Porcupine Mountains

Hello all!  I wanted to share one more location we were able to visit.   When we traveled west, we stop in the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness area (AKA “Porkies”). We went at the perfect time and were able to see all the beautiful fall colors of the trees and hiked a short trail to see Lake of the Clouds. 

A view of the porcupines

Leaf covered trail to the summit peak of the Porcupine Mountains

A small amount of snow on the trail

David and I in the Porcupines

A view of Lake of the Clouds

Lake of the Clouds 

We have seen beautiful scenery here in the U.P. this fall.  Our time is quickly winding down.  For those of you that have been fortunate enough not to hear my countdown, I’ll inform you now, I have two days of work left! 

David and I are headed to New Mexico in less than a week!  Happy Trails!

A Yooper Kind of Fall

So I’ve also heard about fall time in New England…but never knew fall time in Michigan could be so beautiful.  This past week, we took a couple of drives in Marquette to see the leaves.  One stop was at Mount Marquette again...The view is quite different than just a couple months ago. 

Two months ago....

A view of Marquette in the fall

A view of the Dead River Basin and it's the old bridge

Marquette Mountain Ski slopes in the fall...it won't be long

This weekend we took a trip to the Keweenaw Peninsula to check out Houghton, MI and Copper Harbor.  Houghton has become our favorite town that we’ve visited in Michigan and is at the top of our list for awesomest towns ever visited.  David had to ruin his gluten freeness with some lightly fried perch at a place called Joey’s.  I agree that it was totally worth it! 

This is the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
The "You are Here" tag is at the top of the map.  Feels
like the end of the earth :) 

Copper Harbor at the famous Brockway Mountain Drive

David at Brockway Mountain Drive

Brockway Mountain Drive

Me at a lookout of Brockway Mountain Drive.

We stayed at the Magnuson Hotel in Houghton..right across from the ski slopes.  We woke up
to a slightly snow covered slope today.

Hope you are enjoying fall as much as we are...and as much as Cosby is....

Never been a dog love leaves as much as him...
He sat on the porch and watched them fall.

Exploring the U.P.

David and I took a three day weekend vacation to check out some of the beautiful U.P. scenery.  We spent our first day in St. Ignace, MI and then drove to Sault Ste. Marie, MI (“The Soo”).  We saw The Soo Locks, which is where you can see Great Lake freighters.  It’s the largest waterway traffic system on earth. :) Next, we jumped the border and went into Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Our dogs alllmost kept us from getting in since we didn’t have proof of their vaccinations. But he let us go through! We spent about 30 minutes driving around in Canada (basically to say we’d been).  That night we had dinner in St. Ignace and enjoyed a peaceful evening in our cabin on Lake Michigan.

The Soo Locks.  We were able to see the locks open and a big freighter.
That's the international bridge to Canada.  

The Soo Locks.

Hello Canada!!  

This is a view of Lake Michigan from our cabin.  We had such a
peaceful evening in the cabin, playing Life.

Mackinac Bridge

The next morning we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge into Mackinac City.  The bridge is awesome and makes you feel as if it’s San Fran.  It’ll cost you $4 every time you cross over…worth it everytime.  The bridge connects the U.P. to the main land of Michigan. From Mackinac City, we boarded the ferry and headed to Mackinac Island.  Mackinac Island is a beautiful resort.  We checked out Fort Mackinac, bought some fudge, and pedaled bikes around the Island (8.3 miles around the Island.)  There are no motorized vehicles permitted on the Island, so you either walk or ride bikes. 

The ferry we took from Mackinac City to Mackinac Island.  Can you tell
how tight of a turn around this is?  It's no problem from these captains.

One of the beautiful churches on the Island.

Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island.  There's a diner at the top where those
yellow umbrellas are.

Entrance to Fort Mackinac

Love this little church hut.  It was pretty chilly inside.

This is a compilation of some of the rooms in the buildings of Fort Mackinac.
Love seeing all the old items in these rooms.

A view of Mackinac Island from the top of Fort Mackinac.

View from Fort Mackinac

As we were riding around the island, we saw Arch Rock.

Lighthouse close to Mackinac Island

Sunday morning we left and headed for the Tahquemenon Falls.  Pictures cannot truly describe the beauty of these falls. There are two areas…the lower falls and the upper falls.  

The Lower Falls

David on the Boardwalk to see the Falls

The Upper Falls

In front of the Upper Falls

I just love these falls...isn't it beautiful?!

The Falls are aka "Root Beer Falls," which is a local name because of the water's color.

We also checked out Whitefish Point…basically the end of the earth.  Our phones went into international mode at $15 per minute.  It was cold and windy…but beautiful and you can look across the water and see Canada.

David walking along the beach at Whitefish Point 

The Lighthouse at Whitefish Point

Happy trails to you!