Tunnel of Trees and Fall Color Tour

We left Traverse City, and headed north about 100 miles to the Petoskey KOA. 

We’re here for two weeks to participate in an RV Care-A-Vanners Habitat build (more on that later).  It seems to be the rainy season here in Petoskey, but we’ve had a few days here and there when we could get out.

Saturday was pretty nice, so we decided it was a good day for a drive, in search of fall colors.

Our first stop was Harbor Springs.

It’s a cute little tourist town, with upscale shops and a marina.  There was also a Farmer’s Market going on in the center of town.

We enjoyed watching this wood carver working on wooden spoons.

We continued north on M-119, the stretch of road known as the Tunnel of Trees – it’s a narrow, winding road that follows the coast of Lake Michigan, and a beautiful drive at any time of year.

We’re still a little early for “peak color”, at least along the coast where the weather gets moderated by the warm water  (Warm?  Yeah, Lake Michigan warm! )

Still beautiful with the canopy of trees over the road!

We passed a pumpkin farm just a few miles north of Harbor Springs – what a traffic jam – there were hundreds of cars parked all around the farm!  We bypassed that one . . . and continued on to the little village of Good Hart.

There was a small farmers market set up in the space next to the General Store, complete with live music!

Tom warmed up by the campfire while I looked through the crafter’s booths.

There are a couple of cute shops, and the General Store is also a Post Office and Deli.

I wanted to take a chicken pot pie home, but the line was really long and we thought they may have been out of them, since they weren’t listed on the board in the deli.  Back at the RV Park, the neighbors had one, and said it was pretty good.

We continued along the tunnel of trees,

and ended up in Cross Village, home of Legs Inn.  It’s a famous polish restaurant, and it’s been around forever!  Our thought was to have an early dinner there, but a couple hundred other people had the same idea . . . there was a two hour wait!

I don’t like polish food THAT much!!

We took the customary photo in front of the teepee, and moved on.  There’s another restaurant we’ve been wanting to try, Dam Site Inn, but they didn’t open until 5pm.

We decided to run back to the RV, feed Casey and get her out for a walk, and then go to church at 4pm in Pellston, which was just minutes from the Dam Site Inn.

A good plan, and it worked out perfectly – no wait for dinner.  This place was a little fancier than we had anticipated, but with a sense of humor, too . . .

and they really get into Halloween!

We enjoyed a delicious dinner – fried chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, noodles, salad, biscuits (very Frankenmuth-like), and had some leftovers for lunch this week!

We stopped on the way home for a few more fall colors pictures.

Here in the campground, the colors are reaching near peak – lots of change in the week that we’ve been here!

Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes

The are plenty of reasons that bring people to northwest Michigan -- pristine beaches, towering mountains of sand, restaurants, shopping, hiking and biking. 

We’re no different than everyone else in that respect, and we were drawn to the area in late September in hopes of crisp fall temperatures and changing fall colors.

We found a few fall colors, but we’re still a little early for peak color, especially in this coastal area that is insulated by water and reaches peak fall color later.  We found those cool temperatures, though . . . maybe a little crispier than we bargained on!

We were lucky enough to get one more sunny day, which made it feel a little warmer than it was, and spent some more time playing tourist around Sleeping Bear Dunes.

We stopped in the Visitor Center to check out the displays,

including the 4-panel quilt on display in the Art Room.

It’s a beautiful quilt . . . and a LOT of work!

No visit to the area would be complete without a stop in Glen Arbor.  We had lunch at Art’s Tavern and then did a little shopping – and tasting – at the Cherry Republic.  YUM!

From Glen Arbor, we drove south along the coast, to the Historic Village of Glen Haven. 

The original home of D. H. Day, the land was eventually donated to the state to become the first Michigan State Park, and then later turned over to the federal government, when it was designated as a National Lakeshore.

Our first stop was at the Glen Haven Beach, where we marveled at the amazing crystal-clear color of the water.

The rocks gathered at the edge of the water drew me in . . . just knowing there were probably Petoskey stones in there, I couldn’t resist taking off my shoes and walking at the water’s edge, scooping up handfuls of rocks to find one of the familiar spotted stones.  I didn’t search for very long,though, and only found one partially-complete Petoskey stone, which I threw back into the water.

Good thing I did – you’re not supposed to remove stones from the National Park – I should have remembered that!

If it had been warmer, I would have stayed longer at the beach . . . we took a few pics, though, trying to capture the aqua blue color of the water.

The water was a little chilly . . . but not too bad.

When D. H. Day still lived here, he was the first to introduce fruit trees to the area . . . so glad he did – this is a great area for growing apples, and grapes, and cherries, which the Traverse City region is famous for!

The village even had a canning facility.

The canning facility is now a boat museum.  We stopped in for a quick look.

A lighthouse light, and a boat that looks like it has a mustache!

There’s still a little General Store in the village, which wasn’t open, and a Blacksmith Shop, where there were a couple of volunteers forking on projects.

We noted that they weren’t very talkative volunteers (not like Tom!), but the shop was pretty cool.

Continuing on along the lakeshore, we made a quick photo stop at the Dune Climb (it doesn’t really look that tall or steep, does it?),

and then turned into the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.

The first scenic view is looking back at Little Glen Lake (foreground) and Glen Lake in the distance,

and then an overview of the dunes trail . . . from the Dune Climb all the way to Lake Michigan – it’s even further than it looks!

The next stop – Empire Bluffs and the Lake Michigan overlook.

Just look at that sand and water – BEAUTIFUL!

Fair Warning . . .

he wasn’t even THINKING about making that climb!  Even if he survived the trip down, he’d never make it back up!!

The wind was pretty fierce up there, but the view is amazing!

That’s Empire Bluffs in the background, and you can see the tracks from people who made the climb down to the lake.

One more selfie, from the safety of the observation deck . . . we won’t be counted among the 250 people killed each year while taking a selfie!

We finished up the scenic drive and made one more stop on the way back to the RV, in downtown Empire.  The little town hasn’t changed too much since we were here last (the little grocery store closed), and the beach is as beautiful as ever.

Empire Bluffs from the other side.

Some bigger waves down here.

I am just so drawn to this area . . . I’ll take Lake Michigan over any ocean, any day . . . and not just because of the “no sharks” thing!

We had a great day out exploring Sleeping Bear Dunes . . . it never gets old!