The U.P.: The Last Frontier

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Below is the story of my adventures in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, known to locals as the U.P. The Michigan guidebook describes the U.P. as a "desolate" place. While it is true that the U.P. is sparsely populated, I believe that desolate is a harsh word to use, as the land is hardly barren. Quite the contrary. The U.P. landscape ranges from forest, to marshy land, to farms, to beaches, and it is beautiful in all of its forms. My pictures barely do it justice, as the colors are so vivid that they are hard to capture.

May 8, 2004

I left Baton Rouge very, very early on Saturday morning and caught a flight to Green Bay, Wisconsin. My first thought upon arriving in Green Bay was, "Hey-where’s the city?" It’s not the bustling metropolis I pictured in my mind. It’s about a four hour drive northwards to Houghton, Michigan from Green Bay. I arrived in Houghton at about a quarter to nine that night. Jen wasn’t kidding when she said that her apartment was a renovated motel. It was an interesting concept and definitely an adequate living arrangement for a college student.

May 9

Jen and I started out the day by heading to downtown Houghton. I wanted to see all of the places that Jen had told me about. We started with breakfast at Mother Lode, a nice local coffee shop. The shops in Houghton are cool because they are built into the hills. After breakfast, we took a stroll by Portage Lake, which is a canal cut through the U.P. to save ships a trip all the way around the tip. We ended up at this fun park called Chutes and Ladders which was built with college students in minds. You can get a fantastic view of Houghton and Hancock (the city across the lake) from the top of Chutes and Ladders. And sliding down one of the huge slides isn’t half bad either.

After leaving the park, we continued walking downtown. Downtown Houghton is charming and quaint. We had full tea at the Four Seasons, which was delightful and delicious.

After tea, Jen and I decided to take a trip up to Copper Harbor, which is pretty much as far north as you can get in the U. P. On our way up to Copper Harbor, we found snow. It was still in many places alongside the road. I had to stop and touch it so that I could say that I had touched snow in May.

Once we made it to Copper Harbor, we drove up a hill to see some of the spectacular views of Lake Superior.

The wind up on the hill was incredible. I could barely open the car door at one point. The drive was beautiful, and at the bottom of the hill, we ended up at Silver Falls (waterfall #1).

We spent a lot of time around Copper Harbor enjoying Lake Superior. Michigan DOTD built a wonderful roadside park along the lake. The park is a great place to sit and enjoy the lake as its waves lap against the shore. There were still snow patches around in the park as well.
Lake Superior is unbelievably clear. It was amazing. Here is a picture that I took looking down into the water.

In Copper Harbor, I had my first pasty experience. Pasties are very popular in the U.P. They are literally sold everywhere. A pasty is basically a beef stew pocket. It’s a pastry shell filled with meat, potatoes, rutabagas, and carrots sans the gravy. But gravy can be served on the side. Pasties were popularized in the days when the U.P. had a large mining industry because they provided a hearty meal that was easy to carry down into the mines.

After eating our pasties, Jen and I headed back towards Houghton. On the way, we say Jacob’s Creek Falls (waterfall #2).

There was a group of adventurers climbing alongside the falls, presumably to find its source. We, however, kept to the road. When we reached Eagle River, we found our next waterfall, Eagle River Falls (waterfall #3).

When we got back to Houghton, I got to see Jen’s office, her "home away from home" for the last year. It has a nice view of Portage Lake and a very comfy chair. We ended the day with another Michigan native-Jilbert’s ice cream. The flavor-Cherry Amaretto Mackinac Island Fudge. And it’s every bit as good as it sounds.

May 10

Another lovely morning of local pastries and coffees before we headed off for adventure. We had decided to head up to Hungarian Falls (waterfall #4), which is not too far north of Houghton and is not marked in the guide book. Luckily, Jen had been there before. Getting to the falls involved a pleasant hike. The falls were beautiful and peaceful.

The falls were also very accessible; we were standing in the falls (err, on rocks, because it was cold water) while I was taking pictures. This pictures it taken looking down into the falls.

We spent a lot of time sitting by the falls and contemplating life, the universe, and everything. And we spent some time hiking around the falls. This is a picture of Jen taken when we were trying to cross the stream. (Why did the girls cross the stream? To get to the other side.)

When we got to the bottom of the falls, we gave up and decided to get our feet wet and did a little bit of wading. (Jen more so than me.) But, all good things must come to an end, and eventually, our hunger got the better of us. We headed back to Houghton, where we ate at The Library, a local eatery with its own microbrew. Good food and good beer. Yum.

May 11

Well, those who know me know that I can’t sit still for too long. And it was for this reason that Jen and I decided to take a two day roadtrip across the U.P. We got up fairly early on Tuesday morning. But it’s hard to complain about early mornings when you are excited by a journey and when you start the day with lovely coffee and chocolate chip scones. We went all the way to Siberia for them. Okay Cyberia Café, in downtown Houghton. The U.P. is highly uninhabited. The largest city is Marquette, with a population of 23,000 people. Driving long distances can seem much further than they really are. But, after a few hours, we made it to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Our first stop was Munsing Falls (waterfall #5). Then, we drove out to Miners Castle.

From the lookout at Miners Castle, you can see beautiful beaches lining Lake Superior. The beaches really could rival the beaches anywhere, if only it wasn’t so cold! And Lake Superior is amazing-every shade of blue and green imaginable.

Jen and I next headed to Miners Falls (waterfall #6). The hike is 1.2 miles roundtrip. And the view is worth it.

