A few weeks ago, my little sister and I drove up to the very top of the Upper Peninsula. Now, this was not just a casual weekend jaunt. See, we live near Ann Arbor. We went to Copper Harbor. According to Google Maps, this is a 9 1/2 hour drive. In reality, it is closer to 12 hours, since multiple stops are necessary. We took even longer.
Day 1: THE DRIVE. We left early. Very early. Painfully early. “Oh my God, why am I awake?” early, even. We reached the tip of the mitten, AKA Mackinaw City, around, oh….10? 11? Before lunchtime. So we got coffee and pastries at a local bakery before driving over the Mackinac Bridge and into the UP.
Once in “da UP,” we kept driving, not stopping again until we reached Munising. That was early afternoon, so we got more coffee, from Falling Rock Cafe – my favorite UP coffee place, and made the spontaneous decision to go out on the Pictured Rocks cruise. That is never a bad decision. I mean, can you really say you’ve seen Pictured Rocks if you haven’t seen it from a boat on Lake Superior (spoiler: you can’t). After that, we kept driving. So much driving. We stopped for dinner at The Library in Houghton, MI. Side note – the sunset we saw while dining there was AMAZING. We finally reached our rented cabin well after full dark had fallen, so being sure that we were in the right place was fun. We got there, though, and as soon as we finished winding down from the drive, we went to sleep.
Day 2: We started by visiting an old copper mine. I didn’t know what exactly to expect, but I definitely enjoyed what I got! I mean – there were bats! In the mine! They’re so cute! We could hear them squeaking, and then we saw them, and I could go on for ages about them, but just know this – little brown bats are adorable. Oh, and the mine was interesting, too. I can’t imagine working down there. It was interesting aboveground, too. Walking around, we saw the remains of buildings from the mine’s heyday, which have mostly been reclaimed by the forest.
After we finished exploring the mine and grounds, we went looking for lighthouses. We didn’t really have a plan, so we ended up having a picnic lunch at Fort Wilkins State Park, followed by a leisurely stroll through the forest. After this, we explored the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, which was a very short walk from our cabin. The grounds are also a fabulous place for watching the sunset.
Day 3: Waterfalls! I really wanted to hike to a waterfall, so we ended up hiking to Montreal Falls where the Montreal River empties into Lake Superior. I don’t know that I’d really call it a waterfall. It seemed more like a downhill stretch of rapids, but it was a wonderfully pleasant hike. I’m convinced that we went through some legit magical spots on the way to and from the falls.
After our hike, we went for lunch in Copper Harbor, which paired nicely with watching some college football. Lunch was followed by a leisurely drive up to the Brockway Mountain Lookout, where we hung out for a while until sunset time. That sunset wasn’t as impressive as we had hoped for, so we headed out early and went back to Fort Wilkins State Park to hunt for Yooper Lites – really cool rocks that contain sodalite crystals, which glow orange under UV light (we had purchased little UV flashlights just for this). We didn’t find any, but we had fun.
Day 4: The Drive Home. This wasn’t as epic as the drive up, but it was just as long. It started with my sister almost hitting a pair of bald eagles that were just chilling in the middle of the road, munching on some roadkill. They flew up into the trees just in time (aided by Sis hitting the brakes and pulling over to the side of the road). We watched them for a bit, marveling at how beautiful these birds are, then we focused on getting home.
