Weekend Camping Trip to the Upper Peninsula
Journal entry from Sunday, August 13th
I am currently sitting at Olde Swing Bridge Roasters, a new (est. in 2019) coffee shop in Ontonagon, Michigan. I spent the weekend exploring the Upper Peninsula with my cousin, Eden, and step-brother, Phil. Our relatives, Karen and Jeff, have property nearby where they camp during the summer and invite others to do the same. We arrived on Friday night and were welcomed with tasty mushroom and swiss burgers. The rest of the evening consisted of card games, ping-pong in the dark, and conversation around the campfire before heading to our tent.
I slept well the first night. Once we were all awake, Karen and Jeff made us a great breakfast then we headed out for the afternoon. The original plan was to pack up camp and find a new place to crash that night, but we opted to return to Ontonagon later that evening, so we left our tent up and headed out for a three hour drive towards Munising. Eden had researched places to visit and came across the Grand Sable Dunes near Grand Marais. They are a lesser known attraction compared to the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore. We navigated to the Log Slide Overlook; the dunes were east of the overlook. They were absolutely beautiful. The water of Lake Superior was a turquoise color which contrasted with the tan color of the sandy cliffs. We walked along the cliffs until we made it past the tree line then laid down our mat to have a picnic. Unfortunately, the wind caused our sandwiches to be a bit more sandy than anything else. To the west of the overlook were trees that jutted out into the lake and the Au Sable Light Station was visible in the distance. We spent a few hours in this area before heading back towards Ontonagon. I voted to stop at the Pictured Rocks quickly before leaving, so we saw a slice of the Lakeshore before continuing on.
We got back to Ontonagon at about 10:00 last night and the stars were absolutely beautiful. We could see some of the meteor shower and could faintly see the milkyway. I hadn’t seen stars like this in a while. There are a lot of things that I didn’t realize I was even missing about home- the slower lifestyle, lakes, trees, being able to see the stars so clearly, family gatherings, rain, easy driving (my van doesn’t like the mountain roads). I thought a lot about the Northwoods and how I have a hard time imagining me settling down anywhere else. I feel way more comfortable here in terms of the environment and I’ll have a hard time not being around family- especially when I have one of my own. But that is a problem for future Lauren to figure out. Until now, I am headed back to Colorado and am equally as excited for that.
