In the foreground is the Catholic Cemetery on Mackinac Island. In the background is the Protestant Cemetery. Our tour guide pointed out that the Protestant Cemetery appeared to be much holier! He also pointed out that there was a "No Alcoholic Beverages" sign on the Catholic Cemetery which he found to be a little strange.
We both got a little sad yesterday when we realized that we only have two more weeks in the Upper Peninsula. It's an amazing place, with so much to see and do. We're already looking forward to a return visit. Munising is an excellent place to use as a base for exploring much of what the Upper Peninsula has to offer. With Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Marquette close by, there's plenty of outdoor activities within a 30-45 minute drive to keep you busy. Additionally, going east, west or south for a couple of hours you can do longer outings to include places like Tahquamenon Falls, the Porcupine Mountains and Mackinac Island. These are easily doable in a day, however they will definitely be full day adventures.
East to Tahquamenon Falls had been checked off the list. West to the Porcupine Mountains had been checked off the list. Yesterday was our day to drive south to the lower portion of the Upper Peninsula to visit Mackinac Island. The drive was an easy two hours on roads that at this time of the year are not crowded and very colorful.
We caught the ferry from the small town of St. Ignace, which sits on the north side of the Mackinaw Bridge, and is known as the gateway to the Upper Peninsula. St Ignace's slogan is "it's better above the bridge" and with all due respect to Mackinaw City (which is on the lower end of the bridge), we would agree. St. Ignace was much less "touristy" than Mackinaw City. I'm sure there may have been some, but we didn't see an overabundance of t-shirts and fudge shops like it's southern neighbor Mackinaw City.
Ferry arriving from Mackinaw City.........probably loaded with fudge and t-shirts
Ferry boats are also available from Mackinaw City. The cost is approximately the same (currently around $27 round trip) and the time to reach the island is about the same (less than 30 minutes). There is free parking with a shuttle service to the dock or paid parking at the docks. Depending on the time of year you visit the island you may want to purchase tickets in advance. The season on the island is ending within the next week so the number of visitors right now is very small (just the way we like it) so we simply purchased our tickets at the dock.
One thing that you may have noticed was that there are two different spellings for the word Mackinac. It's a bit confusing, but here's what I have learned from a little research on the subject. The Native Americans in the region actually called it Michilimackinac, the place of the "Great Turtle". They believed that the island was a massive turtle that had risen up out of the waters to create the island. For a period of time the entire region went by the name Michilimackinac. Somewhere around 1820 it was shortened to Mackinac. The founders of Mackinaw City opted for the phonetic spelling, while the island stayed with Mackinac. The bridge that connects the Lower and Upper Peninsula, and also serves as the dividing line between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, is spelled Mackinac.
The Grand Hotel from the ferry. The hotel currently has just under 400 rooms all of which are decorated differently. It also boasts the "longest porch in the world" (over 600 feet). The original construction of the hotel was 93 days........they needed to finish because they had booked all the rooms!
This is the Michigan Governors Summer Home. It's been a tradition that the governor live there every summer for decades.
The Mackinac Island Marina and Waterfront
Mackinac Island is east of the Mackinaw Bridge and is therefore located in Lake Huron. The island is around four square miles in size, making it somewhat small for an island but quite large for a turtles back. The year round population is less than 1,000 residents, however, during the summer that number jumps considerably as the island resort comes to life.
Much of the island is a part of the Michigan State Park System. It was actually the United States second national park from 1875-1895. Yellowstone was the first national park if you're keeping score.
There is so much history and uniqueness about the island that it would be impossible to do more than scratch the surface in a blog. Archeologists have excavated fishing camps on the island that date back to 700 AD. Fast forwarding a bit, the British captured the island and Fort Mackinac in the War of 1812 by simply firing a warning shot and letting the US Commander know that his troops were greatly outnumbered and would be slaughtered. The British then returned the island to the US though the Treaty of Ghent that was signed in 1815.
Marquette Park with a small section of Fort Mackinac in the background.
After the Civil War, Mackinac Island began to develop as a tourist destination. It has continued to grow and evolve ever since. Currently Mackinac Island hosts about 1 million visitors per year, almost all of them visiting between mid-spring and early-fall. As I had mentioned previously, Mackinac Island's 2020 season is coming to an end. Some of the restaurants and shops along the Disney like Main Street had already closed. They will soon be joined by the others and the hotels, leaving it a virtual ghost town after next weekend (October 18).
Main Street wasn't very crowded on a mid-week day, late in the season. Doud's Market is the only "grocery store" on the island. It's open year round for the permanent resident and few winter visitors.
A very nice feature of Mackinac Island is that practically all motorized vehicles have been banned from the island since 1898. With very few exceptions, the only motorized vehicles allowed are emergency vehicles, service vehicles and snowmobiles in the winter. One recent exception that naturally caused quite a controversy was back in 2019 when Vice President Pence visited the island and brought along his Vice Presidential motorcade with him. Even without motorized vehicles, getting around the island is quite easy. There are numerous bike rental places (or you can bring your own on the ferry), horse drawn carriages which serve as taxis, or walking.
As suggested by our wonderful Airbnb host, when we got off the ferry we booked a narrated carriage tour. The tour is a great way to learn some of the history, see a great deal of the island and get your bearings for further exploration by bike or walking. Our guide was quite knowledgeable of the islands history and told numerous stories, often in a humorous manner.
The post office is believed to be the only one in the US to have never delivered a piece of mail. All residents and business come to the post office to pick up their mail.
After the tour we set out to walk the 8.2 mile perimeter of the island. In spite of there being very few vehicles on the island the perimeter is a narrow road that is designated as a state highway (M-185). We covered the entire walk seeing numerous other walkers and bikers and a few horse drawn carriages, but no vehicles!
There's plenty of fudge available on Mackinac Island!
We were back in our Munising home by sunset. Mackinac Island and views of three of the five Great Lakes in one day.........not bad!
