Exploring the Natural Attractions and Flower Gardens of Mackinac Island and A Quick Stop at Oswald Bear Ranch

This post is part four of a travel series to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.   To start at the beginning go  HERE.  The remaining posts in consecutive order are HERE and HERE.

For my third and final post of Mackinac Island, I wanted to share some little tidbits of other points of interests on the island, like its natural attractions such as Arch Rock pictured below.  Then I'm going to pivot to a brief stop we made at a bear ranch enroute to our next destination in the Upper Peninsula.

Arch Rock

After spending some time on the porch of The Grand Hotel, we headed up the West Bluff to see the grand mansions and take a walk along the lakeshore.  These are some of the views you see from the top of the bluff.

Mackinac Island is much more than fine restaurants, beautiful homes, and shopping.  The island is actually 80% park and has 70+ miles of trails!  I wish we had the time to have hiked these trails, but we were only there for one day so we were only able to hike along the lakeshore if we wanted time for other activities on the island.  

We decided "Devil's Kitchen" and "Chimney Rock" sounded interesting so we took the "Pontiac Trail" from West Bluff Road to the Lakeshore.  It says on the sign that there are not any stairs, but I assure you, there are stairs down to the water.

See!  Here are the stairs!  They look new, which makes me wonder if the sign is just old and needs to be updated.

Walking along the lakeshore on Mackinac Island is a beautiful, serene experience.  However, if I had to do it all over again I would have rented or brought a bike because it's a long hike and we quickly tired.  We saw a lovely lighthouse.

And more great views of the famous Mackinaw Bridge.

People often ask when is the best time to visit Mackinac Island and that is hard to answer.  Some people love to go in the fall to see the beauty of the fall foliage.  Other's prefer summer because some days Mackinac Island can be quite chilly and a summer visit might assure one of warmer temperatures.  We chose spring because many, many years ago I read an article about how the island is home to hundreds of different lilac bushes.  These bushes aren't native to the island, but were brought over by Dutch and French immigrants.  Today, Mackinac Island has more than 250 varieties of lilacs and is home to some of the oldest and largest lilacs in the world.  The island even has a special "Lilac Festival" in June to celebrate the lilac blooms.

We were on the island after Memorial Day so we were there before the lilacs were in peak bloom.  However, we did see lots of lilacs in bloom, like the one below!

While walking along the lakeshore below the west bluff, you will walk right past "Devil's Kitchen", so it's hard to miss!

We continued to walk for quite a bit more hoping to see Chimney Rock but started to grow tired (keep in mind, we have been walking ever since we departed the ferry) and decided to turn around.  We made a good choice as I don't think one can even see Chimney Rock from the bottom of the lakeshore as it is high above the bluff.  We do think we saw it on our ferry ride back to the mainland.  We found out later that Chimney Rock is a inland hike one takes on top of the bluff to watch the sunset, so it's a good thing we turned around.

After we turned back from our lakeshore hike, we had to walk through town again to get to the East Bluff area to see the Arch Rock.  I was determined not to leave the island until I got to see this natural wonder!  I enjoyed walking through the town once more so I could pay more attention to the beautiful flower gardens.  On my first walk through, I was too enamored with all the historic buildings to notice the flowers much.

When we first got off the ferry we headed straight west to The Grand Hotel, now we were walking east to see Arch Rock and we got to see some new sights like Fort Mackinac!

Fort Mackinac is a restored fort that has demonstrations and tours by costume interpreters throughout the day.  We didn't buy tickets to see the fort because we were only on Mackinac Island for one day and didn't have the time.  If I ever go back though, I would love to see it!

We walked past a lovely marina on our way to Arch Rock.

The farther along the east shoreline we walked, it seemed to get less busy, and more serene and lovely.  

I fell in love with this grassy area surrounded by a bed of tulips with the lake in the horizon.

This area even had a lovely gazebo.  I wonder if anyone ever got married here?  

Eventually as you keep walking east along the lakeshore you run out of civilization and right into Mackinac Island State Park.

We finally made it to Arch Rock and it was as beautiful as I had seen in photos!  It was worth every step!

By now we were pretty tired from all the walking (can I say one more time I wish we had rented or brought our bikes) and after looking at a map we took a shortcut back to the ferry via Arch Rock Road.  It was such a lovely jaunt through the woods and we saw some cute B&B's that were nestled on wooded lots plus we got the backside view of Fort Mackinac and we saw the Governor's Residence.  We came across this sign below and it made me wish we had more time and energy to see more, but it also gave me incentive to come back another day.  If you ever plan to visit Mackinac Island I would recommend at least two or three days to visit if you want to do more than just walk the Main Street and see The Grand Hotel.

Once we were back in St. Ignace we popped over to this little stand that was right across the street from our hotel.  We were amused that there was such a huge Packer fan in Michigan, but I think you can find Packer Fans just about anywhere. 

We picked up some smoked fish to eat on the trails we intended to hike in the next few days.   One fish lasted quite a long time, and it was quite tasty too!

For dinner that night, we headed to the famous "Clydes Drive In":  A vintage burger joint known for their 3/4 lb burgers.  They were delicious!

Enjoying a Clyde's Drive-In Burger!

The next morning we packed up our bags and said our goodbye's to St. Ignace and started the trek to Tahqueamnon Falls State Park, which I will cover next week.  On our way there we made a quick pit stop to Oswald's Bear Ranch.

