Houghton Michigan on the Keweenaw Penninsula

From 8-08 Houghton Campground

We moved to a great campground in Houghton, Michigan - our new favorite. Houghton is located midway up the Keweenaw (pronounced key-we-nah) Peninsula. This is a peninsula on a peninsula - the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. Our camp site was right on the water with full hook-ups, cable TV, and a paved pad with a covered picnic table and park bench facing the river/canal.

From Houghton Campground

(Click link to see more pictures)

Houghton sits across the river from Hancock. The cities are separated by a river/canal that connects with lakes further across the peninsula. This provides a waterway across the peninsula that allows freighters to shorten the route from the upper portion of Lake Superior. It was primarily used in the past to allow freighters to come to the copper smelters that were on the waters edge. From the mid 1800's to the mid 1900's, this area was one of the main producers of copper in the US if not the world. Copper mining started in the 1840's and continued until the 1990's, although most mines closed in 1968 when copper prices were very low and no settlement could be reached in a labor strike.

We continued to have great weather, especially for August. Highs were usually in the mid 70's and lows in the mid 50's. I was glad to have nice weather the first two days, because I spent much of those days washing the RV and Honda. We drove through road construction where the old highway had been stripped down to bare earth. They were putting water on the dirt to keep down the dust and to keep it hard packed. As a result both the car and the RV looked like we had been out "mudding" with the 4-wheelers. I've never had one vehicle much less two covered with so much mud. That is my only complaint about the UP. Many of the roads are very bad and, where they are making repairs, you must often drive long stretches on dirt.

This is another beautiful area to tour. The views along the shores of Lake Superior are gorgeous. The water is crystal clear and very blue along the horizon. Much of the area is covered in forests. We went to two different places where we could see long distances with nothing but trees and lakes in the distance. One of these was Porcupine Mountain State Park near Ontonagon (pronounced ahn-two-nog-n) in the southern portion of the peninsula. At the top of a ridge, we looked down on "Lake of the Clouds" and green trees as far as we see.

From Keweenaw Peninsula

The other high spot was along Brockway Mountain Drive at the opposite end of the peninsula near Copper Harbor. At the high point of the drive, we could look out to Lake Superior in one direction and in the other direction were miles of green treetops. Further along the drive was an overlook looking down on Copper Harbor which is near the tip of the peninsula.

We toured another lovely lighthouse in Eagle River, Wisconsin.

From Keweenaw Peninsula

Nearby we stopped at a waterfall along the road. It was next to the "Jampot" operated by a Monastery. The Monks make great jams and baked goods. I wanted to go back after trying some of their cookies but they were closed by the time we came back through. Too bad.

One of my favorite places was Calumet, Michigan. It is about 12 miles north of Houghton. At one time it was one of the richest cities in America because of the wealth generated by the Copper Mines that created the town. It looks like everything was built around the turn of the century. Due to the closing of the copper mines, there is significant deterioration in some places. Fortunately the National Park Service is working to help preserve this historic slice of America. We toured the Calumet Theater which opened in 1900 and was a stopping point for many of the top stars of the day - John Phillips Sousa, Sarah Bernhardt, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., etc. It has been nicely restored and is very beautiful inside and out. There are many other old churches and buildings I would love to go back and tour.

From Keweenaw Peninsula

Another highlight from Calumet was the Country Kitchen which makes great Pasties (pronounced past-e). These were the meals made by the Cornish wives for their miner husbands. They are a pastry filled with diced potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, onions and beef. I was not too sure about the rutabagas, but they turned out not to have a strong flavor or much flavor at all. We both loved the Pasties and have several in the freezer for future enjoyment.

I hope we work our way back to Houghton. We could easily have stayed several months in this area, especially with such a great campground.

Door Peninsula Wisconsin #3 & Eagle River Wisconsin

This is our 3rd update from our stay in Door County, Wisconsin on the Door Peninsula (do you get the idea we really liked this place) and our move to Eagle River, Wisconsin.

In late July our son Ward came for a brief visit. It was great to see him and he enjoyed getting out of Chicago for a few days.

While Ward was with us, we returned to Peninsula State Park and climbed again to the top of the tall wooden tower overlooking Green Bay. It is a great view but, knowing the tower was built in the 1930's, I was not too thrilled with the swaying of the tower in wind.

From 7-08 Door Peninsula, WI

From 7-08 Door Peninsula, WI

From 7-08 Door Peninsula, WI

We also took a ferry ride over to Washington Island off the North End of the Peninsula. The ride over was beautiful, and we enjoyed talking to one of the residents on his way back home. It was especially interesting to hear about travels across the waterway in the winter when the water freezes over. At one time, people drove across the ice, but this stopped the year the local high school basketball team was lost when their vehicle broke through the ice. They had apparently drifted off the designated safe route. What a sad story. Now, the ferry company has an ice breaking ferry that makes the trip. You just have to be sure to schedule a place since it is a smaller boat than the two that run in the summer.

The island looked much like the Door Peninsula - very lovely. We made two or three stops as we drove around the island. The most interesting was to the STAVKIRKE. This is a copy of the type churches built in Scandinavian countries in medieval times. While thousands were built, only a few remain in Norway and one in Sweden. The local Lutheran Church built the STAVKIRKE as a tribute to their Norwegian and Icelandic heritage. STAVKIRKE means "stave church". The word "stave" comes from the old Norse word "stafv" which is the word for load bearing posts. So this is a wooden church with a post and beam construction. It has a pagoda style roof made with wooden shingles. Among the unusual features are the carved dragons at the end of the gables. These dragons are much more visible than the ones in the Borklunden chapel we referenced in a previous post about Door County. Another interesting aspect is a model of a ship hanging in the middle of the church. This is again a feature of the ancient Norse churches. It was a symbol of their close ties to the sea, or in this case to the Great Lakes. Also hanging in the ceiling of the foyer of the church is a carpenter's pouch. One of the key carpenters on the project left it hanging there the day they finished the church. He died unexpectedly that night, and the church has left it as a fitting tribute to him.

