So the wife and I are planning on visiting the U P in early August, we will visit Mackinac and the picture rocks briefly but will have about 5 others days with no plans as of yet. I assume the walleye fishing isn’t so good that time of year, sooo, any suggestions?

Fayette State Park,Big Springs(Indian Lake State Park) for starters

Fort at the straits is the oldest ongoing archeological site. Lots of waterfalls. White fish point has a maritime museum. Sault locks is interesting. Further west, copper mines. Miles and miles of routes 2 & 28.

Also, Google The Yooper creation story. Brush up on Yooperese, bring your bug spray and you will fit right in.

Depends on what you like. Roughing it? Touristy stuff? Cities? Food? Driving every day or one place and stay?

Much of this sounds right up my alley, thanks for the input! I will submit these suggestions to the bride for approval,

Rusty, not real crazy about the touristy stuff, probably stay in hotels or cabins, we will have a skeleton plan and basically travel daily staying somewhere different every night. My hidden agenda is to gather info for a future ice fishing trip.

May not be for everyone, but I have an interest in boats and water, so I managed to work in a day trip to Ste Saint Marie just to watch boats lock thru. Wasn't enough time, but would have taken side trip to Whitefish Point. And while in area, check out Pasty Trail. Or at least east end of it. For most part, found the pasty's to be exactly the same, except different.

Make sure to stop at Gustafsons for some smoked whitefish and jerky. No drive through the UP is complete without a whitefish sitting on your dash.

you betcha!

Mackinaw - Soo Locks - Munising - Marquette - Houghton/Hancock/Copper Harbor - Escanaba/Garden/Fayette/Kitchitikipi - Mackinaw would be a decent loop. UP is pretty spread out. Be ready for a few hrs between actual towns.

Marquette and Houghton are real cool towns. Lots of cool stuff to see, places to eat, historic and outdoorsy stuff to poke at.


Mackinaw Island, albeit touristy, is worth 3/4 of a day wandering around. If you have time look into the "Sip and Sail" tours. Did one last year for the first time and it was pretty awesome. My wife was jealous and is begging me to take her on it this year.

The locks in Sault Ste Marie are 100% worth seeing if you've never seen them. Not an entire day deal, but worth a few hours. They do a boat tour through them if thats your thing.

Tahquamenon Falls (and restaurant brewery) is a must do.

Oswalds Bear Ranch is pretty cool. Halfway on your way west from the Soo.

Munising/Pictured Rocks is a scenic area. The boat tour is worth it. The walk in areas are neat also and a little less timely/costly.

Marquette has literally days worth of stuff to see and do within an hour of town. Same for Houghton/Hancock/Copper Harbor. Waterfalls, short hikes, driving scenic loops, old stuff, colleges, mines, cool shops, restaurants, brewery's, bars, etc

Garden/Fayette is worth the drive down there to see. Old timey ghost town all preserved like it was back in 1870. Cool scenic harbor.

Kitch-iti-kipi is The Big Spring. Super cool and a must see if your in that area. Giant spring that you pull a raft across and look down into. Crystal clear with fish and old timbers.

Add in all the roadside touristy stuff and nature you'll see and it'll be a full trip.

Shoot me a PM if you want more info. I could ramble on for a while. Family is from up there, I went to college up there, my wife is from there and my hunting property is up there. Spend a lot of time north of the bridge, which is just a little bit closer to heaven
.

your going to need to have some pastes for lunch also

whitefish point (neat maritime museum with the bell from the Titanic), Soo Locks, Tahquamenon falls, and somewhere up there is a snowmobile museun that I plan to visit someday soon (Ive seen a couple of shows about it)

https://www.zehnders.com/ On your way off of 75, Frankenmuth. One of the best chicken diners you can get.

https://www.bronners.com/ In Frankenmuth also. You can get your Christmas on.

https://www.lehtospasties.com/ These are very good. Just west of St. Ignace on US 2. They also have a shop in town.

https://ironmountainironmine.wixsite.com/ironmine This is west of Escanaba, not a far drive. Worth doing at least once.

https://www.uptravel.com/outdoors-recreation/national-state-parks/tahquamenon-falls-state-park/ The upper Falls are cool. But, I prefer the lower falls. Do both.

I have been to and returned to them all except the mine. We did that with the kids.


https://northwoodsoutlet.com/ You will see the Bill Boards for this place off of I-75, north of Frankenmuth. Its worth a stop.
https://williamscheese.com/ You can hit both these spots. They are only a few miles apart.


https://rapidriverknifeworks.us/ The show room is very cool. You will drive right past it at Rapid River. RRKW will also have a booth at the NTA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLRZtvAgDGE Clyde's Drive In Restaurant. Very reasonable$ location in St. Ignace, Soo, and Manistique.

