G6AdventuresIn the summer of 2022, our family of six traveled through northern Michigan in our motorhome for three weeks. We started this epic Michigan trip in Sleeping Bear Dune National Lakeshore, where we spent three days. See our three day itinerary for Sleeping Bear Dunes here. Next, we traveled to Mackinaw City where we spent five days, and boy did we pack in a lot in those five days. Yet, we never felt like we pushed it too far. Mackinaw City is perfectly located to experience fantastic day trips in nearly every direction. Read more about several of these possible trips here. And, here’s how we spent five days in Mackinaw City.
Day 1: It takes less than three hours to travel by RV from Empire, Michigan to Mackinaw City, so we planned to hit the ground the running as soon as set up camp. Once we arrived and started to set up the camper, we realized that something during that three-hour drive sheared off our propane valve. Not only did we lose all 24 gallons of propane in our tank, we had no way to stop it from leaking again once we refilled it. No propane meant no hot water and no cooking in the camper. So, unfortunately, we spent a bit of our first day scouring hardware stores for parts to temporarily fix it until we could get the parts we needed ordered.
Despite the propane valve setback, we were able to fit in a few fun things on our first day. We stayed at Mackinaw Mill Creek Camping. Let me tell you, we have stayed in a lot of campgrounds in our travels over the years. This may just be one of the BIGGEST campgrounds we have ever stayed in. It sits on the shore of Lake Huron and has over 600 campsites! Plus, it has a pool, a beach, playgrounds, basketball courts, mini golf, a rally building, and a really nice campground store. In the store, you can get some hot food, but the campground also hosts a rotating schedule for food trucks. Plus, you can catch the ferry shuttle for Mackinac Island.
Next, we drove to McGulpins Point on Lake Michigan. We explored the shoreline, watched the boats, and walked along the rocks. Then, we drove up to the McGulpin Lighthouse. The grounds had already closed for the evening. We made a mental note to come back earlier in the day later in the week. Just a few miles down the road, we drove to the Headlands International Dark Park. Though it wasn’t yet dark, we walked around the grounds and the visitor center. Again, we decided we would check it out after dark later in the week.
We ended the day by driving through the center of town in Mackinaw City to get a feel it. Then, we headed back to the RV for dinner and a movie night. All in all, we felt accomplished on our first of five days in Mackinaw City.
Day 2: On our second day, we made a day trip to Sault Ste. Marie. This is the northern most city on I-75 before crossing into Canada. It also marked our very first time across the Mackinac Bridge and in the Upper Peninsula. The drive to Sault Ste. Marie from Mackinaw City takes less than an hour. We started at the Soo Lock Visitor Center. The Visitor Center displays numerous interactive exhibits describing the importance of the locks, their history and how they work. We generally really enjoy visitor centers, and this one was no exception. Though not very large, we spent probably an hour going through it and learned quite a bit.
Just outside the Visitor Center sits the Soo Locks multi-level observation platform. From the platform, we watched the locks in action for at least 20 minutes. Honestly, I could’ve stayed a bit longer, but our younger two started to get antsy. The observation deck and visitor center sit within a beautiful with some walking paths, a fountain, and a lot of green space. Unfortunately, we did not spend much time in the park. Instead, we went back to our car to get our backpack cooler. Then, we found a table nearby and ate.
We spent the next couple hours walking through the streets of Sault Ste. Marie and perusing the various shops. Of course, we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to get some Michigan fudge from Fudge Du Locke. We also tried some dessert bowls from Sugar Daddy Bakery. Our favorite was the dirt bowl, which we devoured in less than a couple minutes! By this time, the younger two started to complain that they were tired of walking. We missed out on a few points of interest, including the Tower of History and the Museum Ship Valley Camp. But, despite not seeing everything this quaint town has to offer, we really enjoyed our time in Sault Ste. Marie.
After leaving Sault Ste. Marie, we drove to St. Ignace, which is just on the side of the Mackinac Bridge from Mackinaw City. Here, we tried our very first pasties from Lehto’s Pasties. If you are unfamiliar with the traditional pasty dish, try at least one when you visit northern Michigan. Derived in Cornwall, England, the handheld meat and vegetable pie, became a staple lunch for Cornish tin miners. 19th century Cornish immigrants brought this hearty dish to the iron mines of the Upper Peninsula where this dish continues to be celebrated today.
