After visiting Door County, we followed Lake Michigan north to its northeast corner, just before St. Ignace. We had stopped along the north shore two years ago for a brief afternoon swim and vowed to come back and spend more time enjoying the extraordinary pristine sandy beach and clear waters.
We were too late in the season this year to stay at the Lake Michigan state campsite (which closed one day before we arrived), so we camped at nearby Brevort Lake State Park. We enjoyed a sunset over the lake on our first evening, then spent the next day on the beach. It was a bit cool at first, but once we acclimated to the water, we enjoyed it. The sand was perfect and we could have walked a long ways out. The lake was a bit rough due to wind, but still enjoyable.
Our next stop in Michigan Upper Peninsula was Tahquamenon Falls State Park where we enjoyed views of the upper water falls.
From there we drove to Munising, which is the gateway to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior. We took a sunset cruise to view the pictured rock formations and colors. This was a good way to see the cliffs and learn more about them, but it sure was chilly on that boat!
The next day we hiked along the cliffs on an 11-mile loop trail. This was one of our all-time favorite hikes. The hike started in the woods, passed an inland waterfall, and arrived at the cliffs at a fantastic formation called Chapel Rock. This free-standing rock has a miraculous tree growing on top of it. The only reason it survives is one of its roots arches over to the mainland. It came to be this way because there used to be a natural rock arch between the rock and the mainland that caved in leaving the tree root behind.
From there we followed the cliff-lined coast for many miles – passing many of the same formations we saw from the boat, but with much better views. The cliffs were really high, and we saw areas where the cliffs had recently fallen into the cold, tumultuous waters of Lake Superior. This made it a bit scary to stand too close to the edge. The weather was sunny and the colors of the lake water were mesmerizing. It was too cold to swim even if we saw a few daredevils run into the lake.
The other thing that made this one of our favorite hikes were the amazing mushrooms that were literally everywhere. There must have been over 20 different species of all colors, shapes and sizes. But the best one was a large King Bolete we found in a sandy spot near the trail. King Bolete (also known as Porcini or Cèpe) is a prized edible mushroom that we often forage for while in France with Sophie’s parents. We couldn’t pass this beauty up so we put it in a plastic bag in my backpack and fried it up later in the camper – yum!
It turns out northern Michigan is well-known for its enormous array of fungi, we had no idea! One specimen we saw thousands of is called a honey mushroom. We didn’t know much about it, so we left it alone. Later we learned it was a good mushroom to eat. Same with the oyster mushrooms we saw growing on several logs. If we ever make it there again, we may have to bring a bigger bag!
Our next campground stay was in Porcupine Mountains State Park, where we lucked out and got a campsite right on the shore of Lake Superior. It was really cool to be steps from the picturesque rocky shore where we could watch and hear the waves right from our camper windows, observe the sunsets or see the fog rising from the lake.
The highlight of our stay there was a fantastic hike along a ridge line above Lake of the Clouds, a pretty lake surrounded by mountains. We drove to the end of the trail, which had the highest elevation, and left our bikes there. Then, we drove back down to the start of the trail and hiked 4 miles up from there. The views of the river, and later the views of the lake it fed into, kept getting better and better on the way. We were a little early for fall colors, but we can only imagine how fantastic they would be. When we got to the end of the trail, we had a fun down-hill bike ride back to our car. (Yes, we felt pretty clever.)
The Michigan Upper Peninsula exceeded our expectations in terms of its natural beauty. We can see why people love it there, and we would love to come back for more exploring. Before leaving the UP, we got to taste the local specialty, the pasty. We stopped at Lawry’s to sample a couple, very tasty!
We were planning on going to the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin next, but fog rolled in for a couple days so we drove to Grand Rapids, MN, instead – where we camped at the trailhead of the Mesabi bike trail. The last time we had ridden this part was ten years ago, so it was fun to explore it again. We had great weather and a great time biking about 60 miles on the trail. We once again saw the most humongous mushrooms alongside the trail. Plus, the campsite in Grand Rapids was fantastic. It is in the county fairgrounds and the sites are under enormous pine trees.
The last stop on our trip was Lake Bemidji. We stopped in Bemidji to do a little biking and ended up going around the whole lake, which is about 17 miles and included a stop in Lake Bemidji State Park where we explored an interesting bog. We ended our trip at our family cabin where we enjoyed the sunset from our paddle boards.
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