Visiting Michigan

Let me start by saying that we both found western and northern Michigan just beautiful. Not what we expected at all.  Michigan and Huron lakes are exceptionally clean and you don’t realize how massive they are.  We arrived in Coloma/St  KOA campground for our first week to explore that area.

We explored the downtown area of St. Joseph which reminded me of Mystic, CT, a beautiful port town with a lot of history.  Home to the carousel museum and one of the first harbors. Like many towns today, there are a lot of struggling small shops and many vacant spaces.  You can stroll down a sidewalk that overlook the lake and beaches which actually looks like the ocean.  Outside of St. Joseph there are several wineries/breweries out in the country as well as farm and country. Unlike SC, the only fish available in this area is perch or walleye, both white fish and delicious, but we have been missing our grouper and swordfish.

Our next stop in route to Mackinaw City was a Harvest Host called Harvest Village in LeRoy.  A small family-owned farm which we were able to tour with the owner at evening feeding time and hearding of the sheep back to the barn. We didn’t walk all 85 acres but we did get to see his prize Scottish Belted Galloway cows, hogs, goats, sheep, lambs and chickens. The farm has been in his family over 100 years and you could tell the pride in ownership.  They were such down to earth people and we enjoyed our time talking with them. We purchased some fresh eggs, jam and pork ribs to enjoy later as we said good bye and thanked them for their overnight hospitality.

Mackinaw City was a three-and-a-half hour drive north and our stay for the next seven days. We first ventured out towards the water where you could view the famous Mackinac Bridge one of their many lighthouses and a beach.  We walked this one beach a bit and let Calli dip her toes in Lake Michigan.  She was a bit confused with the waves and it NOT being the ocean or salt water.   The view here was amazing.   It is a great walking town with the port to get the ferry to Mackinac Island right there.  And if you enjoy fudge; you are certain to find it in this town along with all the touristy shops.  We picked a beautiful, sunny day to take Calli with us on the short ride across Lake Huron. (Lake Michigan and Huron run into each other just about under the bridge).  Calli’s second ferry ride, she is now the champ and she loved being on the upper deck looking out as we rode. You disembark in the center of Mackinac Island amidst bicycle rental shops and horse driven carriage rides. There are no motorized vehicles, so your choices are limited to get around. Walking was our choice to take it all in since it was a beautiful day. The highlight was climbing the over 207 stairs straight up to Arch Rock and another 40+ up to Nicolet watch tower. The view and scenery were spectacular, a worthy visit to this charming location.  With having walked over 6.5 miles we grabbed a bit and then headed back to the ferry for the ride back.

This area is dotted with many paved biking/hiking trails that seem to just go on forever.  So on another day, with Calli in tow once again, we set out on what ended up being a 6 mile adventure we thoroughly enjoyed.  Part of this one trail was accessible from the camp ground and was made part of my daily running path as well.

On the road again, we traveled to our next stop, Traverse City and it didn’t disappoint. We spent a day visiting Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park on the coast of Lk. Michigan. Imagine that, sand dunes in Michigan!   And boy are they steep.  One section they have a warning that you may make it down, but if you cannot get back up, a rescue is $3000.   We didn’t go but to the edge of that drop off, but rather took the steep dune up to the next look out point. The sand is deep and you have to really dig in which makes for a great workout.  It was hard to leave this beautiful spot, but we still had parts of the scenic drive to still encounter for our day.