Copper Harbor & Mackinaw City

On our final full day up north, we had plans to travel to the northern tip of the Upper Peninsula before crossing back over the Mackinac Bridge to the Lower Peninsula to spend the night in Mackinaw City. In the morning, we decamped, cleaning up the cabin and repacking the car before heading on our way. We drove up to Copper Harbor to see the Copper Harbor Lighthouse and the Devil’s Washtub. Unfortunately, the land that the Copper Harbor light is on had been sold to a private owner and could only be viewed from across a bay and I’m not sure if we ever found the Devil’s Washtub. However, after planning our activities for the first three days of the trip, I was not responsible for this leg’s itinerary, and what we did end up doing was still good.

Baraga State Park mini cabin

With the lighthouse under private management, the main way to see it is now from Astor Shipwreck Park. This park is across the street from Fort Wilkins State Park, which we didn’t have time to check out on this trip. There’s a small parking lot and a few steps down to a rock beach with a view of the Copper Harbor light. We spent some time on the beach, where we enjoyed the sun and bright blue skies for the first time on our trip, and ended up having an early lunch by the beach.

Copper Harbor Lighthouse

Clockwise from top left: Astor Shipwreck Park, rock beach at Astor Shipwreck Park, Eagle River Timber Arch Bridge, shore of Lake Superior near the Devil's Washtub

On the way back from Copper Harbor, we stopped right on Route 26 to try and find the Devil’s Washtub, a rock inlet on the coast of Lake Superior that’s supposed to be bathtub shaped, I guess? We walked along the coast for a bit and found something that looked vaguely bathtub-esque, but I’m not convinced we found it. But the sun and views and rock scrambling were nice.

Continuing on our way back, we paid a visit to the Eagle River Timber Arch Bridge, from where we also saw the Eagle River Falls. Across the street the Eagle River Museum was closed, but there was what appeared to be a public park next to it with sports fields, playground equipment, a garden, and a pavilion. When we saw that they had a merry go round, we had no choice but to try it out, because how often do you see a merry go round nowadays?

Eagle River Falls

From there, we finished the long drive across the Upper Peninsula to Mackinaw City. After some hotel drama, we managed to check into our room. Before bedding down for the night, we went out for one final adventure of the day to stargaze at the Headlands International Dark Sky Park just outside of the city. When we arrived, the parking lot was busy (and we could already clearly see the big dipper), but as we set out on the paths, we hardly encountered any people. We found an empty beach to admire the sights from and looked up.

Tripod-less astrophotography (the handle of the Big Dipper is the bright stars in the lower right of the sky)

The moon was blazing bright, close to full if not full, so we didn’t see as many stars as we could have, but at least the sky was clear, and there were more stars than I’ve seen for awhile. With the help of an app (of course there’s an app), we identified several constellations. I also tried out some tripod-less astrophotography that pushed the limits of my hobbyist camera and only ended up a little blurry.

In the morning, we collected our sad Covid hotel breakfasts consisting solely of bottled water, an apple, and a single granola bar; checked out of the hotel; and drove to the Mackinac Bridge to enjoy breakfast in sight of Mighty Mac. From there, all that was left was the drive back to Ann Arbor. All in all, it was a great trip. I’m glad I got to see some of the Upper Peninsula before graduating and likely moving away from Michigan, and after a year and a half away from the office, getting to spend time with my labmates.

Sunrise over Lake Huron

Mackinaw Bridge

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

Day three dawned grey. Again. But it was not raining. Following a cold breakfast featuring shelf-stable ultra-pasteurized milk and granola bars, we drove the final hour to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. This park is managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, so requires a Michigan Recreation Passport, $17 for the year for instate vehicles if you buy one at a park entrance but less ($12) if you get it when you renew your license plates.

I planned for one not-too-long hike by the Lake of the Clouds, the one place everyone goes if you go to the Porcupines. When I asked my coworkers, they all said they’d be okay with some hiking, but I am aware that most people don’t casually go for three mile romps through the woods in all kinds of weather on an average evening, possibly after a full day of work. The internet told me that the Escarpment Trail, leading away from the Lake of the Clouds, had some of the best views in the park, and if we hiked it as an out and back, we could choose how long we wanted our hike to be.

When we arrived, it was foggy/misty/cloudy (again) with clouds rolling across the landscape. We went first to the Lake of the Clouds Overlook where we got our first look at the lake and surrounding mountains. Although it was supposed to be late in the season for fall colors, there were still a lot of yellow and even green leaves on the trees and the view, when not covered with clouds, was lovely. The overlook is located at the west end of the lake, facing east down the length of the lake with mountains sloping upwards from the north and south shores.

 

Clockwise from top left: Lake of the Clouds upon arrival, Lake of the Clouds partway along the Escarpment Trail, the Escarpment Trail, close up of trees

From the overlook, we found the Escarpment Trail that leads east along a ridge on the north side of the Lake of the Clouds. As I’ve mentioned already, it was pretty quiet because we were there past what’s considered peak timing for the fall season, and it got even quieter on the trail away from the overlook. At times the trail winds through trees, at others it comes out onto rocky ridges with spectacular views of the lake and surroundings. Would highly recommend this trail.

