We began our honeymoon road trip immediately following the wedding recep
tion with a six hour drive northwest through Chicago to Steven’s Point, Wisconsin with an early wake-up for the last three hour drive to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Along the way we noticed that the trees became taller and more green with almost no billboards or fast food restaurants. We had our first black bear sighting on a highway just like this sitting by the road watching the cars go by.
Along the way, we made pit stops on our road trip whenever there was something worth visiting. One such stop was in Rest Lake, Wisconsin at the Rest Lake Dam of the Manitowish waters:
Our next destination was the Copper Peak ski jump in Ironwood, Michigan recommended by Craig and Kelli from their trips to the U.P. Unfortunately, the chair lift was down so we couldn’t ride to the top but instead took the alternate road to drive to the top. Or maybe that was actually good news? (We don’t favor too well with heights).
Visits to the top of the ski jump were free since the lift was down so we got to see some fantastic views on our first day!
We also took the elevator to the see out from the top of the ski jump. The last team to use the jump was in 1998 but a professional ski jumper rented out the whole place two years ago and spent the day training. It was a rickety, old elevator so we were happy when our feet were back on the ground.
After Copper Peak, we found a local diner for lunch along the way to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. Two things that we learned about traveling in the U.P. are that whenever you see a gas station to stop for fuel and a bathroom break because it may be awhile until the next one. Also, our cell phone was pretty spotty but still partially functioning the Google Maps app to our destination. Of course, we had to pull over when we first saw Lake Superior. As the waves crashed the shore like an ocean, we started to rethink our intentions to kayak at our cottage later that evening.
When we made it to the Porcupine Mountains, we purchased our fishing licenses and Michigan Parks Passport at the Visitor Center before hitting the trail for a pleasant afternoon hike.
More on that to come in our next post, but for now please enjoy the following scenes of Derek interacting with the wildlife of the Porkies…
Game Changers 