We recently took a little family trip to Northern Michigan, the Upper Peninsula. We stayed in St. Ignace, which is the city on the north end of the Mackinac Bridge, visited Mackinac Island, Castle Rock, and the Tahquamenon Falls State Park. In all, it was about 380 miles one way, not including the travels on Mackinac Island.
This was my families first time going to Northern Michigan. In fact, it was all of our first time in any of the places we visited. The only time I’ve ever been in St. Ignace, Michigan was when I drove through it to go to Escanaba, Michigan. I never really got to see anything in the city, nor do I even remember seeing the city because I was about 12-years-old.
During this weekend, we were able to see three of the great lakes. The entire family had already been to Lake Huron and Lake Michigan before, but this was the first time any of us had been near Lake Superior! We didn’t get to see much of it, however, because we were on the way to the Tahquamenon Falls. The road we were driving on had an area that was right on the lake. I wish we could have stopped for a visit, maybe next time.
Northern Michigan
A breathtaking bridge and it is very long! 5-miles to be exact! It’s said to be the 5th largest (by total length) suspension bridge in the world.
Mackinac Bridge
St. Ignace
This is where we stayed; it is a beautiful city with many attractions. You have the Chief Wawatam Park, which includes the Wawatam Lighthouse and it also has Castle Rock. We had a good time at both places. Next time we visit the area, we’ll need to see other parts of the city, we only got to see about half of it, the Lake Huron half.
Castle Rock
Castle Rock was fun to see, tiring to climb all the stairs, but very fun. It was just Thaddeus and me for this one. Xavier passed out from our trip to Mackinac Island so hubby stayed in the car with him. I wish I would have taken a picture of the actual rock we were on top of; it is amazing!
Mackinac Island
This is a place I’ve wanted to visit for a while now, just never had the time or money to take the trip. Since we were going to be in the area anyway, we decided to spend about 4 hours on the island touring the city. We even took a carriage tour to learn about all the historic buildings and the island.
Tahquamenon Falls State Park
For the last part of our trip, we made a last-minute decision and took a trip even further north to see the Tahquamenon Upper and Lower Falls. During our final night at the hotel, I was looking through some of the UP brochures to see what we could do before heading home the next day. We had planned to stay in St. Ignace for a festival they were having that weekend, however, I wanted to see the Tahquamenon Falls. At first, we were not going to go because it was an additional 90 minutes north from where we were, which would mean it would take us at least 6 hours to drive home. Then hubby said, let’s go, you want to see them, we’ll go. We are both so happy he made that decision, so worth the extra drive!
[…] This was not only the first time this far north, but it was my husband and kids first time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and I wanted to make sure we were able to see many great places while we were […]