Exploring the Great Lakes with Stops in Mackinaw City & Port Huron, Michigan

I found a dirty job.  Such as a “Mike Rowe” from the Discovery channel “Dirty Jobs” kind of dirty job.  And this “dirty job“ is on Mackinac Island (pronounced “Mackinaw” but spelled funny) in Michigan.  Alas, someone is hired by the municipality to drive a horse-drawn cart around, complete with a shovel and a broom, and clean up all the horse shit.   Perhaps the most noticeable first impression visitors get of Mackinac Island is the absence of automobiles! Visitors and residents travel by foot, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage. And there are all kinds of horse-drawn carriages employed for every possible need.  There are delivery carriages, tour carriages that seat 8-10 people, taxi carriages, and you can even rent a horse and a carriage for the day if you’re so inclined. It’s very much like stepping back into the late 18^th century.  And there’s the person whose job it is to ride the 8 ½ miles around the island picking up other horses’ shit with a shovel and a broom.

                                            Taxi Service on Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island sits in Lake Huron, between Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas. It is a quick 15-minute ferry ride from Mackinaw City and contains Mackinac Island State Park, with trails, woods, and the limestone Arch Rock formation, which covers much of the island. Founded in 1780, Fort Mackinac is a walled cluster of military buildings on a coastal bluff.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate on our 1-day trip to Mackinac Island, as there was heavy fog and cloudy conditions for most of the day.  So, without a bicycle or a horse-drawn carriage, we walked.  We walked, and we walked, and we walked.  Over 8 miles, a new record for us, and we found Mackinac Island a charming place and an amazing adventure.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself here because in order to get to Mackinaw City we had to drive up and over Lake Michigan.  Yeah..  we’re talking about driving several local and state routes, as there is no direct interstate highway through Wisconsin and into Michigan upper peninsula.  Much of our travel was on one- and two-lane state roads, as well as an intimate journey through a couple of small cities.  And as a reward for patiently navigating this scenic route at the end of a long day’s drive, I “white knuckled” the “house on wheels” over the 5^th largest suspension bridge in the world, the Mackinaw Bridge.  It wasn’t until I was touring a museum dedicated to the building and history of the Mackinaw Bridge did I find out that the Mackinaw Bridge Authority has an assistance program where they drive a car or truck over the bridge if the operator is too freaked out to make the crossing. 

I have noticed a change in the type of attractions we have been visiting ever since we entered Michigan.  We’re visiting more lighthouses and not visiting as many zoos.  That’s because lighthouses are “a plenty” around the Great Lakes and many of them are in Michigan.  So, of course we had to take a tour of the lighthouses associated with the Straits of Mackinac where Lake Huron and Lake Michigan connect.  There are many ships that sank in the Straits of Mackinac, even as recently as the freighter Cedarville in 1965.  We also visited the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse and climbed the 51 steps to the top of the decommissioned lighthouse.  At the top, we had some great views of the Mackinac Bridge and surrounding community.  Off in the distance there was Mackinac Island.  

Mackinaw Bridge in the Background

And then wouldn’t you know it, only five days later we were in another, slightly taller lighthouse outside of Port Huron.  Fort Gratiot Light Station sits on the southern tip of Lake Huron at the mouth of the St. Clair River, which separates the US from Canada.  The Gration Light Station is one of the few operating lighthouses that allows escorted visitors to climb the 97 spiral stairs to the top of the 86 foot lighthouse tower and out onto the catwalk for a full 360-degree view of the surrounding area.

To make our tour de force of lighthouses complete, we went to see the Huron Light Ship & Museum located in Pine Grove Park, alongside the St. Clair River.  The Huron Light Ship was once part of a fleet of lightships that helped navigate the Great Lakes by anchoring in strategic places to warn ships and freighters about shoals and other shipping hazards.  This ship was operated by the Coast Guard until 1970 and spent much of its time anchored in southern Lake Huron to warn ships about the Corsica Shoals. 

Deck of Huron Light Ship

When we were not touring lighthouses or visiting museums, we found time to walk.  In Port Huron we followed the Blue Water Walking Trail for miles, up and down the St. Clair River.  We were able to follow the walk all the way up and under the Blue Water Bridge which connects Port Huron in the US and Sarnia Ontario, Canada.  We know why it’s called the Blue Water Bridge…it’s because the water is so incredibly BLUE.  And nowhere is this more evident than when you cross over a draw bridge in and follow the Black River, which bisects Port Huron and empties into the St. Clair River.  The Black River water appears brown and murky, but when it empties into the St. Clair River, it immediately appears blue, like the rest of the river.  It was a lovely day for a nice walk along the river where people were fishing. We came upon a bit of an odd museum called the Thomas Edison Depot Museum.  This museum chronicles the early family life of the guy who invented the lightbulb and spent his youth getting kicked out of school and making a living selling his newspapers and other assorted items on the train between Port Huron and Detroit.    Interesting for about 90 minutes, and then it was back to the restaurant for lunch.  All that walking made us hungry.

Crazy how time flies when you’re really enjoying yourself! After our time in Mackinaw City and Port Huron, we were ready to cross into Canada. As we hitched up the 5^th wheel and prepared to cross the border, we could not help but reflect on the status of our Industrial Midwest and Great Lakes tour so far.   By this time, we had made 9 stops, were just about 8 weeks into our trip, and were pleasantly shocked at how much we enjoyed the traveling so far.  And for those who are curious, the stints of driving, which some would find nauseating, to us seem to be the needed disconnect as we leave one location and move onto the next destination.  Hooking up and pulling out of a campsite as we get on the road for a 200–300-mile drive is like the sorbet that cleans the palate between two courses.  It clears our minds of the last adventure and allows us to prepare for the new one.  Boy, are we going to be sad when this adventure concludes, so we will have to start thinking about our next one.  Until then please keep reading as we tell… the Rest of the Story.

 

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