From Lehto’s, we tried the standard beef pasty with ketchup. You can often choose gravy instead of ketchup, but that’s a surefire way to scream to the locals that you are a tourist. We went the traditional ketchup route. And it did not disappoint. Made with beef, onion, potatoes, and rutabaga and wrapped in a unique crust, you immediately understand why miners often chose this dish. They are easy to carry and eat yet hold a crazy amount of sustenance and flavor in that strong but doughy crust. Two pounds of self-contained, self-insulating, calorie-packed sustenance made for a miner’s lunch. For us, two pasties fed four of us (one of us refused to even try it)! If you’re in the U.P., try the pasty…with ketchup!
After fueling up on pasties, we went to the Wawatam Lighthouse. This lighthouse is named after Chief Wawatam, the late railroad ferry. Chief Wawatam used the same dock that presently supports the lighthouse. In tribute, the Chief’s lift gate still remains. There is also a human sundial, which we had a blast experimenting with to determine if our different body sizes made a difference (spoiler alert: it didn’t). Plus, there’s a splash park. The Chief Wawatam Park made for a spectacular end to our day trip. We love when we stumble upon hidden gems like this so unexpectedly.
After we got back to the RV, we headed over to the pool for an evening swim. We planned to end the night with a campfire and s’mores. But, instead, we discovered Michigan mosquitoes for the first time (but certainly not the last). U.P. mosquitoes are NO joke. We pulled out our Thermacell mosquito repellent devices. I’m pretty sure they just straight up laughed at us. No kidding, as I held the Thermacell in my hand, mosquitoes swarmed between my hand and body. We quickly decided to retreat from the mosquito army back into the RV where we watched a movie instead!
Day 3: This morning, we got up and made the short drive to Colonial Michilimackinac. We spent most of the morning following the self-guided tour of the fort and learning of its history. Our tour started with an artillery firing demonstration. We then entered the fort and watched the Michilimackinac: Crossroads of the Great Lakes movie depicting the fort’s origins, historical importance, preservation and continued archeological work. Next, we moved to the guardhouse where Eric lost his sunglasses in the underground prisoner holding cell. Thankfully, a kind “guard” tracked down the key and retrieved the glasses. We continued the tour through reconstructed row houses, the priest’s house, the blacksmith shop, the Church of Ste. Anne, the soldier’s barracks, a commanding officer’s house, and the powder magazine.
If you visit the fort during the peak season (from June through mid-August), you can witness the ongoing excavation of on-site archeologists at the fort. These digs started in the summer of 1959 and have taken place every summer since, marking it the longest ongoing excavation of this sort in the United States. Our family found the archeological efforts here absolutely fascinating. The archeologists spent close to a half hour talking to our family and answering a barrage of questions from us. You can also explore the Treasures from the Sand exhibit under the Northwest Rowhouse. Here, you can see firsthand several of the over one million artifacts recovered from the site of the fort. In 1780-1781, the British moved the fort to Mackinac Island fearing an attack by the American rebels. In 1909, the Michigan converted the land into a state park.
Despite spending the entire morning devoted to the history of Fort Michilimackinac, we clearly had not gotten the history bug out of our system. So, we made a beeline to Heritage Village. Just west of Mackinaw City sits Heritage Village on 143 acres of land. On it sits various buildings and development showcasing the period from 1880 through 1917. Brought to life by the Mackinaw Area Historical Society, the village includes an 1880s one-room school, a Mackinaw City petilence house, an 1883 log farmhouse, a sawmill, a tarpaper work shack, a vintage baseball field, an artifacts building, a community garden, a pavilion, a general store, and a church. It also boasts an art trail and other walking trails.
During the peak season, on certain days and times each week, the society provides tours of the buildings. Though we did not visit during the available tours, we enjoyed walking through the village and peeking in the windows of the various buildings on display. We intended to explore the art trail and walking trails as well. However, the weather did not cooperate, and it started to storm just as we finished touring the outside of the village.
Though our visit to the Heritage Village halted fairly abruptly, it actually worked out perfectly. If you’ve read our bio, you’ll know we are a family of six. However, up to this point on our trip, we’ve only had five of our crew with us. Our 13-year-old had stayed behind to attend a cheer camp. Fortunately, we have an astounding village. Both my mom and Eric’s mom offered to drive her up to Michigan so that we could be reunited on our family vacation. Ultimately, Eric’s mom and dad brought her as they are retired, and we convinced them to stay a few days in Mackinaw City to make the most of their trip. And, just as the storm moved in, we got word that they had arrived in town, so we quickly made our way to their hotel to get our girl!
