25th Stop - Upper Peninsula / Painted Rocks (MI)

Blog Post #33 - Written September 9, 2025

Stay: July 5-7, 2025

The UP. What a magical place. It definitely feels like another world up there. But it's not all roses and rainbows. After we crossed the Mackinac Bridge (pronounced "Mackinaw" btw, and so is the island...) as we drove along, I was struck by two things:

    First, how much of the UP is protected lands. There are 22 state parks, 2 national parks, 2 national forests, and a national lakeshore in the UP. I feel like less than 5% of the UP is 'developable' land, between all the protected parks and 84% of it being forested anyway. 

    Second, how many abandoned motels and little boutique cabin/yurt campgrounds there were. They were everywhere! It was actually kind of sad to see how popular the area/route must've been at some point, and how dilapidated it is now. I'd estimate that only 1 out of every 4 motel-like businesses are still alive up there. Like a Route 66 kind of situation, but I've heard that instead of a new interstate, it was the rise of air travel that likely lead to the decline of road tourism here. Regardless, you can definitely pick up some cheap land here!

Mackinac Bridge from the mainland up to the Upper Peninsula

We had things we wanted to see in Manistique and Munising, which on are opposite (south and north) coasts, so we stayed in the middle at Jack Pine Campground. The nearest LDS Church congregation meets in Germfask, which was a 45-minute drive east. They meet in the smallest church building we've ever seen, including all the ones we've been to in Costa Rica and Chile. The whole building was about 1,200 sf and you enter through the front door into the kitchen/hallway area haha. It such a kind, close-knit group though, and we met some very nice and interesting people. One guy we met has started buying up land in the UP and putting tiny homes on them. He's getting these 10-50 acre parcels for $5-10k. Another couple we met drive over an hour to church each week. They move every 5 years and literally throw a dart on a map of the USA to decide where to move to next! 

While we were over in Germfask for church, we figured we might as well explore the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, which was just a few minutes up to road. It has a 8-mile one-way road through it that's a very pretty drive. We saw plenty of herons, some Trumpeter Swans, a snake, and a couple Bald Eagles!

Try and spot the Blue Heron in the picture on the right.

Two blue dragonflies making love :)                                Z and Q on the berm trail where we saw hundreds of dragonflies and a snake

Megan took a picture through one of the stationary binocular things aimed at a Trumpeter Swan nest. I didn't think it would work, but she proved me wrong!

Next we drove over to Kitch-iti-kipi (aka The Big Spring), the largest freshwater natural spring in Michigan. The water is so crystal clear you can see straight down to the bubbling sand 40 feet below, as 10,000 gallons of water gurgle up each minute. Plus there's a school of large trout swimming around that are also easily viewed. But our favorite part was the self-propelled, bottomless raft that you use to get out above the spring. It looks like a little floating cabin on the water, with a big hole in the middle of the raft floor to see through. The covered raft eliminates both the ripples on the water's surface and the glare of the sun. And it's completely self-guided and self-propelled. No rangers or employees directing traffic. People are just cooperative and wait their turn (amazing, right?). And once you're on the raft (about 40-50 people at a time), someone (or typically, several children) turn the pulley wheel that brings the raft out along the rope hung across the spring. It was a pretty neat spot.

Video: View down through the middle of the raft, you can see the spring bubbling up white sand through the black sand at the bottom, plus a few big trout.

Another video, easier to see the fish in this one.

Video of the kids turning the pulley wheel to propel us across the spring.

The next day, we headed up to Pictured Rock National Lakeshore. We hit Miners Falls in the morning. It was a quick little hike through the forest to a waterfall. Nothing too earthshatteringly amazing, but a fun little hike.

 

This was a funky tree, with roots exposed like 3 feet out of the ground then splitting into two trunks with another tree fallen and wedged between them. So of course Z had to climb it and D stole his shoe.

 

Funky burl thingamajig

Then we drove over to Miners Beach. Lake Superior has a beautiful shoreline and we spent most of our time there rock hounding :)  The rocks are so varied and beautiful. And there are these rocks called Yooperlites that are flourescent under a UV black light. We think we found some, but keep forgetting to buy a black light to test them. Miners River empties into Lake Superior here and the river water is a dark reddish orange from the iron. It creates a very interesting sight (see pics below).

  

This in the where the iron-rich Miners River flows into Lake Superior.        I braved the cold Lake Superior waters and swam over to the other side.

These were my views from the other side, looking back at the beach. The stark contrast of water colors was awesome.

 

D loves all water, as well as the towel dresses her mom makes her haha :)

Megan also braved the cold waters...long enough to take one picture haha!

We then raced over to Munising to catch our boat tour and barely made it by the skin of our teeth. Time flies when you're having fun at the beach haha! The boat tour was fantastic. We learned a lot about Lake Superior.

Lake Superior Fun Facts:

• Lake Superior is the world's largest lake (by surface area).
• Lake Superior holds 10% of the Earth's fresh water.
• Lake Superior holds more water than all 4 of the other Great Lakes combined.
• Putting that into perspective, the water in Lake Superior could cover all of North and South America 1 foot deep.

Plus, the water is so crystal clear. I'm talking like 30' visibility. And the rocks/cliffs are so pretty. The cliff rocks are "painted" by mineral leaching; reds and oranges from the iron, greens and blues from the copper, blacks and browns from the manganese, and white from the limonite. We definitely want to return without children (or with them when they're older) to kayak along the shoreline. And maybe backpack it too.

This is the kind of kayaking we'd like to do next time we visit with older/no kiddos

The boat captain took us into this tight little alcove, which was pretty cool

 

This tree growing on a rock pillar somehow has roots reaching over to the mainland! See below as well.

All in all, this was definitely one of our favorite places we've visited  :)