19 hours ago
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Let maine archer you astir 1 of my favourite places successful the full full world.
Back successful eighth grade, I had to memorize each 50 states (shoutout to MIMAL, if you know, you know). I spent literal hours conscionable staring astatine the representation of the US, and that’s erstwhile I archetypal noticed this *random* chunk of onshore supra Michigan. Technically, it’s portion of Michigan, but you get what I mean.
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That portion of land, surrounded by, number 'em, THREE Great Lakes, looked similar an land tucked distant inland. As Carrie Bradshaw said, I couldn’t assistance but wonder, what was adjacent retired there? It became my ain mentation of Narnia, and I started telling radical that visiting it, the Upper Peninsula, was astatine the apical of my bucket list.
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Twenty years later, I made it there.
Matt Stopera
People thought I was crazy.
"Where are you going connected vacation?" they'd ask.
"Michigan," I'd say.
They'd conscionable look astatine me. "Wait, seriously?"
"Yep, the Upper Peninsula. Go look astatine a map!!!!"
It was the astir ambitious travel I’d ever planned: 7 places successful 7 days, a roadworthy travel each the mode astir the perimeter of the Upper Peninsula.
For those who similar specifics, my itinerary was:
Day 1: Fly into Traverse City and thrust to Grand Marais, halt for supplies, lunch, and an evening hike to the Grand Sable Dunes.
Day 2: Drive the scenic H-58 to Munising and hike the 10.5-mile Chapel Loop on Pictured Rocks National Park.
Day 3: Head to Marquette to research Sugarloaf Mountain and Black Rocks.
Day 4: Drive to Copper Harbor to research the eastbound Keweenaw Peninsula: sojourn Gay (duh), Bete Grise, Bare Bluffs, and thrust Brockway Mountain.
Day 5: Check retired the westbound broadside of the Keweenaw Peninsula, visiting the shade municipality of Freda.
Day 6: Hike Lake of the Clouds successful the Porkies and past thrust to Manistique.
Day 7: Drive to Traverse City via US-2, stopping for a aquatics successful Lake Michigan.
Day 8: Fly location from Traverse City.
Now, fto maine archer you each the things I learned on the way...
1. First off, the Upper Peninsula, amended known arsenic the UP, is sometimes compared to Alaska, and I curse I saw idiosyncratic telephone it the the Alaska of the Lower 48 (so that's what I archer radical present lol).
Matt Stopera
I could beryllium incorrect astir that comparison, but fto maine person it! The comparisons travel from some places being rough, wild, remote, and really, truly pretty. I'll admit it, though, the UP doesn't person the mountains.
2. Lake Superior is the existent prima of the amusement successful the UP, and fun fact: It’s the largest freshwater water by aboveground area successful the full world. It holds 10% of the world's freshwater!!
Matt Stopera
3. People from the UP are known arsenic Yoopers, a *clever* play connected the initials "UP," get it?
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4. The official food of the UP is the pasty, which is fundamentally a nutrient pie. Pasties gained popularity successful the UP due to the fact that they were the cleanable repast for miners during the UP’s archetypal copper boom, which was really the archetypal successful the United States. Pasties are dense and filling arsenic hell.
Matt Stopera
They travel successful a VARIETY of flavors and you'll find them each implicit the place. It's fundamentally an big Hot Pocket.
5. The UP is location to 1 nationalist park: Pictured Rocks National Park, and it's benignant of a shocking place. More connected that later.
Matt Stopera
6. It goes without saying, but it virtually feels similar you're surrounded by the water the full clip you're successful the UP. The sand, the colors, the vibe. It's practically a sea.
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7. Buuuut earlier I get excessively far, fto maine archer ya however I got there. So, there's nary ace casual mode to alert to the Upper Peninsula. Your champion stake is to spell via Traverse City. And fto maine archer you, the Traverse City airdrome is 1 of the smallest airports I've ever been to. There are lone 5 gates!