After getting everyone settled in, we piled into the van and took everyone across the Mackinac Bridge to St. Ignace. For dinner, we ate at Mackinac Grille, which sits next to the Wawatam Lighthouse. To be honest, we were not terribly impressed with our meals. Most of the food tasted processed, and it seemed a bit overpriced compared with what you got. No one left there thinking we’d want to hurry back. After we finished our dinner, we walked with the entire family out on the Wawatam Lighthouse pier and watched the waters of Lake Michigan for a bit. Then, we headed back across the bridge to Mackinaw City. We walked through some of the shops along Central Avenue, making sure to pick up some more fudge. The kids indulged in ice cream from the Sweet Spot.
Though tired, we took Sophia and Eric’s parents to Headlands International Dark Sky Park. Unfortunately, the continued cloud cover did not make for great night sky watching, so our visit was pretty short. Instead, we finished what had been a pretty long day for everyone at Eric’s mom and dad’s hotel. The kids swam in the indoor pool, which was pretty large (and, in my opinion, too cold). Nonetheless, they enjoyed it. We fit a lot into our third day and looked forward to discovering even more with our two remaining days.
Day 4: Everyone got up early, and we bought ferry tickets to Mackinac Island from the campground store. We picked Eric’s mom and dad up from their hotel. We also met some family friends whose kids spent the day with us. A short drive to the ferry parking lot, and we were ready to make the trip to Mackinac Island. Admittedly, we underestimated the length of the ferry ride. The Star Line website states that the ride takes about 18 minutes. Ours lasted nearly 40 minutes. I’m not sure what caused the additional time, but it did seem that we slowly crept across Lake Huron. Perhaps the water conditions or some other reason required much slower than typical speeds. Either way, all of us were itching to get off that ferry and onto the island.
Once we arrived, we immediately sought out a bike shop. If you’re unfamiliar with Mackinac Island, you should know that there are no vehicles or engines of any kind on the island. Even mail is delivered by horse drawn trailers and garbage is picked up the same way. Typically, your only options for traversing the island are limited to non-motorized bikes, horse drawn carriage rides or walking. Neither of Eric’s parents could bike the island, and Eric’s mom wouldn’t be able to walk it either. For certain mobility-related conditions, you can rent a motorized scooter, which we did for Eric’s mom, from Mackinac Cycle. At this point, it was nearly lunch, so we set off to find something to eat.
We walked for a bit to toward the west end of the island and came up a bit short. Most restaurants were absolutely swamped with people. The gentleman who helped us with the scooter had explained that, due to the stormy weather the day before, traffic was higher than normal the day we visited. That meant that the restaurants and shops were difficult to get into. The streets and sidewalks were incredibly crowded as well. We ended up turning around and heading to the eastern side of the island where we ultimately ordered pizza from Island Slice Pizzeria. I think everyone really enjoyed the pizza, but, to be honest, by the time we ate, we were all so hungry that probably anything would’ve tasted divine!
After eating, we continued walking east toward the Arch Rock. The older kids split off to discover the island on their own. Apparently, we moved too slow for their taste. At a nice leisurely pace, we made our way to the bottom of Arch Rock, which is about a mile from the ferry dock. From the bottom, to get up to the rock, you have to go up 207 steps to the formation. Only Eric and I made the climb. The view of Lake Huron from the rock’s vantage point are phenomenal. But, after climbing the 207 stairs, we discovered that the horse drawn carriage rides take you essentially right up to it. Then, we learned from the kids that there are other trails we could’ve taken to get there that did not involve stairs. So, that was a major fail on our part.
Upon descending from our Arch Rock climb, we made our way back to downtown Mackinac Island. We met back up with the kids. Then, we discovered that the Good Day Cafe + Coffee Bar served Moomer’s ice cream. Read our Sleeping Bear Dunes post to find out more about Moomer’s. After our walk (and, for some of us, climb), we decided we deserved ice cream cones and milkshakes. After eating our ice cream and grabbing a few souvenirs from the local stores, we took the ferry back to Mackinaw City.
