Ah, winter in the Upper Peninsula, I love it. Twenty-one days into December and it has been the winteriest December I recall in recent memory. It’s almost on par with this past February, where places like Twin Lakes has already had nearly ten feet of snowfall.
Last year we chased the latest sunset in the Eastern Timezone which inspired us to look at how our long, late summer evenings in the Upper Peninsula comprae to other places in the country.
As part of our mission at U.P. Supply Co. we hope to instill a sense of pride and wonderment in our natural surroundings, and especially the Great Lakes. They’re breathtakingly enormoous and beautiful, and you know this. They’re also very important to protect. It’s that we want to show off just how big the Great Lakes are (ok, that’s definitely part of it), but we want to show these comparrions so that we don’t take these lakes for granted.
Ah, summer in the Upper Peninsula, I love it. Visitors from all over the country people the downtown, the food trucks are a lot easier to find (thanks, Dia De Los Tacos), and the days seem to last forever. Neighborhood kids come home during the summer when the street lights start to glow and that could be close to 10 pm. It may sound late, but most Yooper moms are remiss to end a street game of Bloody Murder tag in a place where the weather is so unpredictable – and murders are relatively few.
The Upper Peninsula is full of unique roadways offering scenic views. Some sections are straight as an arrow (lookin’ at you Seney Stretch), one is the longest state highway in Michigan, another is the only state highway in the United States not to allow cars (I’m sure you can guess which). It’s also said that Copper Harbor is the furthest place you can live from an Interstate in the continental United States, a distance of 251 miles from I-39 in Wisconsin. If you’re new to the Upper Peninsula, don’t be fooled, these are not multi-lane divided highways, most are entirely small, two-lane highways.
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a vast region. By the way, did you know that the Upper Peninsula is wider than the Lower Peninsula is tall?
I love exploring Google Maps and finding aerial views of my favorite places in the Upper Peninsula as well as the rest of the world. Here are my top findings from the Upper Peninsula. If you would like to add any more just leave a comment. Click the photo to open the map in a new window for a higher resolution image and to explore that area.
