Trip to Michigan UP

[Greenley]

Today started a much needed vacation to the upper peninsula of Michigan, the UP.





Left Dowagiac (C91) and flew north over some beautiful Michigan farmland and lakes.





Passed Traverse City, then over Traverse Bay and on to Beaver Island. Beaver Island is a nice Island with some great beaches, great beach combing, and two airports.







From there we went on across Lake Michigan (37 miles) to the UP.



Landed at K I Sawyer, and spending the first night in Marquette.





Tomorrow spending the day in the air and on the water along Pictured Rocks. More pics to come.

[DaveWelch]

Brings back UP memories!

[leok]

Beaver Island has some crazy history. At one point it was declared independent of the United States by a self anointed king. He was later killed by one of his subjects (apparently not such a nice guy).

Some of the residents even set up a false light house to wreck ships on the island for plunder back in the 1800s. Now just a sleepy little summer get away for the residences.

Have a great trip!

[Greenley]

The idea was to fly out of Sawyer (KSAW) and do a little air to ground target practice with my Canon, unfortunately low clouds and trying to stay 1,000' above the part kept us from seeing much of Pictured Rocks from the plane. Got a few pictures.









From there took the rental car and drove to Munising to explore waterfalls. The first was Wagner falls.





From there we visited Alger Falls, Munising Falls, Elliot Falls, and finally Miners Falls. Yes, there are a lot of waterfalls in the UP.



(continued on day 2 part 2)

[Greenley]

After waterfalls, what better way to end the day then with a cruise. Took the 7:00pm sunset cruise along Pictured Rocks.









In this next picture, look closely at the tree on the rock column, there is hardly any soil or water there. You can see roots draped over to the mainland where it gets it nutrition and water.





The coloring on some of the minerals weeps through the sandstone was amazing.





Back to the Bed & Breakfast by 10:30pm and the end to a beautiful day in the UP. Tomorrow, Sugarloaf mountain and more falls, maybe a little canoeing.

[Paul K]

We did Pictured Rocks a couple of years ago. You are having much better weather than we did. Great photos!

[petehowell]

This trip is on our list! Did you take a look at the little strip at Munising 5Y7?

Would be interested to see if it is RV friendly.

[Greenley]

I did not look at 5Y7. I was going to but could not find a rental car in that area. Ended up flying to KSAW because I could get a car there. Doing more driving then I wanted to. At least I had a nice 2 hour flight up here from the southwest corner of Michigan instead of an 8 hour drive.

[petehowell]

Hi Bill - thanks for the reply on Hanley Field. I might check it out one weekend.

[donaziza]

I especially like the tree with its roots reaching over to the mainland. That is one smart tree.