Matt Stopera
8. Cherries are a large happening there, and you person to get them (in season).
Gary Ennis / Getty Images/iStockphoto
I had nary thought cherries were grown in, of each places, Michigan. For immoderate reason, I thought it was a California thing, but it's precise overmuch a portion of Northern Michigan, and particularly Traverse City culture.
9. To really get to the UP, you person to transverse the Mackinac Bridge. The span opened successful 1957, and anterior to that, determination was nary onshore way that connected the UP and the little peninsula. Once you transverse that bridge, it's similar you're successful an wholly antithetic place.
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10. My favourite municipality and archetypal halt successful the Upper Peninsula was Grand Marais.
Matt Stopera
Grand Marais has a cute downtown, a fashionable brewery (Voyageur Brewing Company), a bully boardwalk, and a large beach.
11. The UP is location to the largest postulation of freshwater soil dunes successful the world. The Grand Sable Dunes (just extracurricular of Grand Marais) were my favorite. Just breathtaking.
Matt Stopera
12. The UP is quiet. You tin easy find yourself unsocial connected a formation arsenic acold arsenic the ol' oculus tin see.
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13. Rock collecting is simply a precise large woody there, and you volition get caught up into it. I'm not joking, it's addicting. I'm successful Facebook groups astir it now!
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You'll find rocks you'd bargain successful those Natural Wonders promenade stores from the '90s.
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14. The UP is besides known for these rocks that glow successful the acheronian called yooperlites. You'll find radical looking for them astatine nighttime successful the h2o with their small blacklights.
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I bought immoderate UV flashlights, but nary luck!
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At slightest I tin behaviour Next-like UV airy furniture tests for the remainder of my life.
15. The sunsets successful the UP are next-level gorgeous. It was giving Gulf of Mexico sunset, but you are mode up successful Michigan.
Matt Stopera
16. The UP is precise chaotic and not ace developed. We're talking ungraded roads. Mrs. Google can, and will, pb you astray onto unpaved roads for agelong stretches.
Matt Stopera
I wasn't expecting this, but it adds to the charm, I guess.
17. My implicit item of the travel was the hike to the Pictured Rocks National Park. I urge doing the 10.5-mile hike done the woods (it's a loop).
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18. The large uncover erstwhile you get to the h2o is unreal:
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19. You locomotion on this:
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20. And this:
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21. It was giving Caribbean phantasy but successful Northern Michigan.
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22. Then determination are the bugs. Lots of bugs!!!
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23. We really got truly fortunate with the bugs; they weren't terrible-terrible. But whew, if you deed a swarm, it wasn't cute. We sprayed our apparel with this worldly earlier we adjacent went connected the travel arsenic a precautionary measure.
Matt Stopera
24. There are a TON of waterfalls (over 300 to beryllium exact) successful the UP.
Matt Stopera
If you're into that benignant of thing, you'll emotion it.
25. Marquette is the biggest metropolis successful the UP, and it's very, precise cute.
JerryB7 / Getty Images/iStockphoto
26. The (not so) hidden gem successful Marquette is simply a confederate Creole New Orleans-style edifice called Lagniappe. Never successful a cardinal years would I expect to get authentic New Orleans nutrient each the mode up there, but I did, and it was 10/10.
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27. Outside of Marquette, there's this ace libbed-out metallic sculpture parkland that is escaped to thrust done called "Lakenenland." If you ever wanted to spot aggregate sculptures dedicated to Governor Gretchen Whitmer, past this is the spot for you.
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28. They adjacent had this Mount Rushmore of (liberal) politicians.
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29. It was unexpected.
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30. Speaking of Marquette, you person to cheque retired the Black Rocks successful Presque Isle Park.
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31. If you're determination successful the summer, you'll find tons of radical jumping disconnected the rocks into the water.
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32. And that's erstwhile you'll larn conscionable however acold Lake Superior h2o is. The mean summertime temp of the h2o is just astir 52 degrees.
