Tunnels of Trees and 5 Days in Michigan

[cbutteris]

This week we had the perfect opportunity and weather to spend a few days riding. I start a new job on the 29th and wanted to make the most of this last week of a temporary retirement. !

We chose to head north to Michigan, through the Upper Peninsula and across the Mackinac Bridge to spend a couple days on the Lower Peninsula, then heading farther north to the Superior shore before working our way back home to SW Wisconsin.

The Roads:
Tunnel of Trees / M119 – We just happened along the sign pointing to the Tunnel of Trees road and thought that sounded interesting. It was really great – 20 miles of narrow, curvy, tightly tree-lined road that runs along bluffs on the western shoreline. Fun to drive it and one of the trip highlights!

M22 is a road well-known for its scenery through quiet countryside on the western shore of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A really enjoyable ride through trees and open bottoms with many views of Lake Michigan.

H58 is very scenic as it travels through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Fall colors here were the best. We rode the 40-mile route seldom reaching the speed limit – it was just too good to hurry through this winding, color-wrapped road.

The Scenic Route within Sleeping Bear Dunes runs about 7 miles long with 4-5 worthwhile overlook areas to stop and see along the way. Just an easy, interesting little loop.

M2, the main route from near Escanaba to St Ignace is very good. Sometimes it runs right along miles of open shoreline and other times through long stretches of forest.

Mackinac Bridge:
Worth mentioning separately because crossing this was a highlight in itself. With a total length of 5 miles and rising to a height of 199 feet above the lake, this gave me some apprehension for the concern about crosswinds. Also, we had to ride part way on the center-lane, see-through metal grates because of maintenance work, really making things squirrely. Fortunately the winds were light, the air was clear and the views were super! We had to cross it both directions and thought it was well worth the $4 tolls just for the fun factor.

The Fall Colors:
Colors varied from maybe 5% to full color along the trip. Trees around and through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore were easily the best.

The Cities:
We stayed in Michigan’s Escanaba, Petoskey (2 nights), and then Menomonee on the way home. The AmericInn in Menomonee sits lakeside, so this morning I sat ashore and watched the sun rise over Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula and Green Bay (the bay, not the city) and sip a coffee.

Other towns we made stops in include Grand Marais and Munising on the Lake Superior shore.

Manistique gave us a nice break with a shoreline park to walk through. There are numerous roadside motels to choose from in this little town, and all looked really well kept.

St Ignace on the UP side of the waterway between Lakes Michigan and Huron – another quaint little town worth checking out, and with ferry rides to Mackinac Island.

The Numbers:
Road Miles – 1373 Miles Total / 275 Average Per Day
Gas Mileage – Lowest: 37MPG, Highest: 44+, Average about 38-39 MPG

The Weather:
We wanted to try this trip back around Labor Day, but there was all rain in the forecast so we postponed. Well, the waiting paid off because we had really perfect weather the entire trip with temps in the 60’s to lower 70’s, light winds, and clear skies. Really ideal for us.

[minst7877]

Those are some great roads. I have been on all of them and many of them last august on our summer end trip. Glad you enjoyed them. You are right about the pucker factor when crossing the bridge on the grating with high winds. Definitely need to concentrate on what you are doing.

DC

[GIBBY]

Glad you had a great time. Great roads.

[Bud2rat]

Sounds like you had a great trip, thanks for sharing.

[stretch]

Wow Cal, sounds like a great trip. Thanks for sharing it with us.