Tag: road trip

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Overlanding Travel

Road Trip through the Western Upper Peninsula

The first time we went to Michigan’s upper peninsula we saw pictured rocks and Tahquamenon falls and that was about it. So this time we decided to go further and see more of the western part of the peninsula. This was our first trip with our home built teardrop trailer- check out our post for lessons learned about the teardrop on this trip. Our intent going forward with our teardrop is to do more dispersed camping away from crowded campgrounds. But since this was our first trip out we did stay at campgrounds each night just in case something went wrong with the trailer. To reserve your campsite at any Michigan park go to this website: https://www.midnrreservations.com


We headed north after work and made our first stop at Wilderness State Park just south of the Mackinac bridge. We got there after dark and departed in the morning so we didn’t spend much time here. The facilities were nice and we did have a spot close to the water which was nice. It is a standard campground so spots are pretty close together. There is a dark sky viewing area in the park. We enjoyed a great night sky view even just from the campground area. 

The next day we crossed the Mackinac Bridge and into the upper peninsula. Our first stop on this road trip was Presque Isle Park in Marquette which was still a few hours drive away. We got to Presque Isle in the afternoon and enjoyed the short hike around the park. The hike isn’t that long but does offer some great views of the lake and the rocky cliffs as you go along. It was a worthwhile stop if you are driving through the Marquette area. While we did enjoy the hike and the views we did think that there would be more to this park. The hike around the park is really the highlight so if you aren’t passing through the area it probably isn’t worth a drive out of your way. 


That night we stayed at Baraga State Park. We picked a spot in the row closest to the water when we looked online. What we didn’t realize is that the park is just off a very busy road so all night we heard lots of cars (and logging trucks) going by. Other than that the camp spot itself was a bit more spaced out than at Wilderness state park and the showers were nice. Overall this was not our favorite park to camp in. 


The reason we decided to stay at Baraga State park is that it was on our way to the Porcupine Mountains and it is close to the Canyon falls hike we wanted to do. The next morning we headed from Baraga to Canyon falls (only about a 15-minute drive). This hike is beautiful! You wouldn’t know it just by driving by. It is literally a roadside park. There are vault toilets and some tables for people to pull off the road for a break. But beyond that, you will start this hike along the river. It will take you to Canyon falls and then there will be a sign that says the path ends. But the hike isn’t over! The hike continues and gets way better as you follow the river into the actual canyon. Look for the blue markings on the trees and that will lead you up a hill where you can then continue the hike. You will follow the river as it flows through a small canyon and will see several smaller falls and beautiful spots along the way. We highly recommend this hike! 

Porcupine Mountains

After Canyon Falls we drove west to the Porcupine Mountains. Here we stayed at one of their more rustic camping spots. If you prefer you can camp at a site with showers and real bathrooms. We stayed at the white pine extension outpost. We had a vault toilet available near our site, no other bathroom facilities nearby. Our site had a picnic table and a fire pit. There are less than 10 sites in this outpost and all are fairly spread out.


Our outpost camping site was very buggy so definitely bring bug spray, a mosquito net, or some kind of protection for when you are hanging out at camp. It was nice to switch it up and stay in a less crowded area of the park. We also got to test out our propane heated shower and pop up shower room- check out our post, linked above on lessons learned from this trip for more on the shower set up. 

The day we arrived in the Porcupine Mountains it was beautiful and sunny but the next day it rained all day. The highlight of the park is definitely seeing Lake of the Clouds- so do that when you have a sunny day! We went on our second day in the park in the rain and wind. The views were still great but it would have been much more enjoyable had the weather cooperated. We also hiked along the Presque Isle River. That was a beautiful area that led out to a small rocky beach. There are a lot of hiking trails here but really that is the main attraction in the park. The rain did put a damper on our time here but unless you are an avid hiker who wants to do multiple long hikes all over the park, you can probably see the highlights in one day. Maybe a day and a half, one to two nights in the park would be ideal. 

