My Bucket List quest to see The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan took me to The Straits of Mackinac and the Michigan Upper Peninsula – known as “The UP.” I must admit I knew very little about the area until I arrived; all I knew was that I wanted to see the place where one of my favorite movies – “Somewhere in Time” – was filmed. I will definitely return.

Mackinnawwww

According to local Native American lore, Mackinac Island is a sacred place, populated by the First People, and home to the great spirit Gitchie Manitou. Native Americans likened the shape of the island to a turtle’s back and named it Michilimackinac, “Land of the Great Turtle.” The first Europeans came in the 1670s, and fur traders and Jesuit missionaries followed.

The French spelled the name of the area with an “ac,” and when the British arrived they adopted the French pronunciation. Mackinaw City is the only town spelled with “aw.” Mackinac Island, Mackinac County, the Straits of Mackinac, and the Mackinac Bridge are all spelled with the French “ac” but are pronounced “aw.“

Yoopers And The Mighty Mac

The Mackinac Bridge joins the two peninsulas of Michigan, with Lake Michigan to the west, Lake Huron to the east, and the five-mile Straits of Mackinac between the two. Below the UP is “The Mitten,” with Michigan’s most populous cities. Anything north of the Mighty Mac is the UP, but The Mitten is rarely called “The Lower Peninsula;” people just refer to it as Lower Michigan.

“Yoopers,” as people in the UP are known, often refer to those south of the bridge as “Trolls.” (Why? Well, they live under bridges, of course.)

Yoopers are a hearty and hard-working lot – historically loggers and mariners and miners (hence the pasties for sale at every gas station, quick stop, and restaurant), largely blue collar, and lovers of professional sports, especially football and hockey.

The Mackinac Bridge looms large, dominating the scenery. I must’ve taken 50 photos of it.

It is five miles long, with 550 foot towers and immense concrete anchorages. It opened to traffic in 1957 and carries four million vehicles annually. It is the longest bridge in the western hemisphere and the world’s fifth largest.

It can get very windy on the bridge, and the maximum speed is 45 miles an hour (20 mph for heavy trucks). On blustery days, vehicles are required to cross with a wind escort/pace car to insure no one is exceeding the speed limit.

The bridge is so ubiquitous in UP culture that is often part of community events, such as walks, marathons, and crossings by everything from scooters to classic cars to semis. One Saturday, 200 tractor-trailer combinations on display in downtown St. Ignace drove across in a convoy at dusk, chicken lights aglow and air horns blaring.

St. Ignace

I set up camp in St. Ignace, on the UP side of the bridge. Mackinaw City (“The Tip of the Mitt”) is on the opposite side.

Both towns are small and cater to tourists, teeming with hotels and restaurants and tee shirt shops.

Shepler’s and Star Line provide transportation to Mackinac Island from either town – a 20-minute ride for about 30 bucks. (I much preferred Shepler’s, but I am a little biased. While in Door County, Wisconsin, I met a young woman celebrating her bachelorette weekend. As fate would have it, Melissa is a Yooper and works at Shepler’s. When I told her my next stop was St. Ignace, we made plans to get together. I met her at the ferry landing and she gave me the VIP treatment!)

I stayed at Straits State Park In St. Ignace, about a two minute drive to town and less than five minutes to the ferry. I loved walking the dogs every day and taking in the amazing views of the Mighty Mac. One day it was so foggy, I learned how easy it is to hide a bridge.

David Copperfield’s got nothing on Mother Nature.

Mackinac Island

Located in Lake Huron, Mackinac Island is even more charming than I expected, if that is possible. In 1898, the first automobile appeared on the island, frightening the horses and threatening the carriage tour economy. After receiving a petition from the tour drivers, the village council quickly banned “horseless carriages,” and it stuck. With the exception of emergency vehicles (and a recent trip by the VP in a motorcade … grrrr), motorized vehicles are not allowed on the roadways. Transportation is by horse and carriage and bicycle only.

(Golf carts are allowed, but only on the fairways.) Many people rent bicycles to pedal the island’s 8.2 mile circumference, but going through the middle on a bicycle is not easy; it is very hilly!

