Michigan: Of trees and horses

I had anticipated that Mackinac Island would be the centerpiece during a recent and very short driving tour in Michigan. But, the island had to share the honors with an attraction I had not anticipated.

I planned this trip with two friends, and we agreed on October dates as a matter of convenience without a thought to autumn colors.

The leaves were spectacular, and that was true despite the fact that rain and overcast skies undermined the show for parts of most days. (Maybe that was a good thing — Great skies every day and I would have had a thousand photos, which I don’t need.)

In any case, from Ann Arbor, we drove west across the Lower Peninsula, north roughly following the Lake Michigan shore, north on the Upper Peninsula to Whitefish Point and back south on the Upper and Lower peninsulas to our base in Ann Arbor. I will say no more: Considerably more eloquent photos, all taken from the front seat of a car, are here and below.

As to Mackinac Island, the entire 4.35-square-mile island is a National Historical Landmark, and more than 80% is a state park. Located in Lake Huron, it is only accessible via ferry or aircraft.

Ferries are available from Mackinaw City on Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and from St. Ignace on the Upper Peninsula. (And, yes, that’s right — Mackinac for the island and Mackinaw for the city. The word is pronounced like the latter, MACK-in-awe.)

We took the Shepler’s ferry service from St. Ignace, and fortuitously we managed to make an 8:30 a.m. departure.

It was fortuitous because, on our day of travel, that was when the sun was brightest and, besides, the early morning light was really striking on buildings and the golden-red trees at both ends of the 16-minute ferry ride. Again, the photos are telling.

Given our dates in late October, my friends and I showed up just as the tourist season was about to end, which translated into a sense that we had the place to ourselves. More than a million people visit every year, but fewer than 600 people live on the island year round.

Whether sunny or not, the temperature was comfortable for us (in jackets or trenchcoats), but on the ferry, it was too windy and cold to ride on the deck at top.

I know because I went to the top, holding ferry rails very firmly against the wind, in order to take photos of the Grand Hotel as we approached the island — I don’t particularly recommend it.

But, on arrival and in short order, we were on the dock at the island, and soon after, onto the island’s Main Street paralleling the water and lined with hotels and other low-rise wood frame buildings. Horses on the street, hardly cluttered with traffic, immediately reminded us of what we knew — no cars are allowed on the island (except some service vehicles). Locals and guests walk, cycle or ride in horse-drawn conveyances.

So, horse-drawn wagons or carriages of all sorts showed up constantly throughout our visit, ranging from garbage carts, to taxis, to tourist carriages, to baggage-transfer wagons.

The fanciest were the carriages identified as belonging to the island’s biggest, best-known and most upscale accommodation, the Grand Hotel.

And, there were the cyclists pulling wagons, into which they shoveled the inevitable horse manure!

About that grand Grand Hotel: As Mackinac Island became more popular with Midwestern vacationers, the transport companies that benefited from the business (a steamship company and railroad companies) formed a partnership to build a hotel for their most discerning customers. The Grand opened in 1887 and boasts the world’s longest hotel porch at 660 feet. I could see and photograph it from the ferry.

Naturally, my friends and I made the Grand Hotel our first goal. For those with no luggage, it is in walking distance of the ferry, some of that uphill, and, on the final approach, our route, shared with those carriages, was bracketed by trees striking with their rich dark red leaves.  Although the sun wasn’t kind here.

Another wood frame structure, the 397-room hotel with a porch that is sooooo long makes for a very dramatic presentation as one comes nearer and nearer.

Inside was something of a different matter. The building is not the problem, but much of the interior badly needs to be upgraded with a more modern decor, color schemes, furnishings, etc. It just looked outdated.

(After this visit, I read that the Musser family, owners of the hotel for nearly 90 years, agreed in September of this year, 2019, to sell to a private equity firm, KSL Capital Partners. I take that as a positive sign for future rejuvenation.)

Because the Grand Hotel — with its own designation as a National Historic Landmark — is a core attraction on the island and, presumably, because it has lots of guests (maybe even 100% occupancy much of the time) during its May-to-October season, the hotel generally charges non-guests $10 just to walk in the front door. However, we were not charged, presumably because our visit came so close to the end of the season (last week of October).

Having satisfied our curiosity about this behemoth, our trio wandered back to the island’s harborside town center, noting lighthouses, the Mackinac Fort, numerous Main Street hotels and, surprisingly, multiple fudge stores.

Fudge is big in Michigan, especially Mackinac Island. The tourist bureau here says more than 10,000 pounds of fudge leave the island daily (probably not in winter) and that there are more than a dozen fudge shops downtown.

We noted a few houses that had been closed up for the winter. They seemed to be covered in custom-made slipcovers.

Also among the notable houses was a “cottage” that belonged to John Jacob Astor’s son, William Backhouse Astor. The senior Astor’s American Fur Company was headquartered on the island. It is said, by guides, that the senior Astor never visited the island because he did not like sea travel, but for a time, his son managed the business there. (About sea travel, a great-grandson, John Jacob Astor IV, went down with the Titanic — I thought that an interesting irony.)

There is a sightseeing option, via horse-drawn carriage, but that wasn’t going to work under this day’s darkening skies.

Eventually, we were getting sprinkles … and hunger pangs. We stopped for a quick lunch, then it was time for the return ferry.

For more information about Mackinac Island, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, Look Ma, no car: https://besttripchoices.com/us-touring-areas/mackinac-island-michigan/

And, further to those autumn colors, cameras like them:

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”