We spent two and a half days exploring the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, locally known as the Porkies. Apparently, when looking at this area from Lake Superior, the hills (mountains?) look like a porcupine.
This state park is big, encompassing 60,000 acres. We had perfect hiking weather while we were there and even had some welcome rain. The Perseid meteor shower was happening but unfortunately, the evening rain and thunderstorms prevented any star gazing. Before the rain came though, we had some spectacular sunset views!
We hiked above the landmark Lake of the Clouds, along the Escarpment Trail. We had expansive views all along the ridge line. From that vantage point, the Porkies looked furry to me; they are so dense with both evergreen and deciduous trees-we were surrounded by maple, yellow birch, aspen, cedar, white pine, and hemlock, to name just a few. The explosion of color in the fall must be an incredible site!
In the southern part of the Park, we made a loop of the River Trails and had up close views of three different waterfalls. The Presque Isle River that we were walking along empties into Lake Superior and the intersection made for a scenic rest stop. The river is very dark due to tannins; the plant material floating in it is lighter in color and made swirling patterns as the river emptied into the lake-it was a pretty phenomenon!
On one of the days, we ventured out for a short run and came back after a much longer adventure that took us down deserted, overgrown alpine ski paths; one wrong turn had us trudging through a swampy bog. At one point, Zoe lost her shoe in the muck! Despite my attempts to keep her entertained with jokes and singing she began incessantly chanting about ‘horrible runs in mud, mosquitoes, and trees so thick you can’t see the sky’. The girls were so stoked when we found the road again, they sprinted all the way back to the campground-I’ll call it a win 😄.
After that run, we decided to skip the afternoon hike we had planned and instead hit the nearby beach. The girls played blissfully in the lake while I read and Andrew worked on his wood carving skills. Oddly, despite our overpacked campground a mile away, we basically had the sandy beach to ourselves.
As we continued east through the UP, we knew we’d be back! The town of Marquette and the surrounding area looks especially inviting! And, it wouldn’t be a trip to the UP without trying a pastie-or so we were told. It’s like a pizza pocket married a pot pie: warm, convenient, comfort food! We went the traditional route and loved every bite!