From 7-08 Door Peninsula, WI

From 7-08 Door Peninsula, WI

We also climbed another tower while on the Island. We had another great view looking across the island to Lake Michigan. Our final stop was a small fishing harbor and village at the north end of the island.

We all left Door County a few days later. Ward of course headed back to Chicago. We traveled further north in Wisconsin. We stopped along the way to have slide out trays installed in two of our underneath storage bays. We had ordered them at the Newmar Rally. Instead of having them shipped to us for self install, we elected to stop by the factory since it was right on our way to our next destination in Eagle River, Wisconsin. This was less expensive than the shipping charges and saved me a lot of work. The trays are very nice making it a lot easier to access some of our items stored underneath.

We stayed in Eagle River for a week. This is called the North Woods region and that is an apt name. On our drive up, the landscape changed from rolling pastures and farmland to dense woods. The Eagle River area is mainly woods with many many lakes. You can take a boat and connect through a chain of 28 lakes by way of the river. So the main recreation is boating and hunting and of course all the winter sports of cross country skiing and snowmobile riding and racing. You know you are in the far north when instead of a dirt track for car racing they have a similar track for snowmobile racing. They claim the world championships are held here each year. We do not plan to come back to see them. That will be way to cold for us!

We did not do much touring while in Eagle River, but did enjoy our time at the Hi Pines Campground. One thing we did enjoy was a couple of visits to "Soda Pops". This diner is in an old restored soda parlor. They had a hundred or more varieties of sodas. They seem to have available just about every soft drink made in America. All the drink bottles are on display around the walls. It reminded me of my bottle collection. They even had Blenheim Ginger Ale from South Carolina. They also had Hank's Root Beer. I almost bought one just to have the bottle to send to my friend Hank Fisher from BellSouth.

We left Eagle River heading further north to Houghton, Michigan on the Keweenaw Peninsula of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - the UP.

Door Peninsula Wisconsin #2

The Door Peninsula is a beautiful and peaceful area. In the middle of the Peninsula are farms, orchards, and several wineries. The farms are typical of what we saw driving up from Illinois. They usually have a pretty white or perhaps stone house with a large red barn and one or more silos. You see large orchards, dairy cattle, corn, soybeans, wheat or rolled hay in the fields. The land is gently rolling, and the fields are surrounded by stretches of green woods. Various wild flowers grow along side the roads and most homes have pretty perennial flower gardens. The growing season here is shorter than in the South, but the days are much longer. The birds start chirping around 4 am and there is faint light around 3:30 am. It gets dark around 9 to 9:30 pm. So I guess the long daylight hours even things out. Everything looks lush and green, except where the golden colored wheat and hay fields make a pretty contrast.

Around the shore of the Peninsula are beautiful small villages and numerous state and county parks. The villages are full of summer tourists, but the villages do not have any of the gaudy “touristy” places with bright neon lights, etc. like you find in some parts of Myrtle Beach or Gatlinburg. Instead they remind me more of Hendersonville or Ashville, NC. I’m told this is considered to be the Midwest version of quaint New England villages. Having never been to New England I can’t compare them, but all the villages here are lovely.

Wisconsin and Door County have done an excellent job setting aside parks to protect and make available some of the most beautiful areas along the shore. The largest park is Peninsula State Park. I think it is considered the crown jewel of the Wisconsin park system. It has beaches, many hiking and biking trails, a huge campground, and a beautiful golf course. We visited the park several times. Twice we took Clay along on hikes. One of those was somewhat of a misadventure. We picked up a trail map upon arrival, but did not read any of the details. We were wearing sandals and just had some water bottles with us. We found a trail near the point we entered the park. We got out and started toward the trail. However the sign said “difficult”. Just as we were reading the sign, two men came by who had just finished the hike. I asked if it was in fact “difficult”. One answered, no it was not that bad, and it is really a beautiful trail. So we proceeded forward. Turns out he was right about the latter, but way wrong about the former. We quickly descended down a steep bluff on a very rocky trail with many roots and rocks just waiting to trip us up. We ultimately went down about 4 or 5 stories in height which would not have been that bad except for all the rocks and roots. Plus as we walked, the sky got much darker, and before the hike was finished a thunderstorm came along and dropped rain on us. The sights along the trail were beautiful, but we did not get to look at them very much because we were always looking down to watch our step. I did take a few pictures of the rock formations. The rocks look almost man made. There were places where the formations looked like something you see in National Geographics where some ancient temple has been discovered with trees going over the temple ruins. We were fortunate not to twist an ankle or otherwise hurt ourselves. That would have been a hard place for park rangers to find us and then carry us out. We were very happy when we made it back to the parking lot at the end of the trail loop. From now on I will believe the sign when it says “Difficult”. For the next hike we wore better shoes and took a few more emergency supplies in our fanny packs. This time the trail was labeled “Moderate” and was much more enjoyable.

I hope you enjoy some of the pictures from the Peninsula State Park and some of the other parks we have visited