I spent Labor Day weekend doing a van trip up to the UP! First night I got in late and woke up to a very foggy morning that looked like a horror movie in the making! I get asked if I'm scared wild camping by myself and the answer is no, until I hear a weird noise. I'll wait a few minutes and if nothing happens (which it never does), I go about doing whatever I was doing. And yes I do have ways to protect myself.
I spent some time exploring Marquette, MI first! I walked around downtown, stopped in the shops and checked out the harbor area.
After that I did a few hikes. First around Black Rocks where I got to watch some people cliff jumping. If I had my swimsuit with me I totally would have done it too. Then I went to Little Presque Isle and did a hike along the shoreline. And finished the day hiking to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain to watch the sunset. I bought a journal that day in the town to document all my van adventures and spent some time writing in it while I watched the sunset :)
The next day my sister Katie met up with me and we hiked around Pictured Rocks. We hiked the Miners Castle/Beach Trail and the Chapel Loop Trail. Forewarning, if you ever try to hike the Chapel Beach Loop or Mosquito River Trail and go in the afternoon on a weekend, be prepared to park far away. We added an extra 2 miles onto that hike (9 miles total), because we had to park a mile away from the trailhead. Now granted it was Labor Day weekend, but I've never seen parking like that at hikes in the Midwest, it was like how it is at popular hikes in Colorado or Washington if you don't get to them by 7am. See more pics here!
We ferried over to Mackinac Island on Sunday and it was SO much fun! If you didn't know, there are no vehicles allowed on the island so you can only get around by foot, bike, or horse.
We toured the famous Grand Hotel. I'm cheap and really questioned if it was worth paying $12 to tour a hotel and in the end I'm so happy we did! It's absolutely stunning and was a unique thing to do that I normally wouldn't on my travels. I put together a fun Reel of it here!
We also rented bikes to bike around the whole island which is only 8.2 miles. If you ever get a chance to go to Mackinac Island, do it! It's pretty expensive to stay on the island but you can still go explore for the day and get a ton in! I'm going to have a full guide on my blog in the next week for Mackinac Island as well as the UP! Bookmark it so you can check it out, Meet Me Off Grid :)