Upper Peninsula of Michigan

We left Howe, IN on Thursday morning for a long drive (350 miles) to the Upper Peninsula.  Got hilly/mountainous as we got closer.

Interesting place to eat, I guess!

Fortunately for us the weather cooperated and we were able to cross the Mackinac Bridge without any problems.  If it's windy, sometimes you cannot cross.

We found our campground in St. Ignace, just across the bridge and spend the night.  It was cold and rainy, and, even though we were on a hill, we could barely see the lake.

On Friday we headed West out of St. Ignace in pouring rain and wind.  But after a few miles, the rain stopped.  If you have a map of Michigan, we took Highway 2 all the way across and had many views of Lake Michigan.

We had picked up a brochure about this lighthouse and made time to visit.

SeulChoix (pronounced Sis-shwa) Point Light marks a small harbor on Lake Michigan on the south shore of the Upper Peninsula.  Native Americans and French fur traders traveled in canoes across the rough waters of the lake.  It was named by the French who found that it was the only harbor in this part of the lake.
It was built to light the way for the increasing number of vessels carrying the iron ore that was being shipped out of Escanaba, MI.

It was 4 miles off the highway and then another 4 miles on a gravel road.  I wasn't sure I wanted to take it, but, it turned out to be packed down, so we took it.

Our GPS said not to go any further!!!

Some Canadian geese on the property.

The lighthouse and house (and also gift shop of course!). The light was placed into service in 1892, but the tower had to be rebuilt and was completed in 1895.
It is now fitted with a modern airport beacon lens.

The museum was neat.  A lot of old sailing stuff.  Used to be a fishing village at one time.

Fishing nets.

The lighthouse where the lighthouse keeper lived was extremely nice.  We toured the many rooms.

I walked up the 96 steps to the top and got views from different angles.

A limestone quarry across the bay still ships material via tanker.

Our truck and trailer below.

Stairway down.

A replica of the lighthouse and house was built and erected on a tower.

We walked on a path to the shoreline.

As you may know, Judy loves to look for shells.

And found some.  Quite small but different shapes and coloring.

Just passed Judy is a sandy beach, no shells.  It was interesting how the shells just stopped being washed up.

Interesting tree.

After leaving the lighthouse we continued along the highway.  There were several roadside rests that were very nice.

We did make it to our campground near Iron Mountain and will be staying here until Monday when we head across Northern Wisconsin and into Minnesota via Duluth.