My vacation in the UP, the highlights

I’m home a day early from my planned vacation. For one thing, I have a huge task ahead of me sorting photos. For another, I also had a lot of stuff to do when I got home, so it made more sense to cut my vacation a little short, and not have to rush around on Sunday to complete everything. And, as I always seem to do, I ran myself ragged trying to hit every spot in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in just one week. By Thursday morning, I was so worn out that I couldn’t even remember how to operate some of the features of my camera.

I was up at first light every morning, and on the go until after sunset, which is when I did most of the distance driving that I did, rather than the short hops between photo ops that I did during the day. You’ll get an idea when you see the photos.

Well, I’m not going to list excuses, but I’m going to post of few of the photos that I shot this week, and I think you’ll see that I was on the go all day, every day. Most of the subjects in the photos required hiking, from 1/4 mile up to 3 1/2 miles one way, 7 miles round trip. I think that I averaged 10 miles per day on my feet.

I slept in my Forester, which saved time messing with my tent. It was cramped, but it worked. Subaru makes a terrific vehicle, I averaged 30 MPG for the trip, which included a lot of twisty, hilly, dirt and gravel roads. The Forester handled the back roads with its typical sure-footed nimble handling due to its excellent all wheel drive system. Enough of the advertising.

I shot well over 1,000 photos, this post will serve as a highlight reel for what’s to come.

Mackinac City Lighthouse

McGulpin’s Point Lighthouse

Mackinac Bridge

Tahquamenon River sunrise

Lower Tahquamenon Falls

Upper Tahquamenon Falls

Grand Sable Dunes

Au Sable Point Lighthouse

Chapel Falls

Miner’s Rock

Munising Falls

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Teal Lake sunset

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

Eagle in the early morning fog

Emily’s Lake sunrise

Just a lake

Fort Wilkins State Historic Park

Rocky Lake Superior shoreline

Lake of the Clouds

Porcupine Mountains State Park sunset

Fayette Historic State Park

Portage Bay (Lake Michigan) sunrise

Raven in flight

Spruce grouse

Red-breasted nuthatch

Otter

Flaming gull

Lapland Longspur

Not bad for just the tip of the proverbial iceberg so to speak.

I’m still deciding if I should post by day of the week that I was up there, or do posts on lighthouses, waterfalls, wildlife, bridges, parks, etc. No matter how I do it, I have enough photos to last me for quite a few posts.

I had wished for more color in the foliage, but green isn’t a bad color for backgrounds, it beats bare trees all to heck.

I had hoped for more wildlife, but one can’t have everything.

So, I need time to sort and organize, I hope that you have enjoyed this teaser of sorts.

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!