Matt Stopera
The Caribbean-looking h2o isn't precise Caribbean-feeling.
33. The Keweenaw Peninsula is astir apt the *coolest* portion of the UP.
It's the northernmost portion of the Upper Peninsula and known for its *rugged* wilderness and remoteness. It was location to the nation's archetypal copper boom, truthful there's a ton of copper-themed things astir there.
34. If you're into ruin porn, past the Keweenaw is for you.
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35. They person a clump of abandoned aged factories. This 1 is successful Gay. Yes, Gay.
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36. There's a municipality named Gay successful the UP, and you betcha I went determination conscionable for this picture:
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37. There is besides the Gay Bar:
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38. And past determination are the Gay Sands:
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39. The "Gay Sands" is actually a designated Superfund tract wherever ample deposits of stamp sands, crushed stone discarded near implicit from copper mining, were dumped. The Gay Sands are beauteous overmuch a toxic, barren wasteland.
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40. It feels similar different world.
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41. The champion (or astatine slightest astir memorable) bakery successful the UP is 1 tally by Byzantine monks called the Jampot.
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42. They merchantability a cinnamon bun the size of a quality caput that is practically *blessed*.
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43. If you were wondering, my favourite formation successful the UP is Bete Grise. This formation has "singing sand," which means erstwhile you locomotion connected the sand, it squeaks.
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44. Oh, a random happening that amazed maine was that you could person fires connected the beach.
Matt Stopera
I've ne'er seen that earlier (outside of the TV amusement Laguna Beach).
45. On the tippy apical of the Keweenaw is the municipality of Copper Harbor, wherever the rocks are, duh, copper colored.
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46. Copper Harbor decidedly gives "edge of the world" vibes, and you'll find a batch of radical spending the nighttime present due to the fact that this is wherever you get the vessel to Isle Royale National Park. Isle Royale is 1 of the astir distant nationalist parks. It's an land successful the mediate of Lake Superior.
Sean Mooney / 500px / Getty Images/500px
47. You person to bash a excavation tour, not lone due to the fact that being successful a excavation is cool, but for the manner (the hard hat).
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49. The Champion Mill is successful Freda, close connected the enactment of Lake Superior. For context, that's me. It's huge.
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The "beach" extracurricular of the mill was wild, filled with aged screws and debris from the factory.
Matt Stopera
Just past everywhere.
50. One of the strangest things astir the Upper Peninsula is that portion of it is successful the Central Time Zone. This was particularly confusing connected the thrust backmost erstwhile our phones kept connected switching betwixt Central and Eastern time.
Wikipedia
51. The astir indispensable roadside halt (besides for pasties on the way) successful the UP is the Kitch-iti-kipi Spring:
Matt Stopera
The outpouring stays astatine a changeless 45 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. More than 10,000 gallons of freshwater travel successful each minute. You tin instrumentality a vessel with a solid bottommost implicit the outpouring and the colors are wild.
52. Annnnd lastly, there's 1 upland scope successful the Upper Peninsula called the Porcupine Mountains, oregon arsenic they telephone it, the Porkies. The best-known spot is called the "Lake of the Clouds," and it's a definite must-stop.
Matt Stopera
After a week successful the UP, our travel ended with a nighttime successful Traverse City. Seven days successful the UP delivered changeless surprises and gave maine a genuine transportation to our large Mother Superior (what we called Lake Superior). I honestly had nary thought a spot similar this existed. After experiencing its chaotic beauty, endless coastlines, waterfalls, historic/abandoned sites, and cute tiny towns, I’m earnestly convinced it’s the astir underrated destination successful the country.
Matt Stopera
Sooo, if you similar vast, bare landscapes...
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Gorgeous sunsets...
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Enormous soil dunes wherever you'd ne'er expect to spot tremendous soil dunes...
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An abundance of lighthouses...
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And the astir stunning scenery you've ever seen, past possibly you should adhd the UP to your bucket list.
Matt Stopera
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