Riding a Model T Ford in Greenfield Village, adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum.
Views of the “Downtown” from Fort Mackinac.
in 1995—a centerpiece exhibit—and replaced it on the wreckage with a bell engraved with the names of the lost crewmembers. Returning south along Hwy. 123 we stop at Tahquamenon Falls State Park (Tahquamenon rhymes with phenomenon), centered by multi-tiered falls deluged with streaks of rust-colored water trails clearly seen against the frothy white turbulence. “The hemlock trees are about 500-600 years old and you can see some are starting to decompose,” explains park guide Theresa Neal. “Hemlock, cedar and oak trees are filled with brown tannic acid and that’s the reason the water is the color it is—not because of copper or minerals.” To see the falls we hike a third of a mile or so from the park’s Visitor Center, passing chirping verios, redstarts, and other birds perched in American beech and sugar maple trees. More than 50,000 gallons of water per second can tumble over the 50-foot-high Upper Falls from melting snow in the spring, continuing over the smaller and tiered Lower Falls. On the U.P.’s easternmost edges at Sault Ste. Marie, the Soo Locks control the dramatic 21-foot water level drop from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. More than 11,000 vessels pass through Soo’s four locks every year, with the
largest Poe Lock able to accommodate 1,000-foot-long cargo ships. Watching ships slowly rise and fall as the locks fill and drain can be seen from three observation platforms. The Visitor Center showcases exhibits with lock models, video presentations and history. South of the Mackinac Bridge, another scenic tour stretches along coastal Lake Michigan via U.S. Route 31 from Mackinaw City to Traverse City. Upscale Petoskey is where favorite son and writer Ernest Hemingway spent much of his youth after his father built a cottage on nearby Walloon Lake. The area is also home to the official Michigan state stone known as Petoskey Stones—shiny, 350-million-year-old fossilized colony coral found along the shores of Little Traverse Bay. Unique mushroom-like stone houses are must-see sights in the charming marina town of Charlevoix. With cedar-thatched and rounded roofs, many of the gnome- like homes date back to the 1920s and 1930s. Farther along a road sign reads “45th Parallel, Halfway between Equator & North Pole.” And in the Traverse City area dotted with rolling cherry orchards, what might be some of the country’s steepest and largest sand dunes are in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a national park skirting Lake Michigan.
MACKINAC ISLAND
COAST TO COAST SPRING MAGAZINE 2018
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