The official Michigan tourism site is called Pure Michigan and today was pure travel as I drove about 320 miles from Marquette, Michigan to Duluth, Minnesota at the tip of Lake Superior. I had considered two tourist destinations on the way but neither worked out.

The first was Sugarloaf Mountain, just outside Marquette, which is supposed to have great views of Lake Superior. However, it was only 38° F (or 3° C) on the mountain and the local paper was reporting that they had been testing their snow-making gear in preparation for winter. Although I brought a jacket with me I did not bring winter gear or gloves and it is quite a climb to the top from the parking area so I decided to give that a miss.

The second was on the Keweenaw peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior (see the map if you are not an expert on the area). I had to go to Houghton on the peninsular to make sure I was within 100 miles of the border which is much closer to Canada than the US at that point. The drive to Houghton was very agreeable with lakes, small towns and fall colors on the trees but the road from Houghton to the end of the peninsular was designated as scenic so I thought I would check it out. However, it is 50 miles each way and, in the first 10 miles, it was not at all scenic – much less so than my drive up to Houghton. I therefore decided to abandon that idea as well.

Following the border in this area (and most of the way west to the Pacific) is tricky. I had considered crossing into Canada and traveling north of Lake Superior but, apart from the extra miles, I had heard how attractive the Upper Peninsular of Michigan was and wanted to see it for myself. Only a section of the Canadian route is designated as scenic but my route has provided plenty of good views and interesting driving.

I am ashamed to say that I did not take a single photograph today. I stopped at several overlooks but the views were very generic and the land around the lakes was low so they would not have made memorable pictures. Hopefully, I’ll have something for tomorrow.

The video does show some of the lakes and tree color and the map is essential to understand the post so check them out here.