Upper Carp River east of Lake of the Clouds

Clockwise from top left: View from our lunch spot, Upper Carp River, Lake of the Clouds post hike, view looking west from the Lake of the Clouds overlook

We ended up hiking somewhere over two miles down the trail past the eastern end of the lake and a little ways up the Upper Carp River. We stopped for a snack/lunch break right by the eastern end of the lake where we could enjoy the sights. As we hiked out, the weather cleared up a fair bit, but as we started on our way back to the parking lot, the clouds began to thicken yet again. At one point I think we walked through a cloud, but any rain held off.

 

Big Carp River (from the Lake of the Clouds overlook)

From the Lake of the Clouds, we moved to the Summit Peak Scenic Area for a different view of the park. The trail here was 0.9 miles one way to the top of Summit Peak, the highest point of the park. The lower half is a nice walk through the woods that transitions into a wooden boardwalk and steps ending at a 50-foot observation tower. The views weren’t amazing, but it was worth a quick look and now we can say we’ve been to the park’s highest point.

 

View from Summit Peak

Observation Tower

Like the previous day, because of our limited time in the area, I opted for visiting a few places for a shorter amount of time rather than spend more time in one or two spots in order to get more of an overview of the park. That said, our last stop of the day was the Presque Isle Scenic Area to see waterfalls. This hike reminded me of some hikes through the gorges in New York’s Finger Lakes region. The trail wound through a gorge right off of Lake Superior with several waterfalls, smaller than the ones we saw the day before, and was a nice end to our day in the Porcupines. I think this area was where we encountered the most people in the day, but still nothing compared to some of the summer crowds I’ve seen.

Presque Isle Scenic Area

We made the drive back to Baraga State Park, where we prepared another camp dinner (oatmeal and a banana for me) before enjoying a second night in the mini cabin. It was definitely cool at night, but the cabin with four people in it never even got cold enough for me to put on pants. (I wore shorts for the entirety of the trip.) There was a space heater provided, and at one point we turned it on to see if it worked, but we didn’t need it. The shared bathroom block was nice, and there were individual shower stalls, with nice hot water, at the back of the building. Overall, even with the traffic noise, $52 a night split between four people was well worth it for a fun experience that requires less vital equipment than tent camping.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore [part 2]

Barring the combination farewell present of possible heatstroke and/or getting hit by lightning that Cornell gave us at my graduation, most of my travels have not been strongly adversely affected by the weather. We had a couple marginal days at Acadia, and I have all sorts of transit stories, but overall it’s been awhile since we’ve gotten caught in a full on downpour in the middle of an outdoor activity. The forecast for our U.P. trip wasn’t great, and that combined with a fairly tight schedule and companions who probably didn’t want to trek 10 miles through the woods, led me to pick a few shorter/less involved sights to see at Pictured Rocks.

After hotel breakfast, we set out to our first destination, Miners Falls, a 1.2 mile round trip from a parking lot near the east end of the park. It was damp, misty, and a little drizzly when we set out on the short hike, but overall conditions weren’t too bad. There were a few cars in the lot when we arrived, and more arrived later, but because we were there late in the season, it was pretty quiet. The trail to the falls is more or less flat is it winds through the woods and leads first to an overlook by the top of Miners Falls where you can see the falls but they’re somewhat impeded by trees. There’s a second viewing area further down several flights of stairs with clear sightlines to the falls. Miners Falls is about 50 feet high, so not super tall, but a nice waterfall with a good amount of water falling down it. Including the walk to and from the falls, taking photos of the falls and misty trees, and discovering and observing various slugs, we spent about an hour at Miners Falls before heading further down the road to Miners Castle.

Miners Falls

Slugs, misty trees, and lichen

Miners Castle isn’t a castle building but a rock formation that looks kind of like a castle turret, I guess. There are also two viewing areas for Miners Castle, one off of the parking lot where you look over the lake at the cliffs and the whole rock formation, and one a short walk down some steps where you get to see the turret up close. This was a quick stop, just about half an hour for some photos as the mist rolled in.

Miners Castle

Our last destination in this area of the park was Miners Beach, where you can get some views of the cliffs from the shore. By this time, it had started to rain more heavily, and the mist thickened, but we still spent about forty five minutes wandering up and down the beach enjoying the wet sand and lake.

Miners Beach

Also Miners Beach

Before leaving Pictured Rocks to head further west, we stopped for lunch sandwiches (that I made at the hotel before checking out) in the Munising Falls parking lot. We then made the short walk, all paved, to Munising Falls. The 50-foot falls are located in a sandstone cliff U of a canyon. The rain had let up a bit by this point so we were a little less wet as we explored the area around the falls.

Munising Falls

Between the cruise the previous day and our stops on day two, I think we got to experience most of the big attractions at Pictured Rocks. There are plenty of other sights we didn’t get to see across the 42-mile lakeshore but we hit up some of the major locations with our limited time. Entry to the park was free when we went, but with increasing numbers of visitors and their accompanying environmental impact, Pictured Rocks, managed by the National Park Service, is soon to start charging entrance fees.

