1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (62 page)

A boardwalk in Saugatuck is a lovely place for an afternoon stroll along the shores of Lake Michigan.

W
HERE
: 170 miles west of Detroit.
Visitor info:
Tel 269–857-1701;
www.saugatuck.com
.
O
X
-B
OW
S
CHOOL OF
A
RT
: Tel 800–318-3019 or 269–857-5811;
www.ox-bow.org
.
When:
1- and 2-week courses offered in summer.
W
ICKWOOD
I
NN
: Tel 800–385-1174 or 269–857-1552;
www.wickwoodinn.com
.
Cost:
from $165 (off-peak), from $245 (peak).
B
EST TIMES
: June for the Waterfront Film Festival; July for the Harbor Days/Venetian Nights Festival; autumn for smaller crowds and Indian summer weather; Nov–Dec for holiday lights.

The Busiest Waterway in the World

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

There’s a 21-foot elevation difference between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, a geographical fact responsible for Sault Ste. Marie’s place in history as the oldest city in Michigan. It’s where Ojibwa settled to fish the
productive rapids, and where the French established a busy fur-trading post, and it’s also why the Soo Locks were built—the first one completed in 1855—to finally tame those rapids and open Lake Superior’s vast mineral riches to shipping.

In Sault Ste. Marie (often called “The Soo,” shorthand for its French pronunciation), you can get an up-close look at the fascinating system of locks that now accommodates 1,000-foot-long freighters as they haul iron ore, limestone, and other commodities to the industrial cities clustered along the southern shores of the lower Great Lakes. The freight transported across Lake Superior and through the Soo Locks exceeds that of the Panama and Suez canals put together, making it the busiest waterway in the world.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages the locks, along with two large outdoor viewing platforms right in the heart of downtown Sault Ste. Marie, where you can peer down on the ships as they slip into the locks with seemingly inches to spare. The visitors center has working models that explain the operation of the locks, as well as remote cameras and a public address system that keep visitors informed of approaching ship traffic.

After viewing the locks, you can “lock through” yourself on a Soo Locks Boat Tour, which travels along the U.S. and Canadian shores and through two sets of locks. The tour boat deck gives a new perspective as the water rushes into the lock chamber and the boat begins its slow but steady rise. During busy shipping times, you might even be locking through with freighter traffic, dwarfed by their enormous steel hulls.

W
HERE
: 339 miles north of Detroit, Locks Park. Tel 800–990-0231 or 906–932-1472;
www.lre.usace.army.mil
.
When:
mid-May–Oct.
Visitor info:
Tel 800–647-2858 or 906–632-3366;
www.saultstemarie.com
.
B
OAT
T
OURS
: Tel 800–432-6301 or 906–632-6301;
www.soolocks.com
.
When:
May–mid-Oct.
B
EST TIME
: late June for the annual Ojibwa Powwow and Summer Gathering.

An average of 12,000 ships per year pass through the Soo Locks.

A Most Superior Southeastern Shore

Michigan

Much of Michigan’s Lake Superior shore has wild yet serene beauty—it’s a timeless place where you’re as likely to see a deer or bear wandering along a sandy beach as you are another human
. But the waters offshore are quite a different story. For over a century, Lake Superior has been a busy waterway, where timber once was hauled on wooden schooners and steamships, and now bulk commodities like iron ore are loaded on 1,000-foot freighters. Dozens of lighthouses were built to guide them, but they’re no match for 350-mile-long Lake Superior, the largest and fiercest of the Great Lakes. Especially along its southeastern shore and off the north shore of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where prevailing northwest storms unleash their full fury, hundreds of shipwrecks litter its deep, dark bottom like skeletons.

Michigan protects its unusual wealth of sunken relics with nine underwater preserves, marked for divers and regulated to prevent looting. At the Alger Underwater Preserve near Munising, nondivers can get a fascinating underwater look at century-old ships abandoned at the bottom of Munising Bay. Glass-bottom boats with large viewing wells glide right over the hulls and decks of wooden schooners, well preserved by Superior’s clean and frigid water. Just a few feet under the glass, they silently slide into view like haunting historic paintings.

Canadian Gordon Lightfoot sang about the 29-man crew of the
Edmund Fitzgerald,
the freighter that sank in 1975 at the lake’s east end off Whitefish Point: “The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay if they put 15 more miles behind her.” The remote, windswept point is a fitting location for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, which memorializes the dozens of vessels that failed to round it and reach the safety of the bay. The complex of renovated maritime buildings (some original, some relocated to the site) includes the museum—which displays the
Fitzgerald
’s bronze bell—an 1861 light keeper’s quarters, a fog signal building, a boathouse, theater, and a small inn housed in the 1923 Coast Guard crew quarters.

