Thursday, August 15, 2013

Houghton City RV Park, Houghton, MI.

                                       Tuesday 8/13/2013

Our drive from Baraga, Mi to Houghton was 35 miles, going from the bass of the Kweenaw Penisula half way up.

As you enter Houghton, MI., the first thing you see is the Michigan Technological University.

The dorms line the left side of the road,

then both sides of the main road are lined with frat and sorority houses.

I was taking pictures out my side window- hence cropped pictures.

The downtown streets are lined with brick, and the entire town has a well maintained appearance.

Just north of the down town, you can take Hwy 41 across the bridge to the City of Hancock or go straight on Hwy 26. Because we had been here the day before we knew we needed to be in the left lane for Hwy 26, and then immediately we needed to get into the right lane to turn down to our next backyard.

Houghton City RV is located just behind the city park.

We wanted to stay here for a week, but we only could get reservations for 3 nights. The park has paved streets and pads. The rate is $30 a night, which is a good rate for it's location, views, and set up. There is no bathhouse so if you do not have a bathroom on board of your RV, you might not want to come here. The city park next to the RV park does have restrooms, and maybe showers, but not sure on the showers.

Behind the sites we had a covered picnic table and an uncovered bench seat. Our site # 14 was on the second row above the waterfront sites.

View from our patio. All the sites below were filled by Wednesday night.

View looking up the canal. The Portage Lake Canal is a canal and river system that crossed the entire peninsula from Lake Superior to Lake Superior.

Looking down our row of sites on the top level.

View out our kitchen table window.

After we got things back in order, we decided to take a walk along the waterfront. To our surprise we found a walk/bike path that started at the city park.

This house sits across the street from the water. I told Joe I could have a house just like this and be happy. I want a front porch and it has a clean look.

Joe said it looks bigger from the side. I told him that would be fine with me.( Joe wants a teeny tiny house- I guess like we have now- I want something much bigger like 4 bedrooms for my grand kids and girls when they come to visit)

Another cute home along our walk,

with a meticulous yard.

This bridge is the Portage Lift Bridge. The Portage Lift Bridge is the world's heaviest and widest double-decked vertical lift bridge. Its center span "lifts" to provide 100 feet (30 m) of clearance for ships. Since rail traffic was discontinued in the Keweenaw, the lower deck is used to accommodate snowmobile traffic in the winter. This is the only land based link between the north and south section of the Keweenaw peninsula, and is crucial.

The walk/bike path goes below the downtown along the water.

A very nice picnic and fire pit area along the waterfront.

Across the water in the city of Hancock, we see an old abandon manufacturing complex and a snow ski resort.

View of the marina in Hancock, MI.

When we reach the far end of the downtown area, we took our walk off the path and uptown.

An interest building which is now a library.

This is the old Douglas Hotel, but now house a mix of different business.

Another interesting looking building in the downtown.

Joe was glad I never stopped at one shop, but I did take many pictures.
The 5th Elm restaurant mural.

This restaurant also had a interesting fence made of bike wheels.

I wanted to stop here but we were in our cool down mode and hoped I would return sometime.

On our way back to our RV park, we stopped at the Chutes and Ladders playground. I wanted to climb to the top to get a good picture of our park. It was much harder than I thought it would be, because it was quite the obstacle course for midgets.

We didn't get all the way to the top, but almost and this picture had to do.
The park also has a city beach.
Back at our park I took this picture of our Nest up above from the back side.

A shot of the city beach, park, and Chutes and Ladders from an empty water front site in our park.

The town of Houghton has a population of 7,708 and is listed as one of the "100 Best Small Towns in America".
                                    We would agree and would love to come back someday!

1 comment:

  1. That park and the town looks very nice. I especially like the parking next to the water. I lived in Michigan a long time ago when I was very young and all I remember are the days when we would open our front door during winter and snow would be half way up the door way.

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