While we enjoyed our visit to Mackinac Island, we felt that we missed quite a bit of it. What we should have done was taken a horse drawn carriage tour. Then, we could have seen all the highlights of the island. If you go to Mackinac Island with anyone with mobility challenges, we HIGHLY recommend a carriage tour. We thought we’d be able to see many of the major points of interest by walking, but we truly underestimated it. It is very difficult to see much without biking it or taking a carriage tour. Although the older kids seemed to see a bit more than we did by walking the trails, so it’s not impossible. All in all, though, we enjoyed beautiful weather on a gorgeous island, so we couldn’t complain one bit.
After arriving back in Mackinaw City and saying goodbye to our friends (who we meet back up with in Keweenaw Peninsula), we sought out somewhere for dinner. Looking for a good sit down restaurant with some comfort food, we settled on Darrow’s Family Restaurant. Drawn in by the array of homemade pies, we ended up stuffing ourselves with homemade bread and homecooked-style meals. By the time we finished, there was no room for the pies we originally craved.
Once again, we ended the evening with the kids swimming in the hotel pool. We tried out the “hot tub” though I’m convinced the water temperature equaled that of the pool. Even if it didn’t, calling it a hot tub was misleading to say the least. But the kids always enjoy pool time, and they loved every minute of playing in the pool.
Day 5: For our last day, we started early. Well, some of us started early. While Eric and Mayson slept, Sophia, Olivia, Ellianna and I drove down to the Lake Huron shoreline in the campground. With donuts and hot chocolate in hand, we watched a breathtaking sunrise and relished in watching the water and nature start to come to life for the day. Five days in Mackinaw City passed quickly, but we knew we could make our last day count. After Eric and Mayson got up and ready, we headed back into the city. Eric’s parents left to go home, so we stopped at the hotel to say our thank you’s and good-bye’s before heading out for the day’s adventures.
First, we toured the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. Several of us even got the opportunity to take the Tower Tour. Unfortunately, Ellianna was too young and Sophia wore flip flops, so they were unable to go up. Eric stayed below with them, but Mayson, Olivia, and I ascended to the top. Not only did we learn of history of the lighthouse, but we got a fantastic view towering over 50 feet above Lake Huron. Beyond the tower, you can tour the Keeper’s Quarters, which also has several interactive exhibits. Then, you can watch the Shipwrecks of the Straits movie in the Bam building. Finally, you can walk through the Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Museum in the Warehouse.
After spending over an hour (probably closer to two hours) at the lighthouse, we grabbed our packed lunches from the car and ate lunch in the Old Mackinac Point park. Next, we headed to the McGulpin Point Lighthouse. We explored the grounds here as well and took the Discovery Trail from the lighthouse grounds down to the Straits of Mackinac. I think we may have been the only ones on this pleasant, informative, and not terribly long or difficult trail. There is also a self-guided cell phone tour you can use as you tour the grounds as well.
Next, we drove to the Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park. By the time we arrived, it was nearly 4 p.m., and they closed at 5. We had hoped that perhaps they would have late entry discount tickets, but that was not the case. So we walked around the visitor center but did not pay to enter the park. But, the next time we go to Mackinaw, we will definitely go back. The park features miles of trails through its 625 acres. Plus, it has zip lines, a children’s play area, a forest canopy bridge and a treetop discovery tower. Although it did not fit into our schedule this trip, it’s definitely up our alley and something we’ll check out the next time.
Since we couldn’t explore the discovery park, we decided to continue driving to Cheboygan. With no real destination in mind in Cheboygan, we drove just to check it out. We discovered there was a lighthouse, so we thought we’d go there. But when we arrived, the parking lot was full, so we bailed on that idea. Instead we drove through the town of Cheboygan and to the Walmart to grab a few things for dinner before heading back to the camper.
After making a quick dinner in the camper, we drove into Mackinaw City one last time for some shopping, fudge, and ice cream. And, with that, we wrapped up our five days in Mackinaw City. When we made our trip itinerary, five days seemed like so much time. But, we still didn’t get to everything we wanted. That’s okay though since it gives us something to look forward to next time. I do think five days in Mackinaw City is a good length of time to really experience the area and even fit in a day trip or two. Have you been to Mackinaw City or that area? Leave us a comment with anything we missed. If you’d like to see the rest of our Michigan adventure, check it out here. Or for any other G6 adventures, find them here.