At this point, it was time for lunch. We stopped at some place in the park (Bear Bait? Bear Trap? Bear Trap Bait?) to eat-and we were the only people in this huge restaurant with the exception of the one person who was working there. It was so quiet it was eerie. The waitress told us that we were there during the low season. The big season is in the dead of winter when a large group meets there to head out on a bear hunt…

After lunch, we headed out on a gravel road to see more of the park. An hour later (much too far on a gravel road in case anyone else is considering such a trip), we arrived at our destination, Log Drop Lookout. This slope is called Log Drop because when trees were logged from the area, people would slide the logs down the dunes to barges below. Jen and I couldn’t get over the huge sand dunes! They were massive and beautiful.

On our way out of the park, Jen and I ran into another waterfall, Sable Falls (waterfall #7).

Our last waterfall (#8) of the trip came at the end of the day when we visited Tahquemanon Falls. It is the second largest falls east of the Mississippi River. (Niagara is first.) There are two viewing areas for Tahquemanon Falls-the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. The Upper Falls is the really impressive part; it measures 200 feet across and drops 50 feet. Its color is derived from the large amounts of organic matter in the water.


Jen is standing next to the falls in this picture. It’s a good sense of perspective on how big the falls really are.

The Lower Falls had several little drops. It’s as impressive after seeing the Upper Falls, but it’s still quite powerful and makes a very loud roar.


It was starting to get late at this point, and so we headed back on the road. On the way, we stopped at a gas station and met a guy from Natchez, Mississippi…it really is a small world after all. We arrived at Sault Ste. Marie around sunset, where we spent the night.

May 12

For the first morning since arriving in Michigan, we awoke to rain. Luckily, by the time breakfast was over, the skies had begun to clear, and by mid-morning, it was a beautiful day. The first order of business for the morning was to cross over into Canada. Jen had never been to Canada, and we couldn’t come so close without changing that. We were a bit worried because we didn’t have passports or birth certificates on us, which is a rule that were implemented because of 9-11. Luckily, the guard didn’t ask us for them. The Canadian guard was really nice. He honestly looked shocked when Jen told him that she had never been to Canada. We drove around town for a little while, and then headed back into the U.S. The American guard was very mean to us; but we eventually convinced her we were nice girls, and she let us on our way.

We took a short drive down to St. Ignace, where we drove over the Mackinac Bridge, affectionately known as Big Mac, into Mackinaw City. Big Mac is one of the largest suspension bridges in the world and spans five miles from end to end. Before it was built, travel between the upper and lower peninsulas was limited primarily to boats.

Jen and I took a ferry from Mackinaw City out to Mackinac Island. Stepping onto Mackinac Island is like stepping back into the Victorian Age. No cars are allowed on the island (though Jen and I stumbled across a truck at one point…pretty sure we weren’t suppose to see that). People get around on horseback, buggy, bike, and their own feet.

The main strip on Mackinac Island is very touristy and is lined with lots of shops, including many fudge shops, which Mackinac Island is famous for. While the strip is cute, we decided it was best to get off of the strip and away from the tourists. Our first stop was at the Mackinac Island Butterfly House. The Butterfly House imports larvae from all over the world. They hatch in a glass case in the front of the Butterfly House, and you can actually watch it happening. We watched as some butterflies tried to dry off their wings so that they could fly. All the full grown butterflies are kept in the back room and fly around to classical music. It is very beautiful.

We also saw a giant moth, the Atlas Moth. The man at the Butterfly House told us that the only significant difference between butterflies and moths is that butterflies fly in the day and moths fly at night. The Atlas Moth has no mouth and so can not eat. It lives off of its own fat for a few days, and then, it dies.

The 1980 movie Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour was taped on Mackinac Island at the Grand Hotel. Having seen the movie several times, it was really cool to actually stand in front of the hotel.

Behind the Grand Hotel are beautiful houses. There are some people who live on the island year round, but most of the houses on the island are very nice summer homes. Actually, most of the island is uninhabited. The island is officially a state park, and as such, no more homes can be built than were already there when the island became a state park. The people who have houses there don’t own the land; they only own the houses.

The houses led to the more wooded, less crowded areas of the island. We walked and walked in the peaceful shade of the trees. We saw several limestone formations along the way. The first one was called Skull Cave and was a disappointment because it was fenced off, and you couldn’t explore it. However, Jen was not disappointed by Sugar Loaf. Jen is seldom disappointed when there is a big rock to climb.

Our last stop was Arch Rock.

By this point, we were exhausted, and so, we headed to the fudge shop and back to the ferry to start the very long drive back to Houghton, which was made longer by the reappearance of rain.

May 13

Jen and I didn’t make it back to Houghton until almost midnight and awoke to rain once more, and so, we slept pretty late. We went back to Cyberia for chocolate chip scones and spent the day pretty lazily, just relaxing and hanging out. We did head back to Chutes and Ladders so that I could take some pictures of Houghton from the top platform. I was a little disappointed by the drizzle, but Jen said that the drizzle just made the pictures more real because that’s what it looks like most of the year.

I left in the late afternoon and spent the night in Green Bay.

May 14

Something really great about the Green Bay airport-there is a cheese shop in it. I bought several cheeses, including cheese curds, which are also called squeaky cheese. The curds squeak against your teeth when you eat them fresh. But they taste good. I also had chocolate cheese fudge, which sounds strange but tasted good. But the best part of the day by far was arriving home. There’s no place like home!