The Bill Nichols Trail

We left the Porcupine Mountains and drove up the Keweenaw peninsula in the morning. That got us to Copper Harbor around lunchtime. We took the Bill Nichols trail for part of the drive and then got back onto the main road. On the trail, you cross over several old railroad bridges. Just a side note, we have read that there are some old railroad spikes that have been known to puncture tires (we didn’t have issues). The portion of it that we drove was mostly like a dirt road, with no huge bumps or obstacles to get through. We had no trouble driving it with the trailer.

Looking back, we would have loved to spend more time in the Copper Harbor area! We stayed at Fort Wilkins State Park in the west end campground as the eastern side was closed this year. The park sits along Lake Fanny Hooe. We got a great sunset on the lake in the evening. Again the showers and facilities were very nice. The spaces are fairly close together here. We dropped our trailer off, made lunch, and headed out to explore the area. We had a few great stops that we would highly recommend! 


Brockway Mountain Drive

This drive is about 9 miles long. The views along the way are awesome! There are several pull-outs so that you can stop and take photos. We also saw a TON of mountain bikers. There are trails all over and of varying degrees of difficulty. We are not mountain bikers so cannot speak to that experience. What we can say is that it appears to be the thing to do here! 


Estivant Pines:

These pines are over 500 years old. There are a couple of short hiking trails you can take that loop around the park. It was a nice hike and some of the pines were very large. Worth it to stop if you have time but it wasn’t our favorite hike we took on this trip. 


Hunter’s Point Park South/North Beach Trail Hikes:

This hike was one of our favorites! We are certainly drawn to the water and this hike is along the lakeshore so that is our own personal bias! This is a short hike out the point where this small strip of land ends, forming the calmer waters of the harbor. It was a very windy, wavy day when we visited. It was amazing to see how much of a difference this small area of land makes in calming the waves and protecting the boats in the harbor. The north trail follows lake superior and the south trail follows the calmer side of the water in the harbor.


Off-road driving/hiking to HorseShoe Harbor:

Another one of our favorite spots in Copper Harbor. Just shortly past Fort Wilkins State Park, the pavement ends. You then end up on a seasonal, dirt road that gets narrower, becoming more of a two-track as you drive back. We turned left about a mile after the pavement ended. About another mile or two into the drive there is a small parking lot and you can park and walk out to the beach. The hike to the beach is very short and worth it for sure! There is a very large beach area. Along one end there are very large rocks that come out into the water. They are not easy to climb up but if you can get up on top of the rocks definitely do! It was a very windy, wavey day when we were there so we really enjoyed watching the waves crash from the top of these rocks! We did follow the road/two-track past the beach walk parking lot but it quickly became much narrower and difficult to drive. We ended up having to back up and turn around because we came to a pretty steep and uneven hill that we weren’t sure our truck could manage. If you have a real off-road vehicle this would be a great place to explore!


We had only one day in Copper Harbor before we had to start our long drive back home! We did alot in our day but as we said this was an area we would have loved to have more time to explore!  


Tell us your favorite UP destinations, what did we miss? Where should we go next time? 

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Overlanding Travel

Colorado Road Trip: Maroon Bells to Gunnison

In all of our travels together, Erika has never been to the Rocky Mountains. It’s about an 18-hour drive from where we live in Grand Rapids to Denver. After getting two smaller trips with the trailer under our belt, we felt we had most of the kinks worked out for a longer trip. We decided on Colorado since we have some good friends there and it’s a manageable drive with the trailer. In total, we had about 5.5 days in Colorado, plus two days of driving. We started at our friend’s house in Denver and headed out, into the mountains from there. 

We found this itinerary to be very manageable with the time frame we had. From Denver, our first stop was Maroon Bells near Aspen. After that, we headed about 3-3.5 hours to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. From there we went to Salida which was about a 2-hour drive. Our last stop was in Colorado Springs. We really enjoyed our time in each of these locations.