I was surprised to learn that 80 percent of Mackinac Island is a state park. (It was actually the country’s second National Park after Yellowstone, but the federal government turned it over to the State of Michigan.) There is a lot of history, including a Revolutionary War Era fort,

and remnants of the fur trade from the 1820s.

Arch Rock, a sea stack, rises 146 feet above the water and inspired Native American legends.

At the end of the Civil War, hotels and cottages began to spring up on the island.

By the 1890s, magnificent mansions were constructed in keeping with the new standard set by the Grand Hotel (1887), which was built in 90 days!

The Grand Hotel

There are so many things to love about The Grand Hotel, not the least of which is its 660-foot front porch overlooking the Straits of Mackinac.

If I was pressed to choose a second, it would be the Dorothy Draper interiors.

The Grand Hotel has been family owned for three generations, and the whole island was abuzz with news that the hotel was recently sold to a corporation. People openly fretted and debated if major changes would be made, which I find highly unlikely. Why mess with perfection?

The Grand Hotel Grand Luncheon Buffet is worth every penny of the 50 bucks it costs to get in (which includes the $10 hotel admission fee for those not staying at the hotel). I don’t usually take photos of buffets, but this time I couldn’t help myself.

On another day I had a pleasant repast and glass of wine in the Cupola Bar, with magnificent views of the Straits of Mackinac.

I geeked out and visited every site I could find in the film “Somewhere in Time,” some of which were at the Grand Hotel, and others elsewhere on the island.

Adding to its allure, each year the Grand Hotel closes for the season. Many businesses on the island close. Skeleton crews get to the mainland by ferry until the waters freeze, then by snowmobile or plane.

Other UP Gems

Whitefish Point

One day I drove out to Whitefish Point on Lake Superior, to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The mission of the museum: “To preserve the lights and stations which warned mariners of the dangers inherent, honor those who were aboard and who bravely attempted rescue, and discover, document and interpret vessels which instead took the deep.”

And boy howdy, were there a lot of them. Six thousand ships have been lost on the Great Lakes. Whitefish Point alone is the final resting place of over 200 vessels.

The name of the first ship to sink on Lake Superior? The Invincible. Oh, we silly humans, so full of hubris.

Perhaps the most famous wreck (largely because of Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot) is the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sunk on Lake Superior in 1974, just 17 miles off Whitefish Point at a depth of 535 feet. It was the last shipwreck on the Great Lakes. “The Fitz” is solemnly remembered throughout the UP, in books, plaques and markers, signs and tee shirts.

Twenty years after the disaster, divers brought up the ship’s bell, which is on display in the museum.

The Soo

On another day I went to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (there is also a Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada), pronounced “Soo Saint Marie,” and visited The Soo Locks.

Constructed in 1850, the locks allow boats to traverse a 21 foot drop from Lake Superior to the Lower Great Lakes.

One of the locks can handle freighters that are 1,000 feet long and 105 feet wide.

Over 70,000,000 tons of cargo and 50,000,000 tons of iron ore passed through the locks last year.

I have seen my fair share of locks and lived near the Hiram Chittenden Locks in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, but wow, the Soo Locks are impressive.

Munising

Aside from Mackinac Island and The Grand Hotel, the hands-down amazing portion of my trip to the UP was Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I took the 2.5 hour cruise from Munising with Pictured Rock Boat Cruises, and it was spectacular.

The 47 miles of Lake Superior shoreline have it all – cliffs of multi-hued sandstone, dunes and beaches, waterfalls, and inland lakes and streams. The cliffs are naturally sculpted into shallow caves, arches and formations, and minerals leeching from the sandstone resemble a painter’s brush strokes.

I’ll Be Back

I saw some of the UP, but left the western part of the peninsula largely unexplored. I look forward to returning. I especially would like to go to Keweenaw County, located at the northernmost tip of Michigan. The area is known for quaint harbor towns, artisans and galleries.

From there it’s just a short plane or boat ride to Isle Royale National Park, an archipelago located in Lake Superior.