A Couple of Perfect Spots in Michigan?

We continued our journey in Michigan by going over the Mackinaw Bridge into the UP(Upper Pennisula of Michigan). Brevoort Lake was our first stop. A lovely spot on a pretty lake. Our site was in the trees overlooking the lake and we still had satellite and internet and great weather! What more could we ask for. Wellll, one thing we didn't expect. Mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes. Mid May to Mid June is the prime time for them and they just had some wet weather recently and so they were out in force.

Unfortunately we not only couldn't sit outside but we got some mosquitoes in the motorhome as well.
We took a drive and checked out another small campground right on Lake Michigan. Would have been nice but there were mosquitoes there as well. We stopped at one of the ubiquitous pastie shops which are everywhere in the UP. Pronounced pass tees, there are a pie like meal with potatoes, carrots and rutabagas with either meat, chicken or more veggies. We bought one of each as well as a dessert apple one. The savory ones were frozen and we took them home and split one of the savory ones and the apple one. Pretty yummy.  We  had paid for another night but couldn't handle it and so packed up quickly in the afternoon and took off for our next destination, which is farther north near Picture Rocks National Lakeshore. City of Munising Tourist Park is also on the water, on the shores of Lake Superior. Brevoort Lake was a national forest and so only $10 a night and this spot is in the $30's  but we have full hookups, a great view and only a few mosquitos though I think we brought some with us and are still trying to get rid of them.

And to top it off, we got a beautiful sunset, which we haven't had for awhile.

I had read about the Picture Rocks Boat Tour on several blogs and they said it was a must do when in this area and so we decided on the 2 o'clock tour. We had taken jackets in case it was cooler out on the water, but it turned out to be a beautiful warm day. The boat goes along Lake Superior, which is the largest of the Great Lakes and the second largest in the world, Its boundaries are Onatrio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Voted #1 boat tour in the state of Michigan by Michigan Living. Pictured Rocks Boat Cruises offers a fully-narrated scenic 2-3 hour cruise of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. “Unique and spectacular,” is often the description passengers use when sharing their experience. The tour highlights the steep, 200-foot sandstone cliffs sculpted by ancient glaciers and painted by the mineral-rich ground water that runs down the face of the cliffs. Varying shades of brown, tan and yellow shimmer from minerals such as iron, copper and manganese, and provides a majestic vista only Mother Nature could create.

The picture below shows some of the ice that is still on the water. In fact we were told this was the first day they were able to do the full tour as they had to turn back due to inpassable blocks of ice.

The scenery was just amazing and everyone was taking a lot of pictures.

We passed several groups of kayakers. That would have been fun to do.

From the colors of the water and the rock, the sandstone cliffs and waterfalls, t was an amazing day.

We went by Grand Island with its interesting Lighthouse.

To end the day, another great sunset.

Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan

We left Indiana and made our way north to Nichigan. We have a long Holiday weekend coming up and so I had done some research to find somewhere with first come first serve spots so we could snag a spot before the weekend. Platte River Campground is a national forest campground up near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshosre. All the reservable sites are taken for the weekend but they have a loop with first come first serve. It is aways up and so we ended up doing two overnight spots on our way there. One of the reasons didn't want to drive more than a few hours was that Joe started feeling bad on Saturday with a cough and what ended up being a cold and I followed a few days later. Oh bummer, our first cold in over 4 years. Anyway, Tuesday we pulled into Platte River Campground, a lovely wooded area in the lower pennisula of Michigan in the southern are of Sleeping Bear Dunes. It is within walking distance of the Platte River and within a few miles of Lake Michigan.

Looking out our window

Lots of hiking, biking and boating available in this area. Of course, we are not feeling well and so didn't do much more than walks around the campground. No tv this week and so lots of reading on our kindles, plus we did have internet.

We did take a drive on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in the Sleeping Bear Dunes area.  You first drive through a covered bridge which was basically built for sightseers to enjoy and take a photo, which I did.

We drove by Glen Lake. Actually there are two Glen Lakes separated by a causeway. Big Glen Lake is up to 130 feet deep in places and Little Glen Lake only 12 feet deep.

There are a number of lookouts to take in the views.

The Sand Dunes are of course, part of the big draw.The road goes by the Dunes area, then through a beech and  maple tree forest, by Lake Michigan and by more dunes.

We did take a short walk to take in more views. The bluff goes down to the water's edge. It is a hard walk back to any who walk down to the water.

The water colors are amazing.

It's a little hard to see the iconic landform that gave this place its name as the sleeping bear form has been eroded by winds or the years. 

A nice day in Michigan. We had mostly nice days with a little rain one day. We did some shopping in Grand Traverse.
When we got here we had just signed up for one day and the next morning Joe went to sign up for a few more days. We wanted to check out another forest campground. We haven't adjusted to Eastern Time and have been sleeping in until 10 or 11 in the morning. We almost lost our spot. Joe had let a woman go before him into the office and he heard her try to sign up for our spot as they had already removed our tag. Joe said that is my spot and we are signing up for more days, which he was able to do. That was close. We would have been able to get another spot but would have had to pack up, bring in the slides,etc. A pain to move a few sites over. Later that day, we stopped on our way back to the campground and signed up through the weekend until Tuesday. We had a nice week and are both on the mend from our colds. Hopefully we will get onto the water on our further adventures in Michigan.