My husband loves bears, so this was a thrill for him.  Oswald's is the largest bear ranch in the United States.  The bears are rescued bears brought here to continue their lives in natural habitats and comfort.  The bears are separated by sex in huge habitats of 1/4-1/3 mile perimeters and one habitat even includes a waterfall!

It costs $25 per car load to enter the ranch, or $15 a lone visitor.  You can also pay extra to feed the bears apples or have your photo taken with the baby bear cubs.

Our favorite part of our visit, was watching the baby cubs play!  Be sure to watch the video to see them in action. They sure seemed happy!

Next week I will continue this travel series with a visit to Tahquamenon Falls State Park.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Our Smokey Mountains Vacation - Day Four, Part Two: Alum Cave Trail

This post is part of a travel series of our vacation in the Smokey Mountains.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!  The rest of the posts in chronological order are HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE!

On Day Four of our Smokey Mountain Vacation, we first hiked up to Laurel Falls in the morning, then realizing we still had plenty of time left, we decided to hike the Alum Cave Trail too!  Normally two hiking trails in a day would be too much for me, but because the Laurel Falls Trail was fairly short and easy I was able to do it;  and I was so glad I did because the Alum Cave Trail ended up being my favorite trail in the park.

The Alum Cave Trail has everything:  water, views, bridges, scenic heights, and interesting natural architecture.   Most of the trail you are walking alongside a gorgeous, tranquil river.  You cross multiple pretty bridges;  all of which provide ample spots for great photographs.

The running water of the river provides not only stunning natural beauty, but the sound of the moving water is so soothing as you hike.

This trail is loaded with Rhododendron bushes.  I could not believe how huge they grew in the Smokey's.  Our Rhododendrons in Wisconsin are barely waist high, and that's only if they survive the winter.  I can't even imagine what it would be like to hike this trail when the Rhododendrons were in bloom.  It must be so beautiful.  To give you an example of how big the Rhododendrons in the Smokies get, that is a Rhododendron Bush on my left in the picture below.  I read that the Smokey's is home to nine different species of Rhododendrons.  They bloom anytime between June and August depending on the elevation and the species.

The Alum Cave Trail is 4.4 miles round trip.  It is rated "moderately difficult" because of the elevation gain at the end of the trail,  however, the majority of the trail is a gentle incline and follows along the river.  The elevation gain is 511 feet per mile with a total elevation gain of 1,125 feet.

We took our time going up.  We had the trail almost completely to ourselves because it was a cold day with rain in the forecast.  It was cloudy all the way up, but we did get rained on going down.  I was happy that we took our time going up and stopped and took lots of pictures BEFORE the rain came down.  I dressed in layers:  a tank, tee, coat, and a raincoat so I was never cold.  If I warmed up or cooled down while hiking I removed or added a layer.  Whenever you hike in the mountains you have to be prepared for all weather conditions.  It could be sunny and warm when you start on a mountain trail, but quickly cloud up and turn to rain at the top.

We just could not get over how stunningly beautiful the river was.  We kept stopping to take lots of pictures of videos.  Be sure to check out the videos at the end of the post!  The moving water in a video captures so much more than a photo.

The trail was slick in spots and I was grateful to have my walking sticks so I didn't slip.  

This was a particularly slippery and dangerous spot...just to show you to be prepared if you plan on taking this trail.  The majority of this trail was sand and easy to hike, but the higher you go in elevation, the more treacherous it can get in spots...especially if rains like it did for us.

I loved all the little "waterfalls" along this trail;  they were all so pretty!  And I've never seen so many bridges on one trail before.

The very first interesting natural architecture you come across on this trail is "Arch Rock".  This is a mammoth rock arch with stone steps going right through it.  It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen on a hiking trail before.  Be sure to watch the video at the end of the post about this rock.  It is about 1.4 miles till you reach this point o the trail.

Once you get past Arch Rock you really start seeing the Smokey Mountains.  

Of course, here is where the elevation on the trail really starts getting serious.  It also starts getting slippery because of the steepness of the trail, so be sure to have a walking stick.

The views on this trail were so stunning!  Other than seeing a few mountain ridges on the Laurel Falls Trail, this was the first time I got high enough on a trail to see the Smokeys!  It was so inspiring!  No wonder this point in the trail is called "Inspiration Point".

At Inspiration Point you are at an elevation of 4,700 feet.

But the most exciting part was yet to come for we were almost to Alum Cave.  A series of wooden steps began the last trek of our journey.

And this is Alum Cave.  It's really not a cave, but a massive concave overhang that towers 75 to 80 feet high.  The views here are incredible!  Most hikers stop here to rest before continuing on for the other half of the trail up to Mount LeConte Lodge or the return trip back down.  We did not go up to the lodge for a ten mile hike in one day is too much for us, so we returned back down the trail after exploring the cave area.

It was a good thing we made the decision to return down the trail from this point, for that's when the storm clouds really moved in and it began to rain.  The steep trail got slick really fast.

I was absolutely astounded at how all the moss in the forest greened up and appeared to "come to life" in the rain.

And here I am, soaking wet, happy to finally reach the end of the trail and get out of the rain, but looking very plump because I only have like four layers of clothes on.  😂

And now, as promised, here are the videos.  In the first one we are just reaching the Alum Cave, the second one is Arch Rock, the third one is my husband mocking me as I try to cross one of the many bridges (I think it's so funny when he compares my walk to the "Biden Shuffle"), and the last one is of the gorgeous river on this trail.

 Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!