Harsen's Island

Earlier this week we made a day trip to Harsen's Island.  Honestly, before last weekend I had never even heard of Harsen's Island, but thanks to my goal of visiting the most beautiful place in each county, I am learning about a lot of places and things I have never heard of before.  After learning a little about the location of the island, I was excited for our visit.  Before leaving for new adventures, I always try to research the place we'll be going and make a plan of attack for the day.  But after a google search and searching the chamber of commerce website for the area, I wasn't having much luck finding anything to do.  I did notice a natural area on the map and hoped we'd be able to get out for a hike.  For the most part, we were heading out without much of a plan...other than getting to the island, but I was ready for an adventure!

We were on the road before 8:30am to pick up Vanessa who was joining us for our trip for the day.  Traffic wasn't bad as we headed southeast toward the Detroit area and we made good time, which I was thankful for since I hate driving into traffic.  Harsen's Island is located in the St. Clair River at the North end of Lake St. Clair and, in order to reach the island, you must take a car ferry across the river.  The ferry runs continuously throughout the day and we arrived just in time to load up for the short ferry ride to the Island.  

We reached the island and made a quick stop at a park across the street from the ferry to get out and stretch our legs and to allow the girls a quick sniff.  After a quick stop, we put Vanessa in charge of navigation and we were off to explore.

The island is a combination of marshy areas and residences(which are surrounded by water) and since it's in the middle of the river, it is a great place to watch for freighters.  I was excited to see this freighter pass us.  The area is unique in my experience here in Michigan and I was fascinated by everything we were seeing.

Most of the island is managed by the DNR and is a popular place for fishing and other water sports.  It is also popular as a vacation spot, but I was pleasantly surprised because it was very peaceful and quiet while we were there.  

We made it to the end of the road where there was a turn around so we stopped to let the girls out to explore a bit and take some pictures.  Of course both of the girls had to get into the water.  It was such a beautiful day with a nice breeze and I was thoroughly enjoying our time on the island.  

Everywhere we went, we were amazed at the marshy, swampy island landscape and, as is the case with the Great Lakes, the water levels were clearly high here too.  We found a couple of parking lots around the island, but they were all flooded and, if there were any trails, we never found any.  But we didn't mind, we were having a great time.  

There are several smaller islands that surround Harsen's Island that are strictly residential and only reachable by bridges.  We reached one of those bridges and I would have loved to cross, but we respected the signs.  

By this point, we had driven the entire island and were ready for lunch, so we headed back to find somewhere to grab a bite to eat.  But not before I got a quick picture of these beautiful swans. 

After discovering that two of the restaurants on the island were closed on the day we were there, we drove back to the tiny little area called San Souci.  I guess this would be considered the downtown area of the island.  

The San Souci Market had a variety of prepared foods, sandwiches, and hot foods, so we parked and went inside to pick up our lunch.  I grabbed a deli sandwich and some pre-packaged potato salad and headed back to the car. 

We sat outside under the shade of a tree just off of the road with the girls happily watching us eat.  I'm still amazed at how peaceful and quiet it was here, just across from the store with a view of the river and Canada.  

We finished our lunch and our time on the island was drawing to a close, but I had to get a picture of the girls before leaving. They even waited nicely...

At least temporarily!  Oh Peaches, she just can't resist a good roll in the grass.  And even though we hadn't done any hiking and they had spent most of the time in the Jeep, I think the girls enjoyed the trip too!

As we headed back to the ferry and started our journey away from Harsen's Island, I was so glad we had decided to visit.   We had a really great time exploring this unique little island.  I could picture myself returning there some day to sit and watch the freighters float by all day.

We had a second stop planned for the day at the Seven Ponds Nature Area in Dryden in Lapeer County, but arrived to find it was not dog friendly.  So we made a brief stop in Dryden to take a hike along the Polly Ann trail instead and to do a little geocaching along the way.  I got no pictures from this stop...but trust me it was an adventure-as was evidenced by the number of burrs we came home covered with.  

We headed home from Dryden after a really good day of exploring new areas and ready for more vacation fun the next day.