Even though I grew up in Michigan, I didn’t spend any time in the Upper Peninsula. While I would drive through on my way to Sault Ste Marie to cross into Canada, I didn’t vacation or make any stops along the way. The idea of spending time in the U.P. took off during COVID when travel was restricted and traveling outside of Michigan was difficult. That summer my wife and I decided to drive the circumference of the peninsula from St. Ignace to Escanaba-Iron Mountain- Copper Harbor-Marquette- Sault Ste Marie and back home.
We put a plan into place, some of which was mapped out and some was just a wait and see. The one thing my wife made sure we visited was all the colleges and universities, which at the time there were four (Northern Michigan University, Michigan Technological University, Finlandia, and Lake Superior State University). Do not ask why we did this; it was a great chance to see these beautiful campuses and caused us to spend time in these towns as well. One place, Marquette, surprised us. The downtown has a lot going on, we ate some great food and of course, had to visit the incredible campus at Northern Michigan University. We also learned that you must love the outdoors to go to Michigan Tech or Finlandia (no longer a college), as the winter is long, but the area is beautiful. Houghton was one of our favorite places. The downtown is old but kept up and our hotel was right on the water with a great pedestrian path. I did have an early wake-up from the seaplanes taking off for Isle Royale, which is a trip we plan on doing in the future.
We spent a couple of days in the Porcupine Mountains, which I highly recommend. Also, the Lake of the Clouds is beautiful and there are miles of trails and waterfalls. The U.P. has some of the best waterfalls I have ever seen, as they are accessible and beautiful. The drive alone to get to this part of the U.P. is amazing. We also did some of the usual stops for a U.P. trip: Oswald’s Bear Ranch, made sure to have one of the well-known pasties and stopped by Pictured Rocks.
We ended our trip in Sault Ste Marie with a tour of the Soo Locks. This is a great trip where you take a boat through the locks, and we were lucky enough that a freighter went through during our tour. We also went through Canada and its smaller lock.
While I did not mention a few other well-known stops such as Tahquamenon Falls and the Shipwreck Museum, we had gone to those on previous trips with our children and I do recommend those. Since we took on this adventure, we have also explored the U.P. in the winter, for different and amazing destinations. Michigan’s U.P. is beautiful year-round and full of outdoor recreation activities and I highly recommend a visit!
