The first thing you need to know about the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan is that I made my first trip there when I was about 4 months old. The UP has been my happy place since before I knew the word “happy,” so I try to convince my family to take a trip there every couple of years. I say try because the place I grew up staying is very rustic. Pump your own water and use an outhouse rustic. So, we have to rent a house or stay in a hotel/motel, which makes it a lot less cost effective. I was thrilled to be able to find a new property to try this year only about 10 minutes from my family’s cabin in the Hiawatha National Forest. Both girls got their own rooms and there was even one to spare. There were also 2 full baths. My family agreed to give it a go, so I started making plans.
In the planning stages, there were requests for waterfalls, lighthouses, and beaches. So, I knew that we had to spend a day around Paradise, a town about 45 minutes north of my family’s cabin. It has some nice little restaurants, a pretty good gift shop/convenience store, and several attractions close by. We started the day with breakfast at the cabin with my parents, and then we headed north to Taquamenon Falls. Taquamenon Falls has two areas – the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. There is a 5 mile trail that connects the 2 – Maddie and I hiked that 6 years ago during a trip we made to visit colleges. The key to hiking it was that my mom met us at the Upper Falls and drove us back to our car. 😉 For this trip, we hit the Lower Falls first. There are several small waterfalls in this area, on both sides of an island in the Taquamenon River. I was super excited to learn that they have now built a suspension bridge so we did not have to rent a row boat to explore the island. I was less thrilled by the throngs of people that thought the waterfalls were their own personal swimming hole. But we still enjoyed exploring. Here are a few photos from the Lower Taquamenon Falls.
We headed to the Upper Falls next and had lunch at one of the picnic tables near the parking lot. It was a beautiful day for a picnic! After our bellies were full, it was time for a walk around the Upper Falls area. There is only one upper falls, but it is pretty impressive. We started with a distant view and then worked our way to a view from the top and right beside it. It is always impressive – I think it might be my favorite waterfall just because I have so many memories of it. Here are a few waterfall pics.
Our next stop was Whitefish Point. I definitely recommend getting an earlier start if you haven’t visited Whitefish Point before – we ended up late enough that the bathrooms were closed – as well as the gift shops and museum. The Shipwreck Museum is really cool – lots of artifacts from lots of shipwrecks in Lake Superior including the Edmund Fitzgerald. The Gordon Lightfoot song plays in repeat, so you will know that story one way or another after a museum visit. The lighthouse tours are also pretty cool – it is the only place I have been able to see the lightkeeper’s quarters and really understand how they lived. The little shops on the grounds are nice, too. The fudge there is just as good as any you can get in Mackinac, and it is much better priced. There is also an ice cream shop, a gift shop, and a nature shop that is connected to Seney National Wildlife Refuge. The big draw for our family, though, is the beach and all the rocks. It is a beautiful place to sit and think and skip stones and stack stones and watch boats and relax. We enjoyed a little bit of all of that. Side note – you might want to remember the enormous ship in the photo below. There is more to that story. 🙂
After time at the beach, I am always anxious to find a restroom that is open. So, we bid the point goodbye and headed back into Paradise to stop at the convenience store. We used the facilities, purchased a few snacks and drinks for the trip back to the cabin, and headed back for our dinner date with my parents.
All in all, this was a really lovely day. It was peaceful and relaxing and had some of our favorite things with all of our favorite people. Have you ever been to Paradise, Michigan? What was your favorite thing to do there? Let me know in the comments.
Adventure. Create. Relate 