After spending a day hiking on Mackinac Island – we began our journey to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Crossing over the Mackinac Bridge, we decided to stop at the Mystery Stop in St. Ignace. The Mystery Spot alleges to have a different gravitational pull where up is down and you can walk on the walls. We are probably too old to actually be hoodwinked by these optical illusions so instead we just got really dizzy, oh well. But a fun roadside attraction nonetheless.
As soon as we got back in the car, we immediately encountered crazy thunderstorms. I mean, crazy – is this hailing?!?!, thunderstorms! Slowly, we trekked through the rain into the U.P.
There are many beautiful natural attractions in the U.P. like Pictured Rocks, Tahquamenon Falls, Porcupine Mountains and so much more. But we decided to focus on Marquette, where Molly's best friend Helana lives. In fact, in high school, Helana was the person who introduced us!
On our first day we hiked Little Garlic River, we chose this less visited but beautiful trail that hikes up along a river. Our dogs like water so much, that Watson jumped off the cliffs edge TWICE to get his feet wet. Good thing he's strong enough to get himself back up!
Next, we headed to Little Presque Isle to stroll along Lake Superior. Our memories as children had Lake Superior much cooler (freezing cold, you couldn't even get your toes in!!) but the water was much more reasonable. Maybe we just caught it on a warm day! The dogs had a blast, running to and from the water and digging GIANT wrestling pits in the sand.
Our second day, we decided to join the masses and hike Sugarloaf Mountain. The top was breathtaking, overlooking Lake Superior and across the U.P. A relatively easy hike too!
Helana then took us to Blackrocks on Presque Isle (or just The Island as the townies say). Brave children were jumping of the cliffs into the water, while we just stood back and clapped.
Then we played Euchre. The light of Molly's life and everything that is Michigan. It is a card game that requires 4 people and is almost exclusively midwestern. Which means we haven't gotten to play it in a very long time. Helana thinks Molly is taking this photo to cheat (it's not that unreasonable to assume). Euchre is cutthroat, friendships have been severed, families have been torn apart, relationships dead. Just kidding, sort of.
On our final day, we hiked Dead River Falls. Which gets its name from the steam that comes off the river in the winter. The Native Americans believed it was spirits emerging from the water.
This was actually our first time on this trip setting up camp at a campsite. We got to lay in our hammock, hang our prayer flags, do a little laundry and relax.
Off we head to Canada, meeting back up with Jonathan's family to camp just north of Algonquin.
Next Sights: Algonquin, Chutes, & Ottawa River in the rain!