We took a hiatus from our relentless pursuit of the Bay Area’s Nifty Ninety Peaks with a trip to Michigan earlier in the month to visit Chris’ family and attend a wedding. While I’ve been in the Detroit airport many times and spent a weekend in Ann Arbor shortly out of college, I considered this visit to really be my first time in the state. Chris did most of the planning, and sandwiched between family commitments, we were able to carve out two days of sightseeing around the northern reaches of the Lower Peninsula.
OUR ITINERARY
Our journey started in Port Huron, right on the border with Canada, where we had met up with one of his cousins. After spending half the day visiting Chris’ childhood haunts along the shores of Lake Huron, we drove three hours north towards Gaylord. We pulled in around 5:00 P.M., and after getting settled in the motel room, walked to the small main street. The town, in addition to being a gateway for the outdoors, is known for the alpine motif of its architecture. Befitting of this, we ate at Mary’s Stein Haus, a German-themed restaurant and beer hall. We tucked into the generous portions of salad and cabbage rolls. The food was actually quite good.
Makinac Island: A Step Back in Time
The next morning we drove another hour to Makinaw City where we caught the ferry to Makinac Island. I had bought tickets online with Star Line; it was a few dollars cheaper than Shepler’s Ferry, the only other company with service to the island. We had no problems finding the free parking lot, located across the street from the dock, and literally snagged the last available seats on the ferry. The Labor Day vacationing crowd was still out in full force.
It was a short 20-minute ride and as we poured out of the ferry and stepped onto the shore, I could feel the temperature drop several degrees. Thank goodness! Ever since our arrival in Michigan we had found ourselves in sweltering 90° temperatures.
A car-free island, Mackinac Island is a place frozen in time where one gets around on foot, bike or horse-drawn carriage. Victorian architecture predominates. We only had a few hours and wanted to depart sometime after lunch so had to choose our activities judiciously. From the dock, we walked in the direction of the fort but opted not to pay the fee to go inside. Instead, we continued up the road past it, walked along the back side and came to a trail that would take us to Arch Rock. It was an easy hike through the woods and when we arrived at the Rock, we decided to take the steps down to the shore to have a look around there first. Down by Lake Huron, we walked along Lake Shore Road a short ways until we could see Arch Rock from the bottom. We went back up the steps and walked to the Arch Rock lookout point followed by short hike up to the Nicolet Watch Tower.
Exercise completed, we retraced our steps back to the trail and made our way to the Grand Hotel for lunch. No doubt there might be better, and definitely cheaper, places to eat on the island, but we felt like a visit to the island would not be complete without a peak into the iconic Grand Hotel. We opted for lunch outside in the Jockey Club. Our meager portioned salads came with the smallest $10 piece of salmon ever. I think they must have run out of salmon and split one fillet between the two of us. Our lunch tab came to more than $50 with tip and this is just for two salads. We drank water. Oh well. Undeterred, we then went inside to have drinks at the Cupola Bar, a two-story bar perched at the top of the hotel. From here we enjoyed our drinks with beautiful views of the lake in the distance. As we walked down the stairs and out the hotel I couldn’t help but wonder how they came up with the interior decorations – not my style but I suppose that somehow the crazy patterns and bright color combinations work for this place.
On our way to the dock we strolled through the bustling main town. We didn’t have too long to wait for the ferry. There were definitely fewer people on the return trip. The ferry pulled out and made its way past the lighthouse, leaving bygone times behind. Thirty minutes later, we were back at our car, fuel powering our drive to Petoskey.
Petoskey: Gem of the Little Traverse Bay
Leaving Mackinac Island behind, we continued our journey to Petoskey, a picturesque town located less than an hour away on the shores of Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay.
One of the more interesting finds in my quick online search of things to do in Petoskey was to go hounding for Petoskey stones, a fossilized rock found primarily in the state of Michigan along the shore of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. It also happens to be the state’s stone. The rocks are remnants of ancient coral colonies that lived in the warm, shallow seas that covered the Great Lakes region over 350 million years ago. The corals, known as Hexagonaria percarinata, left behind a distinctive fossil pattern consisting of a series of six-side polygons.
Armed with this tidbit of information our first stop as we entered Petoskey was to find a beach. We headed to Bay Front Park and walked down to the water. There were plenty of rocks and we saw a few other people stooped over the water. Being complete newbies at this activity, we were not exactly prepared to go into the water and thought we could stand on the shore and spy the rocks. With the afternoon sun beating down on us, it didn’t take more than an hour of staring at and turning over rocks before we decided to call it quits. No beginner’s luck to be had here.
