{"id":2542,"date":"2014-06-21T06:01:17","date_gmt":"2014-06-21T11:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aperturism.com\/blog\/?p=2542"},"modified":"2014-06-21T06:01:17","modified_gmt":"2014-06-21T11:01:17","slug":"pure-michigan-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aperturism.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/21\/pure-michigan-it-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Pure Michigan – It is!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe perfect trip begins here. Your perfect trip begins at Pure Michigan\u201d- sound familiar? Yes, it is the infamous Pure Michigan Commercials<\/a>. The magical\u00a0voice of Tim Allen, trying to\u00a0attract you by Michigan\u2019s beauty and it\u2019s hard not to get sucked in. And yes, that was the destination on my recent road trip. More specifically, the Upper Peninsula. As it’s even more north(I meant, from where I’m at now!<\/em>), it’s early spring there still or more like.. end of winter. The trees, shrubs and the grasslands are yet to wrap themselves totally in green. As some of the major news outlets reported<\/a>… The Lake superior is still partially frozen. This should give you a perspective on how far north this place ought to be.<\/p>\n

Chicago to Upper Peninsula<\/a>, the drive was a pretty decent one and it took me 8 hours(ish<\/em>). There is construction going on at so many more places with new traffic patterns and this slows down the traffic more than anyone wants to deal with. Plus holiday season adds up a bit more frustation to this traffic situation.
\nI decided set shop at Houghton, MI and drive to get to the places I had in my destinations list. One primary reason to choose Upper Peninsula is to see more waterfalls and drive the Lake Superior shore drive up north from Houghton.<\/p>\n

Places around here offer lot of \u00a0outdoorsy entertainment activities. One of my favorite, ATVs<\/a>.. Yup… These are super fun to ride and there are a boat load of places that will rent you one. These ATVs have become fancier and easier to handle. If you ever get there and into ATVs, give them a try for guaranteed fun!<\/p>\n

The water fall shot below (Picture # 5), is of The Bond falls which is in east of Paulding, MI in western part of the Upper Peninsula. This waterfall is very impressive and if you get there early, you would get to see the falls with much less distraction. There is a deck that takes you semi-circle around the waterfall to watch it from and is very easily accessible after climbing down a couple dozen stairs. The Michigan State Park Recreation Passport<\/a> will get you at a parking spot very closer to this falls.<\/p>\n

Next on my list, The Lake Superior shore drive<\/a>\u00a0which is such a feast to the eyes and there are several spots all along that will take your breath away.
\nOne such place to visit in this route is, the McLain State Park. With Spectacular scenery, beautiful ice formations, sand beach and the striking Keweenaw Waterway Lighthouse (Picture #12). If you have a Michigan State Park Recreation Passport (which I mentioned earlier<\/em>), I believe the entry is free to this state park otherwise you have to pay 8$ and it is well worth it.<\/p>\n

The more north you drive, the beaches\u00a0along the lake shores are less crowded. If you decide to walk on the pebble beaches or take a dip (if you dare the cold water<\/em>) or just lay down on the beaches or simply unwind with a short picnic or fire up the grill with an awesome view of the lake, there are a lot of places all along this drive.<\/p>\n

Another\u00a0hidden place which is a little off road is Hunter’s Point Park (Picture #7) and located a little ahead of Copper Harbor, offers a very unique view of the lake. This place is barely crowded. Keep in mind, that a considerable amount of road which gets you here is unpaved. I drove there in my sedan and got there Ok without any issues. I\u2019m saying this to give you a heads-up!<\/p>\n

One more place which is hard to miss along this route is, Eagle Harbor Lighthouse (Picture #10). This red brick light station also has a Maritime Museum which contains details of some of the many Keweenaw shipwrecks.A lot of fascinating shipwreck artifacts and marine exhibits are on display here. This museum is open Mid-June till October. Also, if you end-up staying closer to this place, don\u2019t miss the sunrise view by the lighthouse which is simply astounding (Picture #10).<\/p>\n

The rest of the pictures are a result of more driving around, prior location scouting and pissing off drivers behind me with sudden stops, detours and such.
\nHere are the shots\u2026<\/p>\n

Gear Used<\/strong><\/span>: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EOS 60D, EF16-35mm f\/2.8L II USM, EF 70-200mm f\/2.8L IS II USM, Manfrotto 055MF3 MagFiber Tripod + Manfrotto Q5 054 Magnesium Ball Head.<\/p>\n

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Thanks for stopping by… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\t

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