Day Trips to Mackinac Island

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One of destination spots for this area is Mackinac Island. Okay, its probably THE tourist destination for anyone traveling through here. Unlike the boat tour out of Munising to see Pictured Rock where there is only one company to pick from, there are several to choose that run a ferry service from either St Ignace or Mackinaw City out to Mackinac Island. We picked Arnold Transit because they had a package deal where you could use the ferry as much as you liked on two consecutive days. It wasn't clear why somebody would make the round trip more than once a day. Sixty six bucks got us and our bicycles passage for the two days.

We carefully watched the weather forecast and decided on a Thursday and Friday. The Arnold terminal is only about 2 miles or so from the campground and it's more or less downhill the whole way - a fact we regretted each day when we bike back to camp. Turns out part of the reason this ferry was cheaper was their boats are slower and also seem to be the cargo boat for all manner of supplies to and from the island. In fact the ferry we caught over on Friday was a little late leaving because they needed to unload a dozen horses into two big horse trailers.

Ferry Horses

Our boat ride is only 35 minutes so the fact that Star Line Ferry does it in about 20 minutes didn't matter much, but they do have Hydro-Jets that send a plume of water out the back of the boat. They are pretty cool looking but probably not worth the 2X price.

The Ferry NOT Taken

The ferry ride gets you a different perspective of the Mackinaw Bridge and also brings you past the pretty Round Island Light House. There are some also good views of the west and south sides of Mackinac Island

Leaving St Ignace

Approaching Mackinac Island

Navigation Aid into Island Marina

Round Island Lighthouse

Breakwall with Mackinaw Bridge in Background

We decided to use our first day here to more or less get a lay of the land. Since no vehicles are permitted here, walking, bicycling, or horse drawn carriage are your choices. The "road" that goes around the perimeter of the island is just over 8 miles long and being at water's edge, is mostly flat. So it wasn't out of question to see some people simply walking the loop.

The boat docks are on the south end of the island as are the majority of the shops. It was quite crowded in this area so we decided to bike around the perimeter first, stopping along the way to see some of the views and also do the required tourist stops. Mission Point Resort had many Adirondack chairs out but nobody enjoying them this morning.

Mission Point Resort

Arch Rock had a very big crowd, so big it was hard to find spots in the bike rack. It can be viewed from below or above. There is a staircase up the bluff to get to the viewing spot. The park is good enough to let you know it is 207 steps to the top.

Arch Rock from Up High

A Couple Trees Hanging On

Arch Rock from Below

At the north end of the island is British Landing. There are restrooms, a small nature exhibit, and a concession building. It gets crowded here too. One thing we noticed about  an area with this many people riding bikes, you really must pay attention since people don't tend to look where they are going. Going slowly and having hands on the brake levers at all times probably saved us a couple times.

We got back in town and found a place to park the bikes and join the crowds. We were hungry for lunch by then. The place we picked was good but overpriced. Maybe not too unexpected for a captive audience in a huge tourist destination. After lunch we walked around town a bit checking out the sights. There are lots of pretty homes.

Maybe My Favorite

Pretty Gate

The pretty little park was inviting with a great view of the water, but you are only "invited" to use it if you by some overpriced dog or burger. Being full, we passed.

Kites Flying

One thing you don't really get used to is the smell of the horses or more specifically their poop. The town has guys trying to keep up with the mess, but it's a never ending job. Now there's a shitty job if I ever saw one. The horses for the Grand Hotel carriage were decked out in a bit of a costume trying to look more regal I suppose.

Even the mail and package delivery is by horse drawn carts. It was just a bit odd to see Amazon Prime packages sitting on the cart. Curious if the 2 day promise works here as well?

Package Delivery

View Up the Street

Fort Mackinac was neat looking. We didn't actually go thru the thing but it does have a nice view from up high. Every now and then they fire off a real cannon that seemed to scare us each time.

Fort Mackinac Overlooking Park

We decided to walk up to see the Grand Hotel. If you aren't staying at the hotel, they allow you to pay $10 per person for the privilege of checking it out. We assumed this meant to see the inside so we walked up the sidewalk and got to the front entrance only to be yelled at by a woman on the entry porch asking where our visitor pass was. We turned around and headed back only to see another woman collecting money from people a hundred feet back from where we got to. We aren't sure how she missed us on our way by the first time. The stone church just down from the hotel was quite picturesque.

Front of Grand Hotel

Water View of Grand Hotel

Stone Chapel

A Turtle's Nightmare

We hopped back on our bikes and made the climb up the hill past the fort back towards a golf course and the more rural portions of the island. It was here that we saw a huge barn that apparently is one of the Grand Hotel's for their carriages and horses.

Beautiful Stable

We did a few geocaches back off some of the gravel and dirt trails and saw several groups of people touring around on horseback. Now we knew where we wanted to head when we came back the second day. We caught the 5 PM ferry back and got ready for our return visit.

We were anxious to come back, but not enough to catch the 7 AM ferry, so we stuck with the 9 AM. We knew the approach to the trails we wanted to ride would be easier from the north end so we headed up the perimeter trail to British Landing in a clockwise direction. This also worked out well because not as many people seemed to be heading this way.

We found the approach to Tranquil Bluff trail was pretty good, but the trail was definitely a technical, narrow single track with lots of roots, rocks and the chance of going over the bluff! The upside was there were plenty of trees along the bluff that would prevent you from falling far. We only saw two other people - a jogger and a photographer.

The next trail was Swamp Trail which was a little wider but was labeled a horse jumping trail with the most difficult rating. It turned out to not be bad since at each jump, there is a little loop  that bypasses the jump. We eventually made it to Leslie Ave which was actually a paved trail. At one of of the overlooks, we decided to sit down and have our lunch with a view. By then we already had found 20 geocaches.

Well Marked Trail Entrance

Our View for Lunch

There were a few more lesser visited destinations in this area of the island. The first was a rock formation known as Sugarloaf - a 75 foot tall chunk of limestone. Then over to the area of the airport to see the Cave of the Woods and the Crack-in-the-Island.  Neither were that special but worth the look if you're in the area. We eventually made our way back to British Landing to have a drink, snack and restroom break. By now we were up to 40 caches found.

Sugarloaf

Jack at Cave of the Woods

How the Rich Arrive

We decided to stick around until the 7 PM ferry so we would not be as rushed as yesterday. So we slowly made our way around the long way, picking up all the caches along the way, and by 5:30 we had surpassed our old daily find count at 60 caches.

View Along Route

Smaller Collection of Cairns

Interesting Artwork in Front Yard of Home

We wandered around town and picked up the obligatory fudge. Not sure why, but there are about a dozen fudge shops in town. We then headed to the ferry and enjoyed the slow ride back to St Ignace, but not so much the slow bike ride up the hill to the campgrounds.

Our Fudge Choice

View of Island as We Depart

Not Quite Sunset Over Mackinaw Bridge