Michigan's Upper Penninsula

We headed from Wisconsin Rapids to Michigan's Upper Penninsula, spending the first night (July 5) at J.W. Wells State Park. Despite the holiday weekend, there were spots in the park right on the shores of Lake Michigan. The next morning we headed up to the Picture Rocks area on the shores of Lake Superior. The three photos above are of the Picture Rocks and a hike down from Miner's Castle Rock (immortilized in a Hiawatha story by Longfellow) to Miner's Beach along a tanin-colored river. We then headed back down to Lake Michigan and took US 2 to St. Ignace, across the Mighty Mac suspension bridge (500' longer than the Golden Gate), into a private RV park in Mackinaw. On the way we stopped to buy some smoked lake trout in an unassuming shop which, when we got inside, had a sign saying that it had been written up in Gourmet Magazine in 1994. The lady behind the counter told us they had had a TV crew in just that week to do a story. It was delicious.

A thunder storn came up over the Mighty Mac (barely visible in the above photo). The RV Park was the biggest rip off we've been to yet. It advertised wi-fi access, but it cost $3 for 1 hour or $5 for 8 hours and was very slow and basically useless. The view was great, but the waste recepticals were at the entrance (and the park was huge; 600 spaces), there were only pit toilets (though they were clean), the site only had 50W power and no adaptors for extension cords so we had to buy one for $10.25.

The next morning we drove back across the Mighty Mac so Bob and Darwin could play the only disc golf course on the U.P., located behind a locked gate in a ski area. It was a rugged course with lots of mosquitos. While they played the course, I took a jet boat to Mackinac Island to take a quicky visit to the historical sites there. The fort was originally built by the British and then was given to the US after the war of 1812. It has all been renovated and there are all sorts of historical events that occur inside the fort. There are several other historical buildings sprinkled among the fudge and ice cream stores, bike rental places, and tourist kitsch. One of the really interesting things is that the fort surgeon treated a man who was shot in the stomach. The wound healed with a permanent fistula so that he could observe how the stomach digested various things. He did over 250 experiments on the man, taking him with him as he was posted to different military installations.