Sightseers
The Land Above The Bridge
By Randy Karr

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, or the U.P. as locals call it, is an all-seasons travel destination offering activities that are geared to each of Michigan’s four seasons.

In the middle of winter, the Upper Peninsula is not just a destination. It’s a little more like an adventure. Those who travel here in the winter can enjoy 3,000 miles of groomed snowmobile trails and 10 downhill ski resorts. Other fun in the snow options are cross-country skiing in Hiawatha and Ottawa National Forests and snowshoeing in places like Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Tahquamenon Falls or Whitefish Point.

When the snow pack melts in spring, the Upper Peninsula’s 150-plus waterfalls are at their roaring best. Spring is the season when bird migrations begin and colorful wildflowers bloom. It’s also a time to wander beaches that have been replenished with wave carved driftwood and bits of semiprecious gems, thanks to Lake Superior’s pounding surf.

Summertime in the U.P. is all about lakes and rivers. It’s the season to take a glass-bottom boat tour of a shipwreck near Grand Island, kayak along Pictured Rocks’ captivatingly colorful cliffs, or fish where Hemingway wrote about in a short story titled Big Two Hearted River. Waterfall gazing is another favorite summer pastime. With more than 300 waterfalls here, half of which are accessible to the public, there’s a lot of gazing to be done.

The U.P. is at its colorful finest in autumn. After millions of acres of forests burst into saturated shades of red, yellow and orange, fallen leaves garnish a varied landscape of cliffs, dunes, rivers, beaches, lakes, and waterfalls. People come from all over the United States to enjoy the vibrant colors, making Michigan’s Upper Peninsula a popular fall tourist destination for a few dazzling weeks.

Regardless of the season, visitors can step back in time and experience a wilderness where indigenous peoples lived for thousands of years, or immerse themselves in the present by walking in places that tell a story of pioneers who transformed logged out forest into homesteads and of mariners who plied a treacherous shoreline call the “Graveyard Coast.”

Enjoy a photo essay about a few of the many interesting and sometimes quirky attractions in The Land Above the Bridge.

© 2010 Randy Karr