Between St. Ignace and Detour in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Hello, to all my readers, I greatly apologize for my lack of blogging as of late. It is not because we are in Michigan for the summer and there is nothing to do here, since we live in the pretty northern part.

I have been super busy the last few weeks giving the bus a once-over and getting it efficiently organized. Before that, well, we have been decluttering our excess stuff and working on getting life in order, which is really no excuse not to have some fun in the middle, and we have had some.

We went on this trip up to the Narnia Trail, which is north of St. Ignace and a few miles past Hessel. I stopped at the welcome center just past the Mackinac Bridge on the Upper Peninsula side, where I found a plethora of information on the Traverse City Area and surrounding areas, where we spend our summers. There will be lots more adventures to share on my blog.

Now that I have completely rebuilt and reorganized my website, shout out to Martha from the White Birch Lodge for inspiring me to get off my duff or actually it is the opposite. Sit down on my duff and take the time to get my site to its full potential. I am officially off of Etsy; everything is here on my site. I have sections for my future projects like my recipes and videos, and a section for my future journal projects. So, take a gander through my site and see what all is new because there is a lot of new stuff on my site.

Back to the topic at hand, though, the Narnia Trail. Sorry, I squirrel easily. But really, I found this trail in a Facebook post. I am not sure which one, since I have seen a few since we actually went on our adventure.

This Trail is worth the trip. If you live in the Traverse City Area, it is about a 2-hour drive if you don’t stop for popcorn first in Mackinac City. If you are going on vacation in the Upper Peninsula, it is on the way to Detour Island; it is not too far out of the way if you are going to the Sault Ste. Marie, or if you are planning on going to Mackinaw Island, it can definitely be a side adventure for another day.

This trail is just, it is hard to put it in words, awesome is definitely the word for it. So, if you have read some of my posts, we like to hike, that is what we do with our dogs. Finding cool trails is like my all-time favorite thing to do. I actually research this stuff, I know, crazy person. But even my husband and son thought this trail was a step above all the cool trails we have done.

Firstly, I did not know there was volcanic rock in Michigan. I have been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things, and this was a new one for me. And no, it is not like one rock someone brought here, no, no, it is everywhere; you are walking on it, looking at it, and touching it. So, super cool points right there.

Secondly, it mostly follows the shoreline of Lake Huron, so you are never really far away from the water or the pretty views. And since you are walking around a point, the view changes from this cool mine and freighter parking spot to an open view of the big lake.

Thirdly, go on a breezy day because there were a ton of mosquitoes hiding just out of the wind. We went on a windy day and it was almost perfect, with almost no bugs. But you knew they were there as soon as you stepped further into the woods.

Oh, lastly and more importantly, this is a need to know if you have dogs and love to take your dogs on hikes like we do. There are two entrances to this trail: one close to the mine, a big parking area right off the water, not marked because they made a new parking area further down that is marked. We found it after we drove all the way to Detour.

Here is the deal: if you park in the first parking lot with no signs, dogs are allowed. If you go down to the actual preserve, these trails are listed as no dogs allowed. Just a heads up: we saw lots of people with dogs on the trail, just stay on the outside of the preserve, which is where the Narnia Trail with the Lantern is anyway.

Okay Here is a map.

So this is the Narnia Trail. If you have dogs, go west to east; the preserve starts at about the middle of the trail and heads inland where the bugs are. Beware.

This is where we stopped to stay out of the bugs and back tracked to the truck. I hope you enjoyed the photos and that my information helps you get out on this trail and check it out.

Just to be clear, this has been nicknamed the Narnia trail; you won’t find it on AllTrails.com as that. Use what is on the PDF I added to this post. Look it up as “that trail.”

Happy adventuring! See you back here in 2 weeks with my next post. Here is a sneak peek at my next post.

I have found all the cool things with my welcome center research, including a ski hill in Charlevoix. I did not know that was there, and I have lived here a long time. I also finally took some time to check out the mushroom houses. Look forward to my next post.