I am sure I have mentioned this before, but I'll say it again...Fall is not my favorite season. While I can appreciate the beauty of the Fall colors, mainly I see it is as a season of endings as everything goes into it's Winter's rest. But I live in Michigan, one of the most beautiful places to experience the Fall color. Normally in October, the girls and I take a road trip outside of Michigan so I've been able to experience Fall in many places, and other than New England(mainly just Vermont and New Hampshire), there aren't many places that rival the Autumn beauty right here at home.
I know when most people think of experiencing Fall color here, they think of the UP or the Northwestern Lower Peninsula around Sleeping Bear Dunes, Petoskey, and Traverse City. I've experienced the Fall colors in the UP on several occasions over the years, and can honestly say that they are spectacular. The Lake Michigan coast is also beautiful, I am sure, but during Fall colors, it is far too touristy for me, so I have always avoided it. But with the pandemic raging on and my travel this year limited, I wanted to find a way to make the most of the color season and visit some new places.
So I decided to head away from the crowds toward the Northeastern Lower and Lake Huron. This is not an area where I have spent much time, so I thought it could be a great overnight trip where we could stay away from people and still enjoy the woods and lakeshores of the Great Lakes State.
Our first stop with the Rifle River State Recreation area near Lupton. The weather forecast called for rain most of the day and it was raining when we arrived, but we were prepared for the weather and ready for some adventures. We drove through the area and made a couple of stops at some scenic spots before stopping, getting the girls out of the Jeep, and hitting the trails for a walk. Maddie was doing well that morning and we were able to take a nice walk through the woods, despite the rain. This is a beautiful area and I can see why it was named the most beautiful spot in Ogemaw county.
Before leaving, we got our customary picture in front of the State Park sign, and then hit the road for Muskrat Lake, the most beautiful spot in Oscoda County. We arrived at Muskrat Lake as a downpour started, so we left the girls in the Jeep, jumped out for a couple of quick pictures, and continued on our journey. I'm not sure why this particular spot is considered the most beautiful in the county, but as I've discovered on this journey, beauty is very subjective. It was a pretty spot, but not as stunning as some other places on the list. But we can say we've been there!
Our next stop was Atlanta, Michigan's Elk Capital. We only saw one Elk on this trip though...and it wasn't alive. We ordered lunch from the Elk Crossing Cafe and walked around town while we waited to pick it up, then hit the road for our next destination a short distance away-Clear Lake State Park.
When we arrived at Clear Lake, the rain was falling pretty steadily so we parked the Jeep with a view of the lake and ate our lunch sitting right there. The food was pretty good and the girls were happy to watch us eat in hopes that they might get a little treat, and of course they were not disappointed.
After we had eaten, the rain slowed a bit, giving us a chance to get out and explore a little. We found a cool geocache and took a walk out to the beach so the girls could stick their toes in the water and get a drink.
But not before our State sign picture. I am sure Peaches is thinking "why doesn't mom just let me explore some more?"
We journeyed on with our next stop at Ocqueoc Falls, the only waterfall in the lower peninsula. I have been here on a couple of occasions, but since we were in the area, I knew we had to take Vanessa to see them too. The rain had slowed by the time we reached the falls so we were able to get out to walk around a bit and grab a couple of geocaches before continuing our journey.
We had finally completed our journey through the three counties: Ogemaw, Oscoda, and Montmorency, that are on the interior of the Northeastern Lower Peninsula, we were now heading for Great Lakes views and I couldn't wait!
We had several stops in Presque Isle County, the first of which was P.H. Hoeft State Park. This park is just outside of Rogers City with beautiful views of Lake Huron and it was the northern most stop on our trip. I bet during the Summer months it is hopping, full of campers enjoying the Lake and surrounding area, but it was fairly quiet while we were there.
As we left, the rain really started to pick up so Maddie stayed in the Jeep while I made Peaches get out for the State sign picture. I'm pretty sure Peaches wished she could have stayed in the Jeep too, as she kept looking for a place to hide. She's a real trooper, though.
I especially enjoyed this view of the lighthouse as we headed back to the Jeep, our long day nearing it's end. It had been a cool, rainy day, but that was okay because we had had a good day of adventures, had seen many beautiful places, and had enjoyed being out in the northern woods. It was now time to head into Alpena for the night.
We arrived at our hotel after dark and after we settled in, we ordered Mexican take out which I went to pick up while Vanessa stayed in the room with the girls. There were lots of festive Halloween lights around town, so I had to stop for a picture.