Maroon Bells:

We were lucky enough that our friends had booked a campsite at Maroon Bells well in advance. You can start booking these campsites 6 months ahead of time, and we have been told you need to book early to get one! The sites are fairly small but we did fit our teardrop and truck and our friends SUV with a rooftop tent. There are plenty of trees in between the sites so you do get a good amount of privacy. From Aspen, there is one road into these campsites at Maroon Bells. During spring/summer and into early fall ( we were there in September) you do need a camping reservation to drive that road between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm. If you do not have a reservation you can take a bus from Aspen. Check out this website for more information: https://www.aspensnowmass.com/inside-aspen-snowmass/stories/maroon-bells-101-all-you-need-to-know


The greatest part about camping here was getting up and heading to see the sunrise hit the famous mountain peaks. This is a must-do! Definitely get to the parking area early as it does fill up (early in the morning you can without a camping reservation). After sunrise, we hiked from the viewpoint to the base of the actual Maroon Bells mountain. We did an out and back hike of about 3 miles, but there are multiple trail options if you’re more ambitious. The views along the way are awesome! 


Other than that our time at Maroon Bells was spent just relaxing and hanging out with our friends at the campsite. We did have one bit of excitement when a black bear walked right through the camping area. There are bear boxes at each site to keep food locked up so do use those as you never know what you might encounter! 


One last note on Aspen/Maroon Bells. It was recommended by our friends that we take Independence Pass to get into Aspen from Denver vs going around the mountains. This road isn’t always open and you do need to make sure your total length (for us meaning the truck and trailer) is less than 35 ft. We measured ahead of time, with our trailer we are 32 ft and we had no trouble driving this pass.

The road does have several switch-backs, some without guardrails and some are pretty narrow. There were lots of signs warning vehicles beyond that length to turn back, there was nobody enforcing this rule but it would definitely be a bit sketchy to drive if you were over 35 ft. The road is beautiful, it winds up the mountains to the peak which is at 12,000.  There is a parking lot you can park and take in the views at the top, we did not since we were following our friends to the campsite but we would have loved to stop and take it all in!


Gunnison:

From Maroon Bells, we headed to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We got there about 2:30-3 pm and were told there were still campsites open but when we drove through we couldn’t find one. The sites are mostly set up for you to parallel park along the outside and then set your tent up in the spot. For us with our teardrop trailer, the spots wouldn’t have worked well. They are also very, very close together so there is not much privacy. We would say that it is not worth it to camp in the park. The cost is $16 a night for no electric hook up, $22 a night with electric hook up.

There is a large area of BLM land approx 1 mile from the park entrance with a lot of spots available. The BLM land is well marked and easy to find. The spots are fairly spread out and the area is forested enough to offer privacy from others in nearby spots. We really enjoyed this camping area and would highly recommend it! And it is free!


While you are in the park we would recommend driving along the rim and stopping off at the various viewpoints. Most of these are only a short walk from the road and you can easily stop at them all within one day. All the views are beautiful! There are several trails in the park, our favorite was the rimrock trail which follows the rim and offers spectacular views along the way!

Our other favorite activities were driving down the east portal road to the base on the canyon. There is a length maximum of 22 feet to go down the East Portal due to the steep switchbacks. Once you are down there, you can walk along the river. If your plan is to do some hiking and just take in the views in the park as we did then you really only need one full (busy) day, maybe a day and a half here to get a good experience. We stayed at the BLM camping area for two nights. The first evening we just set up camp and then drove down the east portal road and explored a bit. Then the following day we got up and really explored the entire park. 


Salida and Collegiate Peaks:


Our next stop was the town of Salida near the Collegiate Peaks. We found another great BML spot to camp. The road was pretty bumping getting to this area but the views were amazing! We had full 360* views of the mountains from our site! After dropping off our trailer we headed into downtown Salida for some lunch. We ate at Amicas pizza and brewery. We really enjoyed the food and beer.

From lunch, we decided to drive up into one of the mountains nearby. From highway 285 we took Chalk Creek Drive, which led us right past the chalk cliffs and past some really pretty views. There is an alpine lake which we did drive past but it is, unfortunately, private property. We enjoyed the views of the lake while driving past but couldn’t get out and walk around the lake as we hoped. 


