North Country – Western Upper Upper Peninsula

Today our day started in Marquette, MI and this is such a beautiful town. They call the area of the Upper Peninsula that I will be exploring next North Country.  I walked around Marquette last night by the lake so this morning when I got up, I decided to go and walk to the lighthouse. This lighthouse is amazing as it is so big and has an attached house. Usually it is open for tours but not right now, but we still got to walk around the beautiful grounds and take bunches of pictures. It was like its own tropical paradise there.

Since I thought it was going to rain most of the day, I decided to stay close to Marquette for the morning and really get in a lot of walked and I am glad that I did. This is an amazing city with so much to see and do. I could have spent a whole day there, but I am already running behind schedule. While in this city I found a few beaches that I could go down onto, the picnic rocks (which looked to be the home to a lot of birds), and a nice concrete path that went out to the middle of the lake. The path was very cool as it had big boulders on the side and at the end. I could have climbed the rocks but decided not to because of Bear.  

We headed out of the city and went north on highway 41 and boy that was a pretty drive. I didn’t think that going west away from Lake Superior would offer so much scenery but it didn’t disappoint. We even stopped at a little roadside park on the highway to take a little hike down to Canyon Falls. It was a nice dirt path right off the road.

The farther north that we got on highway 41 the more scenery that there was. There was also a lot more mountains in North Country with trees all around. I bet the drive through the Upper Peninsula when the leaves are changing colors almost compares to New England!! Plus, as I headed north towards Cooper Harbor, I could smell the trees in my van. The smell of Evergreens is one of the best smells in wilderness!! I followed highway 41 all the way to the end as you can see. It was funny because I saw a sign that said 1990 miles to Miami, FL as the highway goes all the way!!

I did take highway 26 south though and went by Lake Superior on my way back down to Houghton for the evening. Bear and I made quite a few stops along the way to look at the different scenery. Unfortunately, when we were in Cooper Harbor (the northern most part) it was raining so there was no getting out of the car as I do not want my van smelling like wet dog!!

One of the stops that we made was at Eagle Harbor to get up close with the lighthouse that was there. We were able to climb down on the rocks to get a different view of the lighthouse too. It was also a great view of Lake Superior.

There were a few spots were Bear and I just stopped for a scenic photo as there were paths that would lead right by Lake Superior. There were a lot of rocks here but not a lot of steep cliffs like in other areas. You could get right down by the water if you wanted. I saw a lot of people using the rocks as an entrance for kayaking. There were also some really pretty red rocks that were surrounded by water at some areas that were really pretty to see!! And one place, Jacobs Falls, where you could just see a waterfall and not much hiking.

The last spot we got out and actually walked was at Eagle River. There was a really nice waterfall there that went right into Lake Superior. Also there was a historic bridge that was really pretty. We walked around the town for a little bit and then back to Houghton for the night.

Ending the night in Houghton was the best as God really did lead me to the most precious thing of the day, a nice hot shower. We were walking in this city park and low and behold there is a shower in the bathroom that is operated off of quarters. Felt so good to get a nice hot shower in!!