STANLEY

Just truck camped our way around the UP for 9 days and nights.
Suggestions include ;
> Soo Locks Tour, Sault Ste Marie
> Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Whitefish Pt.
(The original bell there is from the Edmund Fitzgerald, not the Titanic)
> Pictured Rock National Lakeshore tour, Munising
> Marquette, largest city in the UP, beautiful..
> Quincy Mine - World's largest Steam Hoist, excellent tour
> Copper Harbor - beautiful area
> Stormy Kromer Hat Factory & Store, Ironwood
* If you're looking for a fine quality knife, Rapid River Knifeworks, just north of Gladestone on Hwy 41/2

A charter on Superior for lake trout would be a good use of a day. Never done it myself but its on my bucket list.

You are exactly correct about the bell. I guess I have the Titanic on the brain because of the search for the tourist sub.

Lots of cool things to see and do in the up. You will be driving more than you realize. Map out the stops and plan for the miles between. Bring bug dope! Lake Michigan is beautiful swimming in August….Superior will be very cold still. You can find nice beaches everywhere if you ask the locals. Buy a good road atlas. The county by county kind is best as you will lose phone gps a lot.

Well, here’s my $0.02 worth. I’m a troll in Yooper terms, but the wife and I visit the UP at least a few times each year and enjoy seeking out the “quieter” spots.

The Lake Superior shoreline is a rockhound’s paradise. Lake Superior agates can be found in many shoreline areas, although not easy to spot. My wife seems to find a few each trip (it’s her passion) but as I have told countless people, the only way I get them is when Bigfoot rides out of the forest on a unicorn and hands the friggin’ thing to me. With that said, Grand Marais is a great place to look and catch a view of Superior’s shoreline and if you’re also planning on seeing Pictured Rocks I highly recommend driving H58 from GM to Munising - lots of curves in the road and multiple spots to view nature at it’s finest.

If you make it to Munising to do the Pictured Rocks tour (recommended) you can also check out a few nearby waterfalls. Muldoon’s Pasty Shop on the west side of town is a spot we always stop when in that area - good eats. Pro tip: if you want to come across as a true Yooper you will eat your pasty with ketchup as the ONLY condiment since no true self respecting Yooper uses gravy. I, however, proudly accept my Troll status and eat my pasty with gravy. LOL. FYI - a troll is anyone who lives under a bridge, in case you’re wondering.

Other spots you can hit if you decide to do the Grand Marais/Munising H58 route would be taking US-2 from the Mac Bridge west to M77. That stretch of US-2 will take you along the north shore of Lake Michigan offering some great views of the Mac Bridge along with some nice natural areas. Just before you get to Brevort you will come to Wildwood Pasties which is/was owned by a fellow trapper last I knew. A mile or two from Wildwood is Gustofson’s (mentioned in an earlier post) where you can some great smoked fish. Not too far down US-2 from there is Epoufette where you can get a monster Bloody Mary at the Cut River Inn that qualifies as a Yooper meal. If that’s not appealing, the restaurant across the road has a great fish dinner. Further down the road and you’ll come to Naubinway where the snowmobile museum mentioned in an earlier post is located - neat place. Not far from there you will see signs for the small town of Engadine - Herb Lenon lived and trapped in that area from what I understand.

Turning north on M77 will take you into Blaney Park where there’s a couple antique shops usually worth visiting. Further up the road is the Seney National Wildlife Refuge with some areas allowing motor vehicle traffic along with foot traffic hiking trails. Continuing on M77 north will land you into Grand Marais where you’ll find a few tourist related shops and a couple restaurants. Take some jackets if you hit the beach as the wind coming off Lake Superior is none too warm and take them with you if you do the Pictured Rocks boat tour.

In terms of ice fishing you might take a look at some big lake bays such as Munoscong Bay, Little Bay de Noc, Big Bay de Noc, and Keewanaw Bay to name a few. Lake Gogebic is an inland lake on the far west side is known for its perch and walleye. In regards to a fisherman’s tourist attraction you might check out if they are still doing factory tours at the Bay de Noc Lure Company where lures such as the Swedish Pimple, Do-Jigger, and Laker Taker are made.

If you do venture to the far west end to check Lake Gogebic a few other spots to consider would The Konteka Black Bear Resort in White Pine, Stormy Kromer in Ironwood, Porcupine Mountains State Park (awesome sunset viewing on Lake Superior shore spots), Bond Falls, to name a few. If you’re out hiking take a container/bag with you as the Thimbleberries are showing up right about the time you’re around. Lots of other waterfall attractions over by the ski jump hill near Ironwood.

There’s always something to see up there if you have the time and an adventurous spirit. Have a great time!

Butch

lots of good suggestion so far, as far as ice fishing the bays de-noc area is great, palms brook state park [ big springs is great.]