Traveling around lake michigan

Just yesterday, 5/22 I was mentioning to my wife that I could go back to Traverse City and Traverse City State Park and spend a week or more. Twenty miles from Sleeping Bears, two and a half miles to downtown Traverse City which is somewhat eclectic with shops, restaurants, and pubs and beautiful Lake Michigan.

pasusan wrote:
Two of the highlights of our spectacular trip were Sleeping Bear Dunes and Tahquamenon Falls - not to be missed!

We were on a trip last fall and loved the Sleeping Bear area so much that we hit the brakes and stayed in the area for almost a week.

theoldwizard1 wrote:

rk911 wrote:
US RT 2 thru the Upper Peninsula is a must.

Few people know just how "wild" the UP of MI is !

True - when we went last year we felt like we were not missing Alaska...

Two of the highlights of our spectacular trip were Sleeping Bear Dunes and Tahquamenon Falls - not to be missed!

Personally, I'd just stay in the UP. Skip the west shore in Wisconsin and Illinois, because you won't find anything as nice as what you will on the east shore... Use that time to go along the Lake Superior shore and see Pictured Rocks and the Porcupine Mountains.

State Parks are closed in MI until June 22, however, all other campgrounds are opening the end of May unless the governor extends the stay at home again. I hope not as we are waiting for our seasonal site at a county park to open. Other than weekends or holiday times there are usually sites available. Michigan has a lot of campgrounds.

Thanks for the corrections guys, but neither the less, great place to visit.
At Tahquamenon Falls SP my wife and I actually used our kayaks to view the lower falls and go up to the island to see the upper falls. They have a kayak ramp along the stairway down to the water that you slide your kayak down along the steps and handrail, reverse taking them up. The only problem is if the water is high like when we visited two-three years ago there isn't a whole lot of land to launch from, or more difficult to land and retrieve. But, we got it done and it was quite incredible!

The park near the museum is Tahquamenon Falls State Park

The shipwreck museum is on the shore of Lake Superior in Whitefish Point

I second the review of the shipwreck museum in the U.P. Somewhat small but packed with a lot of really interesting exhibits about great lakes shipping. It sits on the shore of Lake Michigan at a Northern Point with a sandy beach. If the weather permits it is a great spot for a picnic, although we were there in late July and there was a cold 20 mph wind blowing off the lake.

The museum isn't really far from the Mackinac Bridge, maybe an hour at best. There is a large Michigan State Park with many campsites 20 minutes away from the museum which in itself is a must-see of the river and waterfalls. Beautiful! We stayed there 3 nights, peaceful and only two gas stations in the area and one very small grocery store.

Sandy Shores Campground has gotten good reviews on CampgroundReviews.Com website. Also nearby is Traverse City State Park with almost 400 treed sandy sites two and a half miles outside of TC city center. Awesome....

Lynnmor wrote:
Take the trike thru the Tunnel of Trees.

x2. If they're open, stop by Legs Inn in Cross Village.