We drove to the historic Gaslight District and walked around while trying to stay in the shade before our dinner reservations at City Park Grill. The restaurant, housed in a building dating to the late 1800s, used to be a billiard hall and was a onetime favorite place of Ernest Hemingway. From our window-side table in the front, we enjoyed our meal while looking across the greenway. Dessert looked tempting but we still had a little more than an hour’s worth of driving to make it to Traverse City for the night.
Leaving the restaurant, we cut through Pennsylvania Park and walked past the Ernest Hemingway statue. Back at the car, with the sun lower in the sky but still keeping early evening temperatures in the low 80s, we pointed our way south and headed off.
Traverse City: Gateway to Michigan’s Wine Country
We woke up to a partly cloudy day in Traverse City. After breakfast, we opportunistically drove to East Bay Park—it was only a mile from our motel – to see if we might have better luck here finding Petoskey stones. Even with the more favorable weather, we decided after less than an 30 minutes of looking around that the less rocky and smaller beach was probably not where we would find our luck.
From the park it was an easy drive up Old Mission Peninsula, the thin strip of land that extends from Traverse City and splits Grand Traverse Bay in two. As we left the city behind, it was like entering another world, filled with gentle, forested hills covered with vineyards and fruit farms. In some areas we could look right or left and see water in the distance. It was so beautiful. We drove toward the Mission Point Lighthouse, located at the very tip of the peninsula. Less than two miles away from the lighthouse, the road ran alongside the shore of the bay. We found a place to pull over and walked down to a long stretch of deserted beach. Chris immediately went into the water and started poking around, on the hunt for a Petoskey stone.
As we searched the rocks, the skies on the opposite shore darkened and we could see that it was raining. Not a minute too soon before it seemed like it was going to start raining by us, Chris came over, holding a small, gray rock in his hand and asked, “Is this it?” I looked down at the markings. Sure enough, he had found a Petoskey stone.
Now I understand more clearly why people were looking for the Petoskey stones in the water, as opposed to what we were initially doing which was looking at rocks on the beach: when dry, there’s no visible marking on the stone. It’s as if the fossils are etched in invisible ink, only to be revealed by the addition of water.
Elated by his finding, we got back in the car and continued to the lighthouse. I was surprised by the number of cars in the lot. For the most part we had been the only car on the road. We walked to the lighthouse but chose not to go inside. Instead, we walked down to the beach, but then it started to rain so we turned around and went back to the car.
It was still early; we didn’t need to be back in the Detroit area until later in the day. As we drove out, we decided to stop at the first winery that was open. A third of the way back down the peninsula we saw the sign for Chateau Chantal and turned into their driveway. The rain was coming down in buckets now which made the idea of hanging out in a winery seem like a really good one. We weren’t the only ones with the same good idea. Compared to our experience in Napa Valley, the pours here were generous and the tasting was affordable. We were allowed to sample a variety of wines first before choosing the three that we do for our tasting. It was nice to sit in the airy tasting room, our table overlooking the vineyards, watching the rain come down while we were warm and dry inside. An hour later and a couple of glasses happier, we left with some bottles of wine and drove to Traverse City for lunch.
By this time we had already been in Michigan for four days and still had not eaten Detroit-style pizza. Fortunately, there was a Jet’s Pizza in Traverse City and we made a beeline for it. We ordered a four corner with pepperoni and peppers. I noticed that the crust was thinner, and their cheese and meat to crust ratio seemed better balanced, than what we get in San Francisco. Chris decided that it had all the elements of a great Detroit-style pizza but didn’t taste quite as good as it looked. There would need to be more pizza tasting in the days ahead.
Bellies satisfied, we left behind the idyllic northwestern part of Michigan and drove inland towards the outskirts of Detroit. Our time alone, exploring and playing, had come to an end but not before we got to create wonderful new memories of the timeless charm of Makinac Island and the scenic beauty of Petoskey and Traverse City.
Coda
I had done no research to prepare for this trip so had no expectations of what I’d find over the course of the three days we spent touring Northwest Michigan. What I discovered surprised me. I hadn’t realized just how BIG the lakes would be; you could be forgiven for thinking that you were standing on the edge of a calm ocean. Compared to California, especially this time of year, everything was still so green. And I didn’t know that Michigan had it’s own wine growing region. I was truly enamored with Old Mission Peninsula: the rural landscape, acres upon acres of vines and the nearby shores of Lake Michigan. I’m looking forward to future visits to see what else we might uncover.
Additional Info
Makinac Island
- We used Star Line Ferry. Booking online saved us a few dollars. Cost of one round trip ticket was $31 plus $1 in fees.
- The Grand Hotel charges a $10 admission fee per person (that’s right, you can’t enter the hotel to even look around without paying). If we had opted for the lunch buffet in the Main Dining room they would have credited the admission fee to our bill.