The Keweenaw Peninsula, MI & A Day Trip to Isle Royale National Park

The Keweenaw, a small peninsula on the UP’s north shore, was our next destination. We spent 2 weeks at the City of Houghton RV Park, which we really enjoyed. Our site, while not waterfront, did have a covered deck with a water view. We did not enjoy the mouse that lived with us for several days, exploring our camper from basement to ceiling. Cody thought it was pretty neat and provided no assistance.

We were walking distance to the cute downtown area of Houghton, a college town home to Michigan Tech. There was a path along the Keweenaw Waterway that was perfect for after work walks and also views of an aerial lift bridge.

This area was the site of the country’s first copper boom. We visited the National Historical Park in Calumet and learned about all the mining history and the immigrants that shaped the culture in the Keweenaw and UP. Apparently, the copper from the Keweenaw traveled all the way to France and then came back on the Statue of Liberty. There are several mine tours available, including the popular Quincy Mine in Hancock.

We also went to see the tallest waterfall in Michigan – Houghton-Douglas Falls.

We decided to give rockhounding a try since finding agates is quite common in the Keweenaw. Except we learned that apparently the agates are in the water, instead of on the beach, so we gave up on that idea pretty quickly!

We drove further north for treats from a couple bakeries. We had our favorite pasties in the UP from the Mohawk Superette. We bought jam from the Wood’n Spoon and the Jampot, where Byzantine Monks have been making jam from wild berries for ~40 years. We bought Thimbleberry (similar to raspberry) but haven’t tried it yet. We also spent time walking the beach at Great Sand Bay.

Our primary reason for coming to this area was to visit Isle Royale National Park, a remote island in Lake Superior. Isle Royale is mainly a backpacking destination and is the least visited National Park in the lower 48, receiving only 30,000 visitors per year. Its famous for the predator-prey experiment between wolves and moose that Michigan Tech has been running on the island for several years.

We wanted to visit Isle Royale on a day trip. Many daytrippers choose to take a 1.5h ferry that departs from Grand Portage, MN, for Windigo Harbor on the western end of Isle Royale. We wanted to visit Rock Harbor on the eastern end so that we could hike to Scolville Point. Daytrippers to Rock Harbor have the choice of floatplane or an almost 4h ferry, both departing from the Keweenaw Peninsula. We took the more affordable ferry option, but paid the high price of not having much time on the island. We spent almost 8 hours roundtrip on the boat for less than 3 hours at Isle Royale. Luckily, it was a pretty calm day and we didn’t have any issues with seasickness. The ferry’s nickname is the barf barge because Lake Superior can be very spicy.

We still managed to do the 5-mile Scolville Point trail in the time we had and even though we didn’t see any wolves or moose, loved our short visit to our 45th US National Park.

Next up is Minnesota’s North Shore!