Our four days in the tiny windswept Lake Superior town of Grand Marais, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, were sweet. Nice little public beach on a protected bay, Lake Superior beaches right in town, their own maritime museum, friendly locals, plus backroads to sandy-shored lakes where the quiet fairly roars, and to dunes, dunes all all over. Aerial shot here gives some perspective:

First full day we went out to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, or rather a portion of it: the 1.5-mile hike on a smooth trail from the Hurricane River campsite to the Au Sable Lighthouse, passing shipwrecks on the beach. A nice photo essay here from a guy named Kent, who grew up in Northern Michigan.

The next day, a two-hour drive from Lake Superior's southern shores at Grand Marais around to the west, and then starting up northwest along the Lake's left coast, to the U.P.'s largest city, Marquette. More info. here and here.

Lots of old, old architecture as you come into town on Route 28 and then Front Street. Park your car right near Front and Washington and start walking around. Don't miss the candy store on Washington between Front and Third Streets, plus the waterfront city park down the hill on Washington, with an amazing playground, and then a maritime museum beyond. There stands The Silent Service Memorial to the 52 U.S. Navy subs lost at sea between 1941 and 1945, including the USS Darter. It was piloted by a Marquette man, Capt. David McClintock, and played a key role in a Philippines engagement that ended the offensive role of the Japanese Navy.

The bulk of our day in Marquette was spent on a nice sandy Lake
Superior beach a bit north of downtown, but south of the justly famed Presque Isle Park, a 300-acre-plus nature preserve that is the crown jewel of Marquette. Don't miss it. We drove through, and found some Lake Superior scenic-view rocky outcroppings to perch upon for a while. At our beach earlier, people were walking out to some nearby islands, called Picnic Rocks, one (only one, thankfully) covered with squawking gulls. They stayed away from our scrumptious prosciutto-red onion baguette; chicken-pasta-veggie salad; and Greek salad, from Sweet Basil Deli on Third St.

Every where we went, Lake Superior's water looked exceptionally clear and clean. The beach park is called Shiras Park, the downtown waterfront spot with the great playground is Lower Harbor Park: more here from the city's parks web page.

A shout out to fellow Washingtonians and other Pacific Northwesterners: if you haven't been to the northwestern part of The Mitten, or Lower Peninsula; or to the U.P., get on up here. It's right up your alley. Only thing missing is the tall mountains, but the dunes are a nice change of pace on that account.

Today, fortified with a huge and hearty pastie for breakfast, I drove our crew off the U.P., south across the Mackinac Bridge. Lunch at the infamous Legs Inn, then south on tree-canopied M-119 into old-money snooty Harbor Springs, where even four-year olds look you up and down to see if you're sporting the requisite designer leisure-wear. Ah well, that's what you get in a town where the local java emporium proudly displays a newsclip boasting that an airline in-flight mag calls the town the "Cape Cod of the Midwest."

I much preferred our next stop, Petoskey, where we spent a good two hours in the historic Gaslight District, and from where I'm now blogging in a motel with free wireless Net access.

Michigan: a great place to wander.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at July 24, 2005 04:54 PM

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