UP of Michigan - Keweenaw PeninsulaAug 12, 2010
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River in Houghton, MI with small lift bridge.
This town looks like a mini Duluth.
Old copper mine located outside Hancock, MI
| We are staying at a campground in Octonogan on the Keweenaw Peninsula. That is in the UP of Michigan. We drove up the peninsula to Houghton. A small town on a river with a small lift bridge. The town is up on a hill and reminded us of a mini Duluth. As we headed further north, we saw the Quincy Copper Mine Tour sign and decided ..... why not. It was an experience. We had to wear jackets and hard hats. We got on a cog train that took us down a 33% grade (steep) in two stages. It reminded me of a ride at an amusement park. However, this ride only went about 6 mph. The tracks went over the side of the hill and you couldn't see where you were going. When we got to the bottom, we got in another cart and it took us about 2000 feet into the mine. When we got that far in, we got out of the cart and the guide showed us tools that were used in the day and turned out the lights to show us how dark it was. When the mine first opened in the late 1800's, the miners used candles. There were also plenty of bats flying over and around us. It was 42 degrees in the mine and water dripping in lots of places. That was fun. After we left the mine, we continued on our day trip to do the loop of the northern peninsula. There is one main road that makes the loop to the end of the peninsula with small towns along the way. We stopped several times to take pics of lighthouses and shoreline. We also stopped at the Jam Pot. It's a small bakery run by Monks. People were standing in line to buy stuff. Someone at the campground had told us about it. We bought some Thimble Berry jam, ginger cookies, almond sugar cookies and a chocolate/orange truffle. On the way back to the campground, we stopped at the casino for about 10 minutes. That's how long it took us to play $20 at the slot machines. Ha! Today we decided to go for a swim. We found a small park about 5 miles from the campground with a nice beach. It's not crowed up here like in Florida. Alan said he wasn't leaving until he went for a swim in Lake Superior. The water was cold, but he toughed it out and made me suck it up. I wasn't going in, but he shamed me into it. It felt refreshing. |
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