After a busy day, it was nice to end it in a our room with the girls watching me eat dinner. I looked forward to better weather and more fun on day two!
We woke up to cool temperatures on Monday morning, but the rain had stopped and the sun was shining, so it was going to be a great day! Before leaving Alpena, we visited Island Park and Wildlife Sanctuary. This is right in town, but is a lovely area and we enjoyed a nice morning walk on the trails there.
Next we started our travels South on US23 and would spend most of the day on this road along the shores of Lake Huron. I was most excited about our second stop of the day, a place I had been before and one of my favorite State Parks; Negwegon State Park. This park has hike-in rustic campsites and amazing Lake Huron views. It is quiet and peaceful and one of the best places in the lower peninsula to take the dogs to a Great Lake, in my opinion as least.
I had only visited the park once before and that was a Summer trip, but it was just as beautiful as I remembered it to be. The most striking thing for me is just how quiet it is, especially when the Lake is still. It isn't easy to get to and has no real amenities, which makes it a less visited spot, and that is fine by me. It is just a magical place and I look forward to visiting it again and again.
We walked along the shore enjoying the sunny day and lake views and even found a couple of geocaches. This was one of my favorite geocaches of the whole trip. Peaches wasn't that thrilled that I made her sit for a picture because she had to stop running. She got some quality off-leash running time on our way back to the Jeep though and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed this stop.
On the drive out of the park, we had to stop for this picture...after all who doesn't agree with this?
Driving along on our way toward our next stop, we took a small detour when we saw signs pointing us to the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse. How could we not stop? After all, who doesn't love a lighthouse? A bonus was the sign informing us of the presence of Petoskey Stones along the beach here and there was no way I was going to stop Vanessa from looking for some stones. I now have my first official Petoskey Stone (which was not found by me). It only took 50 years of living in Michigan to get one. Thanks Vanessa!
Next we headed onward to Harrisville State Park, the most beautiful place in Alcona county. This is a tiny State park with a small beach area and a very small trail which we decided to explore.
I was happy to find a second, small, walk-in entrance to the park with a park sign right along our walk so we grabbed our picture here before turning around and heading toward the beach.
Technically, dogs aren't allowed on the beach here, but it is off-season and there weren't many people around so we made a small exception so we could explore the beach before heading back to the Jeep and continuing southward.
We headed South to Oscoda before cutting inland to visit the Lumberjack's Memorial and Iargo Springs. The views were beautiful at the Lumberjack Memorial.
Once at Iargo Springs, we needed to walk down 300 steps to view the Springs themselves, so off we went. Maddie doesn't do that well going down stairs, but her walking buddy was happy to help her down so she could explore with us.
I'm pretty sure Peaches would have run right down if I had let her. But I'm a mean dog mom and made her stay with me.
Once down at the bottom, I was not disappointed that we had me the trek down there. This is considered the most beautiful spot in Alcona county and I can definitely see why.
While we were down there, we sent Vanessa off through the mud and muck to locate a geocache which I would never have been able to get to with the girls. For a while there, we weren't quite sure where she was, but she successfully found the cache and returned to continue our walk, much to Peaches' relief.
Peaches and Vanessa took a quick trip up the 300 steps while Maddie and I took our time and we got one more picture of the amazing view before loading up the Jeep to continue our trip.
One thing I definitely noticed was how much better the Fall colors were closer to the lakeshore than they were inland. Some of the areas had some pretty stunning views, but I bet they had been even better just a week earlier. It was still some really gorgeous scenery, even if it was past peak.
At this point we had made it through 7 counties visiting the most beautiful spots and grabbing some geocaches along the way. We had seen and experienced a lot, but we weren't done yet. The next county we would visit on our way toward home was Arenac County, but unfortunately for this trip, we wouldn't get to visit the most beautiful spot in the county because it is Charity Island, and we had no way to get there. But we did make a stop where we could see the island in the distance. That would have to do on this trip.
We had hoped to make it for a short hike at Tobico March in Bay County as our final stop, but the GPS sent us in a funny direction and we didn't officially make it into the park. We were along the edges of the Marsh though and we found a nice spot to stop and grab Vanessa's first Bay County geocache. Luckily this spot is close enough that we can visit on a future trip.
It was approaching dusk and we had completed our journey through 8 new counties, saw many beautiful sights, and enjoyed a lovely Northern Michigan Fall adventure. We made one quick stop to grab some take-out dinner before we headed home happy and ready for our next adventure!
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