Across Michigan's UP

We departed Ashland to meet folks for a lunch date in Michigamme MI.  Tom and Nancy will be renting one of our lots in Florida this winter.  They live in Michigamme, and we arranged to meet them as we drove through.  We had a nice visit and are looking forward to seeing them again in the winter.  Our last time through Michigamme was not so much fun.  You can read about that experience here. We spent the night at Michigamme Shores CG, which is a very nice Passport America park.

The next morning we continued eastward across the UP.  We spent some time at Da Yoopers Tourist Trap in Ishpeming.  There's really no way to explain Da Yoopers Tourist Trap.  You just gotta see it for yourself.  It contains a dozens of outlandish contraptions and dioramas making fun of da Yoopers (i.e. the U.P. ers).  I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

This thing had a working gasoline engine and chain!

We thought we might stay at Bay Furnace, forest service campground about 5 miles west of Munising.  We had scouted Bay Furnace on a previous trip and it is very nice, right on the shore of Lake Superior.  However, directly across from the entrance to Bay Furnace was the Kewadin Casino, which had 50A electrical service, plenty of spaces and was free.  Bay Furnace: $16/night, no power vs Kewadin Casino: 50A electric, free.  We chose the casino and ended up staying there 2 nights.  While staying at the casino we paddled the Au Train River.  More on that in the next post.

From Munising we traveled north to Grand Marais.  Grand Marais was a bit out of our way, but our friend Patty said it was a really neat town and worth a look.  We spent 2 nights at Woodland Park, a town-owned campground.

Grand Marais is at the northern edge of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.   We explored some sights along the lake shore

While there we hiked to Au Sable Point and toured the Au Sable Lighthouse.  The lighthouse is still in use, but now it uses solar power and a very small electric marine beacon mounted to the handrail at the top of the structure.  Very cool.  The original Fresnel lens is still in place in the tower.

Au Sable Lighthouse

After our stay in Grand Marais we moved to Newberry, with the intent of paddling some local rivers.  We stayed at Clementz Northwoods Campground, a familiar stop; we were here before in 2010.  We like it because it is very clean with large grassy sites, but also because it was a Passport America member, meaning we get to camp at half price. However, when we arrived we learned that they had dropped out of the Passport America program.  They were honoring the PA discounts through the end of September, when they shut down for the season, but not after that.  It's a shame.

While in Newberry we paddled the Two Hearted and Tahquamenon Rivers.  Details on those paddles will follow in the next post.

We looked hard but couldn't find a moose.

By the way, have you ever wondered why the UP is even a part of Michigan?  Look at a map; why is it not a part of Wisconsin?  Click here for the answer!