Land, water, weather, and the road there

Outdoors & Travel

Upper Peninsula wild places, practical travel context, outdoor traditions, and the stories behind the view.

Aug 21, 20262 min read

A Road Commissioner Kept Buying Extra Land in 1918 and Gave It to the Public. A Century Later It Is a State Park.

Herbert Larson bought wide rights of way for Iron County around 1918 and dedicated them to public use. In 1923 he bought a farmstead on Fortune Lake, and the CCC...

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Aug 13, 20264 min read

Jumping Off Black Rocks Into Lake Superior Is the Marquette Rite of Passage Yoopers Never Forget

The cold water, the long drop, the dare from your buddies. If you're from Marquette, you already know the spot. You know the exact...

Aug 12, 20263 min read

Every Spring, Birds Refusing to Cross Lake Superior Pile Up on One Point of Sand. People Have Been Counting Them Since 1966.

Most people know Whitefish Point for what happened offshore. The Edmund Fitzgerald went down not far from here, the shipwreck museum is on the...

Aug 11, 20264 min read

Every Fall, the U.P.’s Monarch Butterflies Gather at One Lighthouse to Jump Lake Michigan. The First Wave Lands in Weeks.

From mid-August into September, monarchs funnel down the Stonington Peninsula to the cedars around the 1865 Peninsula Point Lighthouse, roost, and wait for the...

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A Road Commissioner Kept Buying Extra Land in 1918 and Gave It to the Public. A Century Later It Is a State Park.

The essential outdoors path

Everything in this lane

Jumping Off Black Rocks Into Lake Superior Is the Marquette Rite of Passage Yoopers Never Forget

Every Spring, Birds Refusing to Cross Lake Superior Pile Up on One Point of Sand. People Have Been Counting Them Since 1966.

The U.S. Built Only Three Steel Dams. One Is in the Keweenaw — and the Wooden Dam It Replaced Outlasted It.

A Lumberman Bought This Forest to Cut It Down in 1895. He Looked at It and Changed His Mind.

Michigan’s Tallest Waterfall Was Off-Limits for Years. The State Finally Built a Way In.

An Ordinary Roadside Park on US-41 Hides a Slate Canyon. The Real One Is Further In Than Anyone Walks.

The U.P.’s Most Photographed Ice Formation Has to Be Built From Scratch Every Winter. Right Now It Doesn’t Exist.

An Iron Mining Company Hired a Famous Architect for a Piece of Machinery. Ishpeming Got Two Egyptian Obelisks.

Locals Call It Copper Island. One Bridge Is the Only Way On — and It’s the Heaviest of Its Kind on Earth.

There’s a 30-Foot Ruler Standing Beside US-41 in the Keweenaw. One Winter, the Snow Nearly Topped It.

Michigan’s Most Famous Rock Formation Lost a Piece of Itself Overnight. Fishermen Called It In by Cell Phone.

Every Fall, the U.P.’s Monarch Butterflies Gather at One Lighthouse to Jump Lake Michigan. The First Wave Lands in Weeks.