We arrived on the Upper Peninsula (which pretty much everyone there just calls "the U.P.") on July 12 after a 3.5 hour drive north from Wisconsin's Door County.
Interesting historical fact: We wondered why the U.P. is not part of Wisconsin (with which it shares 200+ miles of border) rather than Michigan (the U.P. shares 0 border with the Lower Peninsula). It turns out this goes back to a dispute between Ohio and Michigan when they were both territories and approaching statehood. Ohio really wanted the Toledo Peninsula to be part of Ohio rather than Michigan. Congress approved a political compromise, whereby Ohio would get Toledo and Michigan would get the U.P.
While most of the U.S. was sweltering in a heat wave, our U.P. temperatures were typically in the 60s or low 70s during the day, and the low 50s at night. We felt fortunate.
Our first stop was the town of Munising on the southern shores of Lake Superior. It's most famous as the gateway to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which we'd visited in 2002 and 2021. Pictured Rocks features about 10-15 miles of limestone cliffs that drop to the Lake. Springs in the cliffs leach out minerals of different colors, making it look like someone has taken a paintbrush to the cliffs. We took an early evening cruise along the cliffs (the only real way to see them).
We also visited Grand Island (about 8 miles long and 3-4 miles wide) which sits about 1/2 mile offshore directly north of Munising. It was privately owned by a mining and forestry company until the 1990s, when it was acquired by the US Forest Service. They have maintained some of the historic structures (houses, cabins, lodges). We took a small passenger ferry over to the island, and then a four-hour bus tour around the perimeter.
The mining company also operated a hunting lodge on Grand Island.
The northern section of the island had been cordoned off with a cross-island wall and maintained as a wildlife preserve. The entrance to the preserve gave off a "Welcome to Jurassic Park!" vibe.
Lake Superior's waters are exceptionally clear, and that could easily be seen on Grand Island's shoreline.
We moved on to the town of Copper Harbor, which sits at the tip of the Keenewaw Peninsula jutting up into Lake Superior. The morning after our arrival we got another dose of Canadian wildfire smoke and the sun was just a dull red dot in the sky even several hours after sunrise.
Copper Harbor is one of the gateways to Isle Royale National Park, a 50 mile long island sitting in Lake Superior close to the Canadian Border. It's rugged, and beautiful, and remote, and feels more human-scale compared to some of our more mountainous or majestic national parks. Isle Royale had been on our bucket list of US national parks to visit. It is the least visited national park in the Lower 48 (due to its remoteness) but, ironically, it has the highest re-visitation percentage of all national parks. Once people see it, they want to go back, and that turns out out to be true for us as well.
We took a three hour morning ferry ride from Copper Harbor to Isle Royale's Rock Harbor, the only part of the park with habitation - the other 99.5% of the park is uninhabited wilderness. The Copper Harbor ferry seems to be the most popular route to the park. There are ferries from other locations, but they take longer. One can also fly on a seaplane, but that's much more expensive.
Isle Royale has some 800 moose and over 30 wolves, although we did not see either during our stay, although we did talk to a number of visitors who ran into moose.
We stayed for two nights at the Rock Harbor Lodge in a basic motel-type unit with a beautiful view of the Lake and offshore islands from our balcony (Isle Royale is technically an archipelago with one large island and 500 small ones).
On our first day in the park, we hiked the Stoll Trail to Scoville Point at the northern end of the main island, about a five-mile round trip. The trail was somewhat rocky and "rooty" on the lakeside leg, and more of a forested dirt trail on the return leg. We only ran into a few other hikers. The mosquitos were also out, but we'd sprayed down before getting on the trail.
We saw many beautiful wildflowers along the way.
The next day we did a four-mile round trip hike to Suzy's Cave, a hollowed-out section of granite cliff with beautiful lake views. The trail ran along protected Tobin's Harbor, and we saw a number of kayakers and fisherman as we walked. We also saw a seaplane bringing some visitors. And more beautiful wildflowers.
We returned to Copper Harbor on the afternoon ferry (the ferry leaves Copper Harbor at 8:00 am and the return trip leaves at 2:45 pm to allow people to take three hour day trips to the national park). The return trip was a rougher passage - just a hint of what Lake Superior can be like on a bad day.
We packed up the RV the next morning and left for our last U.P. destination, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. The park, established by the State of Michigan in 1944, protects a 20-30 mile section of the Lake Superior shoreline, old growth forest, and some of the highest peaks in the state. The park includes s a winter ski run. It's not high by East or West coast standards, but is probably some of the best skiing available in the midwest.
After setting up camp near the lakeshore on the eastern end of the park, we drove to the western end to visit a series of waterfalls on the Presque Isle River. The trail was mostly boardwalk with many steps up and down to follow the hilly landscape.
The next day we drove to see the park's most famous landmark, the beautiful Lake of the Clouds, which sits in a mountain bowl.
We then moved on to the park's highest point, Summit Peak, and climbed the observation tower for a 360 degree view of the park. We could see a rainstorm over Lake Superior in the distance.
After our visit to "the Porkies," we drove along the Lake Superior shore toward Duluth, then turned south for a two-week side trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. More about that in our next blog post!
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