Of the handful of light keepers’ homes in the Upper Peninsula that have been converted into B&Bs, the Big Bay Point Lighthouse B&B is perhaps the nicest. Several other Michigan lights are open to the public for visits, such as the Point Iroquois Light Station east of Whitefish Point where you can tour through the light keeper’s home, then get a taste of his job by climbing the spiral stairway up the tower.

W
HERE
: Whitefish Point is 410 miles northwest of Detroit.
Visitor info:
Tel 800–562-7134 or 906–774-5480;
www.uptravel.com
.
G
LASS
B
OTTOM
S
HIPWRECK
T
OUR
: Munising. Tel 906–387-4477;
www.shipwrecktours.com
.
When:
late May–Oct.
S
HIPWRECK
M
USEUM AND
I
NN
: Paradise. Tel 888–492-3747 or 906–492-3747;
www.shipwreckmuseum.com
.
When:
May–Oct.
Cost:
from $125 (off-peak), from $150 (peak).
L
IGHTHOUSE
B&B
: Big Bay. Tel 906–345-9957;
www.bigbaylighthouse.com
.
Cost:
from $104 (offpeak), from $117 (peak).
B
EST TIMES
: Apr for peak bird migration at Whitefish Point; July–Sept for weather.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Michigan

It’s not tourism hyperbole to suggest that the waters of Lake Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay are as striking as the Caribbean. Cleaving into the ragged northwestern shore of the Lower Peninsula, this crystalline, sand-bottomed
bay wows visitors with its shimmering, shifting bands of teal and turquoise.

The state of Michigan, hemmed in by Lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron, and Erie, claims more than 3,200 miles of Great Lakes shoreline—more coast than the entire Atlantic seaboard. Thirty-mile-long Grand Traverse Bay is one of its most beautiful stretches, with resorts of every stripe and a wealth of water sports, “designer” golf, wineries, woods, and beautiful beaches.

Traverse City (population 15,000) anchors the region. It’s a lively town meant for strolling on waterfront paths that string together marinas, parks, beaches, and other attractive public spaces. A block inland, Front and the surrounding downtown streets are filled with great shopping and dining at trendy spots and longtime institutions. Order fresh-from-the-lake perch at Sleder’s Tavern and fresh-from-the-oven cherry pie at Grand Traverse Pie Co.

Grand Traverse Bay’s shimmering blue water beckons sailors of every stripe.

Not surprisingly, water activities take center stage here. Sailboats, fishing boats, and even a twin-masted tall ship ply the bay’s West Arm. The shallower East Arm—on the other side of the Old Mission Peninsula that divides the bay—is lined with resorts.

Golf lures visitors with the same magnetic attraction as the water. The region parlays picturesque rolling terrain, plenty of water views, and an ideal summertime climate into an exceptional collection of more than 20 top-notch courses, including the famously humbling The Bear at Grand Traverse Resort, designed by Jack Nicklaus. A surprising amount of agricultural land graces the area too, much of it given over to cherries and grapes. Drive out on the high ridgeline of the Old Mission Peninsula, and you’ll be delighted by the sweeping water vistas and maze of orchards. The peninsula is responsible for three-quarters of the world’s tart cherry crop, and the ubiquitous fruit appears in pancakes, ice cream, muffins, and pies—lots of pies.

Grapes thrive in the same climate, and every year a few more acres of vineyards show up on the peninsula. The 65-acre estate of the Chateau Chantal is as idyllic a setting for its prizewinning wines as for its old world B&B accommodations with lovely water views of both arms of Grand Traverse Bay.

Southwest of Traverse City, the renowned Interlochen Center for the Arts operates under a tall canopy of pines. Its gifted students give frequent concerts in the band shell next to Green Lake, which also hosts big-name national musical acts from June through August—from Abba to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

W
HERE
: 240 miles northwest of Detroit.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-TRAVERSE or 231–947-1120;
www.mytraversecity.com
.
G
RAND
T
RAVERSE
R
ESORT
: Acme. Tel 800–748-0303 or 231–534-6000;
www.grandtraverseresort.com
.
Cost:
rooms from $145 (off-peak), from $255 (peak); greens fees from $35 (offpeak), from $140 (peak).
C
HATEAU
C
HANTAL
: Tel 800–969-4009 or 231–223-4110;
www.chateauchantal.com
.
Cost:
from $135 (offpeak), from $145 (peak).
I
NTERLOCHEN
C
ENTER FOR THE
A
RTS
: Interlochen. Tel 231–276-7200;
www.interlochen.org
.
B
EST TIMES
: mid-May for the Blessing of the Blossoms; June–Aug for Interlochen music performances; July for the National Cherry Festival (
www.cherryfestival.org
); mid-July–Aug for Friday Nite Live, the music-filled block party on Front St.