Our last stop in Wisconsin, right before the border to Michigan, was in a town called Marinette. We had traditional Wisconsin cuisine at a Culver's, then crossed the bridge into the Upper Peninsula and headed north along the coast, bidding our first state of the trip a forever goodbye.
An hour later, we arrived in another lesser-known town called Escanaba, to see an out-of-the way point of interest and break up the drive just a little bit. Here, we checked out one of the many lighthouses along the coastal waters of Lake Michigan and its attendant bays; in this case, Sand Point Lighthouse:
There was a small informational building there:
And of course, the coast:
Which, believe it or not, was our only view of the actual Green Bay itself, off there a ways in the distance.
After the quick stop, we continued on, this time moving away from Lake Michigan to the northern side of the UP, and a new Great Lake: Lake Superior.
They told us a lot of fun facts about Lake Superior on the cruise that evening, like how it is large enough volume-wise to fit all four other Great Lakes in it combined, or how by surface area it's about as big as Austria. Lake Superior is absurdly big. As with Lake Michigan, it took actually being there to really appreciate the gigantic nature of these quasi-oceans.
First, though, we stopped off at the hotel to drop off our stuff, which was located in the town of - wait for it - Wetmore!
This is one of a handful of places named Wetmore in the country; our family visited Wetmore, Colorado way back during our Out West trip when I was 9, and of course I made my way to the Wetmore Trail in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. With us being so close, we had to make a visit, and happily there was a convenient hotel located right there in the town. Disappointingly, the hotel receptionist didn't even blink when we gave our name at check-in.
Our main destination, however, was the township of Munising, where the cruise along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was set to depart that evening. We had chosen the sunset cruise just due to the timing of our travel day, but it also worked out to be a stunning way to end the evening.
First, a quick dinner in town:
Then, all aboard!
The cruise was timed to go an hour out, and an hour back, right as the sun set, and it was truly magical.
We passed an old, defunct lighthouse, then headed out to more open waters:
You likely have not heard of Pictured Rocks; the sites operated by the NPS but falling short of the National Park designation tend to get only a fraction of the attention of their full-status counterparts. But this is a great place, and worth a visit. The Upper-Peninsula portion of our trip was the least known to us prior to visiting, and the biggest surprise of the whole trip - and it may have been my favorite part.
At one point, they said they were gonna take us up close...and they really meant it!
At last, we made it to Spray Falls, the turnaround point for the cruise:
The sunset portion of the Sunset cruise really kicked in as we headed back:
and it was a perfectly-timed dusk when we returned to shore.
The next morning, on our way out, we made a couple stops topside to see the views from above. First, Miner's Rock, which we had spotted on the cruise:
Once again, a magnificent view of the vastness of Lake Superior.
We then saw Miner's Falls, close by but more in the interior of the land:
Strong Brandywine Falls vibes. I'd link the Cuyahoga blog post again but...I already did that! Just scroll up!
We then set off east, across the UP lengthwise this time, because believe it or not, we had yet another cruise to catch.