Our lodgings for the night was the mini cabin at Baraga State Park, and on the way we made a stop at Laughing Whitefish Falls State Park for one last waterfall for the day. Still slightly damp from the morning, we took another short half-mile hike through the trees to the falls. Finally, we finished the drive to Baraga State Park, about an hour east of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, and got settled into their mini cabin. When we booked the cabin, I didn’t realize the park was right off of Route 41, with its accompanying traffic noise, which was the main negative comment people had, but it didn’t end up being too bad with the windows and door closed.

Laughing Whitefish Falls

A couple of my coworkers had never been camping in any form, and it being the middle of October 4 degrees further north from my usual environs, the camper cabin was a better decision than tent camping, which we very briefly considered. But without much equipment and night temperatures starting to drop towards freezing, we would not have had as good of a trip. The cabin was pretty small, maybe 12 feet square, and had some counter space, a microwave, a mini fridge, a queen bed with a twin lofted over it, and a cot. I slept on the cot (in my sleeping bag). After unpacking bedding and food, we prepared a ramen dinner, then settled in for the night.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore [part 1]

It took until I was about to graduate, but I finally made it up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.) back in October. By the beginning of the school year, my coworkers and I had started to return to the office more frequently (because of staggered schedules and a small group size, our office was operating between low and no density, and that plus vaccines and no huge delta spike meant that people were feeling pretty okay about being there).  One day they got to talking about taking a trip up north to see the fall colors, and I got roped into the conversation and soon found myself agreeing to head for the Upper Peninsula with half the lab.

We left on a Monday morning and arrived at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in time for a late afternoon boat tour. The next day, we spent the morning and early afternoon at Pictured Rocks before driving further west to our lodgings at a state park about an hour away from the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. On Wednesday, we hiked around the Porcupine Mountains, then on Thursday drove up to Copper Harbor before heading back across the U.P. to spend the night in Mackinaw City. On Friday morning, we made our way down to the palm, arriving in Ann Arbor by early afternoon.

For reasons, I ended up planning the majority of our activities with input from my coworkers, similarly to my Acadia trip in the summer. The first day, we agreed to get on the road early so we could arrive at Pictured Rocks by early afternoon with time for a cruise. Everyone held up their end of the deal, pickups started at 7 am, and we were heading north out of Ann Arbor by 8. We stopped at a gas/service station for a brief lunch before continuing on our drive. It was six hours to the Grand Sable entrance at the east end of Pictured Rocks, then another hour through the park to Munising, where the cruise would leave from. We were there at the tail end of fall colors, but the drive through the park was lovely and there was a mix of trees with green, changed, and fallen leaves.

The cruise was scheduled to begin at 4 pm, and even though we arrived about half an hour early, there were already a number of people lined up for boarding. I’m not a huge fan of cruises and other touristy guided tour type activities, but my labmates wanted to go and there are some landmarks that can only be seen from the water so we did it. The company was Pictured Rocks Cruises, and we were actually there during their second to last week of operation for the season. We took the classic cruise that ran for about two and a half hours and cost $40. The boats have two decks, with the top deck open and the right side of the top deck most desirable for photography reasons. We ended up on the left side of the top deck, which worked out fine because on the way back that’s the side that’s closer to the Pictured Rocks’ namesake rocks.

 

East Channel Lighthouse

Miners Castle

The cruise passes by the East Channel Lighthouse, Miners Castle, the Caves of All Colors and Rainbow Cave, the arches Lovers Leap and Grand Portal, Battleship Row, a Flower Vase, and Chapel Rock, among other things. On the way out, a guide described what we were passing by and gave some historical and scientific facts about the rocks. The colors come from minerals leaching out of the rocks – orange and red come from iron, blue and green from copper, brown and black from manganese, and white from limonite.

Lovers Leap

Battleship Row

It was coolish at the beginning of the cruise, then got windy as we got out on the water and a little cold as the sun started setting. Would definitely recommend a jacket (which I had), especially late in the season and the day. The light was somewhat challenging, with the overcast sky being bland while also both blocking ambient light and being bright enough to blow out. I had my camera with both my wide angle 10-18 mm lens and the 18-55 mm kit lens (roughly equivalent to 16-28.8 mm and 28.8-88 mm in the “standard” full frame/35 mm format). The wide angle was generally too wide for how far we were from the rocks and I ended up needing the zoom from the kit lens most of the time. Also, we were continuously moving, it was cold, and I was shooting over and between people for most of the trip. Anyway, if you don’t find the price too steep, don’t really like hiking and/or don’t have much time, the cruise is a good way to see a lot of the big attractions at Pictured Rocks, and you often get better views than you would from land.

Chapel Rock

Rocks and trees

After we docked, we had dinner up the street from the cruise headquarters, then drove back toward the park to spend the night at a hotel, which ended up being the most expensive lodgings for our trip. In the morning, we enjoyed our hotel breakfast before heading into the park to explore a bit on foot.