Second Day Drive To The East Side Of Keweenaw Peninsula

                                  Thursday 8/15/2013

On our last day in Houghton, MI., we decided to drive to the west end of the canal to Lake Superior, and then to the east end of the canal to Lake Superior.

We first drove along the south border of the canal from Houghton toward the west. It is a nice drive with homes lining the canal. Then you go through a farming area, then to a wooded area. It was a fairly short drive that ends at a dead end in the road. We could see the light station out in the distance.

As we started to head back we saw a road to the right, but it didn't have any signs telling us what was ahead. (We have found that no signs tend to be the norm in the UP of Michigan). We decided to investigate, and less than a mile we came to the actual point at North Canal Park.

The temperature was at least 10 degrees cooler on this side of the peninsula.

Looking south from the opening of the west side canal. The sand here is more on the grey color side at this entry.

I found this picture of the water system of rivers, canal, and lakes on the peninsula.At this point we were at point #6 in this picture. Later on that day we drove along #4,3,2; 1 and then turned south to the east canal entry. ( the east entry doesn't show in this picture, but you can see it in the first picture of this blog.

We headed back toward Houghton and stopped at our RV park for lunch. The road we had just followed runs in front of the Houghton City RV Park. We had made our lunch for the drive, but found the drive so short, that we might as well utilize our covered picnic table with our great views of the canal, before we continued our exploration of the canal going east.

After lunch we crossed the bridge over to Hancock and then followed the canal to Hubbell. This is Torch Lake viewed from Hubbell. Hwy 26 continues around Torch Lake through Lake Linden, then turns south to Jacobsville.

Just south of Jacobsville , we came to the Portage Entry of the canal.

On the east side of the Keweenaw Paninsula there is a nice sandy beach.

The east side of the peninsula is 10 degrees warmer with very little breeze.

We walked over to the levy between the bay and the canal.

We were able to walk out almost to the end of the levy.

 

It was a gorgeous day to be in the UP of Michigan.

I tried to pick up Mallery to get a picture with her and she wouldn't hold still. She kept trying to get out of my arms and back down on the levy. We didn't really understand why she didn't like being held, except maybe being between the two waters made her nervous.

Back at the beach I took this picture so you could see the mountain range back on the mainland of the UP.

On the way back we stopped at the town of Dreamland.

Dreamland was founded in 1913 when this resort/ hotel was built. The town mainly consists of this hotel, restaurant and bar.

Joe went in and talked to some of the people in the bar, and they told him,that other entities have wanted to use the Dreamland names as a website address, but can't because it has already been claimed for this small town.

It was quite a long drive from Jacobsville back to Houghton. Before we crossed the bridge back over to Houghton, we stopped in Hancock at a smoked fish shop and outside cafe.

Joe bought some smoked whitefish, trout, and mixed smoked fish brats for take out.

We also had dinner there that night. I had the whitefish sandwich and fries.

Joe had white fish sticks. He had four pieces, but had already ate one before this picture. We currently are in Munising, MI. but leave tomorrow for Newberry, MI. for 3 nights.