The Northern Michigan Circle

Soooooo....Northern Michigan. What is it that leads me there? It is a destitute area. They have tourism...for a few months. They have fruit. They have a lot of water between Michigan, Huron, about 1000 in land lakes and a couple of rivers. It is not particularly perfectly beautiful. The soil is bad, sandy soil. There are some beautiful panoramic lake views but away from the lake... not so much. I guess we come for the people but even the town of Arcadia does not have that much (anything) beauty to offer.

When we were up there for Labor Day we had time to kill. Arcadia is on a little Highway called M-22. It breaks off of 31 down north of Manistee and then goes up on the edge of Lake Michigan to Onekama, Arcadia, Frankfort, Glen Harbor, Leland and Northport and then goes south along Grand Traverse Bay dead south...through Suttons Bay and ending in Traverse City where it finishes into 31 again. Our friends at Wikipedia have this to say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-22_(Michigan_highway)
M-22 has it’s own conservation society and the M-22 logo is showing up on all kinds of hats, shirts and stickers and I have sported more then a few of them. They are raising money in order to preserve certain parts of the unspoiled beauty along the road. There has been some spoilation by things like the Arcadia Bluff’s Golf Course which was carved (butchered) out of the dunes.

I had never driven M-22 it’s full length from Manistee to Traverse City and we had time and it seemed like an adventure so....off we went. As you head north from Arcadia you cruise through Frankfort which is slightly upscale for Northern Michigan but not too much so. A couple trendy restaraunts and artsy stores. It sits on Crystal Lake and Lake Michigan and the Betsie River dumps into Frankfort Bay and Lake Michigan. You head north from there and you hit two little communites of Million dollar homes on Crystal Lake which glints shiny blue through the yards.

You cruise under a canopy of trees and enter The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and you stay there for most of the rest of the way north. It is pretty sweet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Bear_Dunes You pass over the Platte River and thenhead up to Empire which is a sweet little beach town with an average burger bar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire,_Michigan Empire gives way to a pretty rolling drive up to Glen Harbor where you get your first feeling of a little Michigan town that is totally in love with itself. Glen Arbor has the Cherry Republic which is a tourist trap trading on the cherry theme and you can get cherry clothes and cherry salsa and spit cherry pits and well, it bores me to tears. It does have two things which make it a great stop though. One is Arts Pub which has a sweet college and sports theme. http://www.artsglenarbor.com/ and The Cottage Book Shop. Arts has the best hamburgers I have found in northern Michigan. Just the right thickness, juicy and hot. I would of liked to have had a beer but...I had miles to go. The book store just has a nice eclectic selection and also carries a lot of local authors like Jim Harrison who writes nice books that seem to feature northern michigan people. If you are bored you can back track a mile and hit Glen Haven which also has a nice beach and a light house.

Youhead north or actually East from there on the West Harbor Highway and then it takes you eventually to Leland. Leland is the premier Artsy/Fishing/rich people coming to spend the summer place I have seen. The fishing village has a lot of boats and charter fishing and you can head out to North Manitou or South Manitou Island. I will do that sometime. Evidently therer is not much out there anymore. We went to an Art Fair they were having and walked around the wharf and I bought a cigar at a (the) grocery store there. Aside from having an impressive wine selection, the grocery store was....crap. As a tourist destination though the place was top notch. Lake Leelanau is a huge inland lake and it drains over a nice fall which runs under Highway 22. Plenty of outdoor dining and plenty of stuff to walk around and see.

From there you head north to Northport which we had been warned was nothing but proved to be... the Northport of the peninsula. Once again a nice beach. Once again a nice beach and really nice old town. I will need to go check that out some time in more depth too. I was a little sad and wished we could have stayed a little but it was time to head south as this was the northern nexus or our trip.

From there is was just a beautiful trip south down the west arm of the Grand Traverse Bay through Ahgosatown, Omena, Peshawbestown (seriously) and Suttons Bay. You drive almost the whole way south on 22 with the bay out on you left and it ispretty awesome to see. As you get closer and closer to Traverse City the boats get thick and then just as suddenly as you started you hit the intersection with 72 and 31 and you are in downtown Traverse. Time for a Bell’s Oberon at the U and I Lounge.