservations in advance. When we arrived at the hotel, we asked if our rooms were close together. When the lady at the front desk found out that we were traveling together and only staying one night, she gave us the “Governor’s Suite”. It was the suite reserved for the Governor of the State of Michigan and his/her entourage. Gorgeous adjoining rooms with a huge shared living room and balcony that overlooked the massive front porch!! Needless to say, it made our trip!!And here is that massive front porch to the Grand Hotel. Here is the view of the Mackinac Bridge from the front porch of the Grand Hotel.One of Mackinac Island’s many “taxis”. Doud’s Market is the “supermarket” on the island. Up on the hill is Fort Mackinac. Notice how bikes are just parked along the street. They are everywhere! There are multiple places around the island where you can rent a bike for the day. Some people even forego that, and just decide to hoof it around the island. After all, the island only covers 3.8 square miles!Check out the yard of this house. There are a number of these victorian homes scattered around the island, and each and every one of them is beautifully maintained with gorgeous gardens. The island is only open from May through October for tourists due to the horrendous winters up there. And there are only about 140 people who live on the island year round. Since the Straits of Mackinac usually freeze over in the winter, they have to rely on snowmobiles instead of boats to get to and from the mainland for supplies.This is photo of one end Fort Mackinac on the island. The fort was built by the British during the American Revolutionary War. It served as a military outpost for the British, and later by the Americans from 1780 to 1895. Today, the fort is part of Mackinac Island State Park which is owned and operated by the State of Michigan.This is a picture of Arch Rock on the island. It rises 146 feet above the water and spans 50 feet at its widest point. There’s an Indian legend that tells of how this arch came about. A beautiful young Indian woman named Ne-daw-niss (She-who-walks-like-the-mist) met a handsome young man who was the son of a sky spirit. They fell in love and wanted to be married. But her father forbade her from marrying a non-mortal. Her cruel father beat her and tied her to a rock high on a bluff on the Island of the Turtle (aka Mackinac Island). She wept and wept. Her tears washed away the stone and formed the arch. But alas, there is a happy ending as the young man returned, untied her, and together they returned to the home of his sky people.
One of the buildings on Mackinac Island houses a butterfly sanctuary, so naturally I just had to go in and take some photos of these beautiful insects. Following is a sampling of the photos that I took there.
Waterfalls
Well where there are rivers and streams, there just has to be a few waterfalls. Michigan certainly has its share of them. But in my humble opinion, none compare to Tahquamenon Falls. The Tahquamenon River and Falls got its name from the Ojibwa Indians, which translated means “golden waters”. I think you will see why in the photos that I have taken.
This is the Upper Tahquamenon Falls. You can see where the “golden waters” name comes from. It is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. It has a drop of nearly 50 feet and is more than 200 feet across. A maximum flow of more than 50,000 gallons of water per second has been recorded cascading over these falls. Four miles downstream is the Lower Falls which are a series of five smaller falls, which are not quite as dramatic as the Upper Falls, although still quite beautiful.Well, you knew that I just had to take those 94 steps down to capture an even better shot of falls. Problem is you also had to take those 94 steps back up after you got those photos. Needless to say, I got my exercise for the day!“The Brink”Worth every step that I took to get there and get these pictures!This is Munising Falls. While not quite as spectacular as Tahquamenon Falls, it still is quite pretty. Munising Falls is right down the road from where my family used to stay on a number of my childhood summer vacations. We used to walk to the Falls, and back then you could actually walk behind those Falls. But now, Munising Falls has been incorporated into the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, so the National Park Service has put in a restrictive walkway that keeps you a bit away from the Falls.
Lighthouses
Did you know that Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state? Bordering on four of the five Great Lakes gives Michigan 3,100 miles of shoreline! There are 106 (give or take) lighthouses in Michigan. Needless to say, I couldn’t get to all of them, but I did manage to photograph a few of them.
This is Seul Choix Point Lighthouse which was built in 1892-1895. This lighthouse was named by the French and translated means “only choice”. This lighthouse has 96 winding steps to get to the top, and yes, I climbed every one of those steps only to find out that they would not allow me to go out on the catwalk to take some pictures! This lighthouse overlooks Lake Michigan.This is the Forty Mile Point Light, which was built in 1896. It overlooks Lake Huron and is located between Rogers City and Cheboygan. This is the Old Mackinac Point Light. It used to overlook the Straits of Mackinac, but since the Mackinac Bridge opening in 1957, with its tower and navigation lights, this lighthouse became obsolete and is now only a museum.This is the Whitefish Point Light Station. This is Lake Superior’s most famous light station. It was built in 1849. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is co-located on the grounds of this light station. Several hundred shipwrecks, including the Edmund Fitzgerald lie near this point.This is the original bell retrieved from the Edmund Fitzgerald. It is housed in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. On November 10, 1975, the ore ship, Edmund Fitzgerald was caught in a ferocious winter storm and sunk, killing the entire crew of 29 men. Today, the Edmund Fitzgerald lies twisted and broken at the bottom of Lake Superior, just 17 miles offshore from Whitefish Point at a depth of 535 feet. In the summer of 1995, a special expedition retrieved the ship’s bell from the wreckage and replaced it with a bell that had the names of the crew members engraved on it, as tribute to these men. This expedition was a huge effort brought about by the Great Lakes Historical Society, families of the Fitzgerald’s crew, the Royal Canadian Navy, the National Geographic Society, and the Sony Corporation.
Kitch-iti-kipi
Kitch-iti-kipi (pronounced “KITCH-i-tee-KI-pee” with short “i”s) is also called “The Big Spring” as it is Michigan’s largest freshwater spring. The early Native Americans called it “Mirror of Heaven”. The spring is 200 feet across and 40 feet deep. Over 10,000 gallons of water per minute gush from fissures of its limestone and sand bottom. The water is a consistent 45 degrees Fahrenheit. The water is also crystal clear allowing you to see all the way down to the bottom of the spring. There is an observation raft that is self-operated and allows you to see the ancient tree trunks, lime encrusted tree branches, and huge trout swimming in the water below. Here are some photos that I shot there. They really don’t do it justice.
This is a phot of the spring from the shore looking out over it. The color of the water is a bluish green due to the minerals in the spring water and the limestone and sand bottom of the spring. Off to the right is the self-operated observation raft.There are all kinds of tree branches that have been encrusted by the minerals in the waters.Some of the many trout that are swimming around in this spring. In this picture we are looking through 40 feet of water and can see the bottom floor of the spring.In this photo, clouds of sand are constantly swirling around due to the motion of the gushing waters. It creates some really neat shapes and forms. Again, this is looking through 40 feet of water!
So, there it is. Hope you have enjoyed the photos from our trip to Michigan. Stay tuned for future trips!!!
