"Superior"

Those not living in or near Michigan may not know that some who live in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan occasionally venture that they would like to be their own state, and they would call it "Superior". Michigan is unique in that it has two distinct land masses as a part of the state, with a beautiful, 5-mile long suspension bridge connecting the two parts. The Mackinac Bridge (pronounced "mack-in-naw") was constructed in 1957 after many years of attempting to get the project started. Apparently the ferry services, adequate in summer, weren't all that reliable in winter when the Straits of Mackinac iced over.

Although I have lived in Michigan all my life, and visited Mackinac Island twice (it is located just off the Straits nearer to the Upper Penninsula than the Lower), I hadn't actually explored the UP until 1994.
Once across the bridge, there are several destinations of interest. Almost directly north, the top of the UP almost touches Canada at Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced "Soo Saint Marie") which is also called just "The Soo". There are the famous locks that allow large ships to move from Lake Superior to Lake Huron and vice versa. Nearby is the Anchor Bar, where you can have a burger and a beer and look at trash and treasures covering every wall, from old license plates to stuffed deer heads, street signs, traffic lights, etc.

Watching a ship move through the locks is a slow but completely fascinating process, as the locks are barely wider than the ships that pass through them. The ship stops, the rear gates close, and then the water is pumped in to raise the ship, or out to lower it. It is fun to see the ship slowly rise or fall as the water fills or empties the chamber.

Then, later, we went to see the famous Taquamenon Falls. The upper falls drop 50 feet and the falls are over 200 feet across. The water looks rusty brown due to the iron content, but it still foams white at the foot. The lower falls are not as tall but still are worth seeing.

But the Taquamenon are only two of the many waterfalls in the UP. They are the "Niagras" of Michigan, but all over the UP you can park and hike along a trail, sometimes going carefully down wooden stairs with a wooden railing, or a wood-paved walkway deep into the woods. You will hear the water before you see it, but then, suddenly, there it will be. Some are barely a foot wide, others are quite large. The one I remember the best, although I didn't take a picture, was in a very green woods, curved toward us like a half a glass, and some parts fell ten feet to a rock ledge, boiled, and fell again in numerous cascades, while other parts fell freely fifty feet or more.

One more attraction that we saw that was memorable was the Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior. It requires you board a boat at the town of Munising, and even in July the wind on the lake is very cold. But the view of the carved and colored rock formations is breathtaking.

Almost as numerous as waterfalls are lighthouses on the Lake Superior shoreline. Some of them are very old and have been preserved as state or national historical sites. Some of them have houses attached, where the lightkeepers lived. Now most of them are museums or visitors' centers. One could spend many days looking at lighthouses.

Our trip to the Upper Penninsula took place in high summer, so we did get the benefit of good weather and easy driving, sunny days, and were able to spend a lot of our time outdoors. It made for a grand trip overall.