Michigan Upper Peninsula

August 21-28, 2025

August 21-22: Rather than being a vacation, this was our first utilitarian trip where we took Maude up to the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan to help a friend move her son into college. Our drive to Houghton, MI took two days, driving about 9-10 hours per day. After the first 10 hour drive, we stopped in Ann Arbor to stay with a friend overnight before heading further up north. The drive to Ann Arbor was not particularly interesting as it was on highways. The drive from Ann Arbor to Houghton was much more interesting as we drove over the Mackinac Bridge spanning the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan and crossing over the place where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron come together. Then we headed west along Lake Michigan to the western side of the UP, a beautiful drive through small towns and deep forests up to the Keweenaw Peninsula. Arriving in the pouring rain in Houghton, we unpacked late and arrived in the evening at the Hancock Recreation Beach & Campground where we would be camping during our stay. The first two nights we stayed in site 40, a nice size electric-only (no water or sewage) site under open skies. The campground is very nice being situated on Portage Lake and has a nice recreation area, and fairly clean bathrooms and showers, with water and dump station available to campers. 

August 23: On our first full day in the UP, we drove up to Calumet in the morning as we wanted to go to the farmer’s market. On the way, we stopped at the Calumet Waterworks Park, a beautiful rocky beach along Lake Superior. Known for being a rock hound’s paradise, we picked up a few rocks to take home for our garden. The town of Calumet is very quaint and worth the visit. The farmer’s market was small but had some fresh fruits and vegetables, so we purchased a pattypan squash to add to our dinner. After eating  lunch in the van, we headed over to Michigan Technological University (aka Michigan Tech) campus to help our friends. The afternoon consisted of shopping at Walmart to purchase housewares and food staples, and later setting up the apartment. We returned to the campground for dinner, hoping to see some stars only to find serious cloud cover. We went to bed, exhausted from the previous few days. 

August 24: Sleeping in a bit, we woke up to a rainy morning, had breakfast, and decided to drive to the Nara Nature Park. Unfortunately the nature center was closed and the rain was still coming down. Despite the weather, we walked the short boardwalk trail that follows the Pilgrim River, enjoying the wildflowers in the area. Then we headed back to the campsite where we needed to move to site 31, which was much more wooded than site 40. Normally we like being in the woods instead of out in the open. The trade-off, however, is that in rainy weather, things don’t dry as easily in the woods. After switching sites, we left our 30 AMP cord with an attached surge protector, as well as a large platform hitch, in the site before heading out for the afternoon. 

We spent much of the afternoon walking through Michigan Tech’s campus, past the Isle Royale National Park Headquarters, and into downtown Houghton. We had previously considered taking the ferry to Isle Royale, but after learning that the trip was 6 hours one way, we decided that visiting the national park would need to wait for another trip through Minnesota, which requires only a 1.5 hour ferry ride. As it was Sunday, many stores in downtown Houghton were closed, so we visited the few open shops and then headed to the “Loho” area closer to the water where you can walk around with drinks. We stopped into the Keweenaw Brewing Company where we sat on the outside deck, drinking a flight, looking at the Portage Lake Bridge and river.  We learned that the Portage Lake Bridge “is the world’s heaviest and widest double-decked vertical-lift bridge” raising up 100 feet to let boats pass under. Connecting Houghton and Hancock, the bridge is the only land-based link between the north and south sections of the Keweenaw Peninsula. We also learned that Houghton is the birthplace of professional ice hockey. 

We returned to the campus apartment and brought in dinner from La Catrina Cocina Mexicans Houghton. The late dinner meant that we arrived back at the campground around 9 PM only to find our 30 AMP cord, surge protector, and platform hitch missing! We spoke with the campground host who drove around to see if he could find our stuff, to no avail. Luckily we carry a spare electric cord so we were able to plug in for the night. Having tent camped most of our lives and RVing for the past four years, this was the first time any of us had anything stolen from our campsite! Not a good experience! Ironically, I had just listened to a podcast about RVer’s experiences with theft in campgrounds (go to minute 27 of the podcast). We will definitely heed some of the suggestions such as putting our names on all of our items and locking things up. 

August 25: The next morning, we talked with the campground manager who said she did not have any of our belongings in her possession. We had been hoping that maybe she had picked them up, thinking that we had already left our site. After walking around and talking with some campground neighbors, we spoke with one camper in site 35 who said he had arrived at 2:00 and did not see anyone in our site. Then we spoke with our neighbor in site 29 who said he had thought the previous campers had left the cord and platform there so he had picked them up, put them in his truck, and was going to drop them off at the main gate on his way out. While not convinced he was being fully honest, we were really happy to have everything back in our possession! 

Realizing that we needed to carry a cable lock (paid link) in the van with us to lock up our possessions at the campsite, we headed back to Walmart to pick one up. Feeling better about getting our stuff back, we returned to the campsite, locked up the platform, but left our collapsible dish basin, dish rack, and a washcloth on the picnic table, along with a sign reminding people that our site was still occupied. Then drove over to Roy’s Pasties and Bakery to eat the vegan pasties we had ordered in advance. Sitting in the restaurant looking out at Lake Portage, we enjoyed our local lunch. Then we drove up to the Hungarian Falls, finding a short, easy, fun hike with beautiful waterfalls. After the hike, we drove up to Copper Harbor, a small town in a beautiful area at the tip of the peninsula. We drove up the Brockway Mountain Drive to the first look-out point for an amazing view of Lake Superior and the harbor. Returning to our campsite for dinner, we found that someone had stolen our dish rack and the washcloth! Really strange and very annoying! We ordered a new dish rack online, hung out for a bit, and went to bed. 

August 26: In the morning, we hiked the Maasto Hiihto Swedetown Creek Gorge Loop about 10 minutes from the campground. The hike followed the creek lined with beautiful wildflowers including fields of Joe Pye weed, goldenrod, and orange jewel weed. Because of time constraints, we didn’t do the entire hike, but really enjoyed being out in the woods for a bit. We ate lunch back at the campsite and then headed to Michigan Tech for a fun tour around campus. After making dinner at the campus apartment, we returned to our campsite to prepare for the drive home. 

August 27-28: The drive home was long! Along the way we saw deer, a flock of wild turkeys, and a sand hill crane. The weather started out a bit rainy and windy, making for a tiring drive through the UP. We stopped the first night at a Lynnwoods Rest Stop, a Harvest Host in Freemont, Ohio. Surrounded by corn fields, we spent a restful night before driving home the next day. While we saw a lot and had a successful move, the next trip we plan to the UP will be slower paced, more relaxed, and focus on seeing more of the sites along the way.