The next morning we began our drive back to Michigan. We did stop at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and did a little bit of driving/walking around that park before leaving Colorado. We would have loved to spend more time at the Garden of the Gods hiking around the rocks. It is really a beautiful park! 


To find all our free campsites we used the Dyrt app and Gia GPS. We found both to be accurate in regards to the location of the BLM land. The Dyrt also has reviews from users on the camping areas to help you decide which sites you want to stay at. We loved this road trip and can’t wait to get back to Colorado to do some more exploring!

For more on what we learned from our first travels in our DIY teardrop trailer check out our post here: Teardrop Trailer Shakedown trip: What we Learned


Tell us your favorite areas in Colorado! What did we miss and where should we go next time?

Categories
Travel

Kentucky: Bourbon Trail and Churchill Downs

We love bourbon! So we decided a trip to Kentucky to explore the bourbon trail was a must-do! We chose to stay in-between Louisville and Lexington because we planned to go to several distilleries and the ones we were most interested in were not all condensed to one small area.  There are several distilleries in the Louisville area and Lexington area so you do not have to drive around nearly as much as we did. There is also an Urban Bourbon Trail in downtown Louisville if you wanted to stay within the city.  The driving between Louisville and Lexington is beautiful, you will drive through rural farmlands with rolling hills and will see lots of horses.  From where we live in Michigan, it was only a six-hour drive down to this area so it made sense to do this as a long weekend road trip.

We drove down Friday night and stopped in Louisville at the restaurant called Game for dinner. This a burger restaurant that specializes in serving different game meats. You can get venison, elk, and even kangaroo. The place is pretty small and was busy but it was worth the wait. The burgers were great and we always enjoy getting to try something we’ve never had before. A burger is a nice way to introduce a game meet if you are not familiar with it or hesitant about it.

Saturday we started our Bourbon tour. We started with Maker’s Mark since they were the furthest away from the others. From there we headed to 4 Roses, then to Woodford where we had a reservation ahead of time. Finally, we went to Buffalo Trace, where we didn’t have a reservation and didn’t get a tour, just a tasting. From there we did dinner and then headed back to our Air B & B for the night.

Maker’s Mark: This was definitely the best tour that we went on. They are well organized and well set up for tours. We did not have a reservation ahead of time which was another reason why we chose to go there first thing and try to get on the first tour of the day since it does get busy.  You can book your tour ahead of time on their website to ensure your spot. The general tour lasts about one hour and ends with a tasting. Tours start at 9:30 AM Monday-Saturday, the last tour of the day is at 3:30 PM Sunday they open at 11:30 AM. Here is their website for more information https://www.makersmark.com/tours  The tour takes you through the distillery and all the buildings where the barrels are stored. They even let us taste the mash that was fermenting.  You end with a tasting and from there are brought to the store. All the bottles in the store do not have the red wax on the top. Any bottle you chose to buy you can dip yourself with instruction from the workers which is a fun experience. The buildings themselves are beautiful as are the grounds that surround the distillery. We would highly recommend visiting if you are in the area!

4 Roses: Our next stop was 4 Roses which has a different type of architecture from the other distilleries in the area. Their buildings are in a more Spanish style. When we arrived the next tour which was going to start in the next few minutes was full. But there was a tasting also about to start. We chose to just do the tasting vs waiting for the next tour. You can make a reservation here as well to reserve your spot ahead of time. Tours start on the hour, every hour with the last tour leaving at 3 PM. Check out their website for more details https://fourrosesbourbon.com/ The tasting we did was set up outside under a large gazebo. We got a brief overview of the distillery’s history followed by a sampling of three of their bourbons. All of them were very good. We ended up buying the small-batch which we thought was very good for the price.
Woodford: Our third stop was Woodford where we did purchase tickets ahead of time and would strongly recommend this as they do get really busy.  Tours are offered Monday-Saturday 10 AM-3 PM, Sundays they open at 1 PM. Check out their website for more details https://www.woodfordreserve.com/distillery/tours/
The drive into this distillery is beautiful! This is one of the oldest distilleries in the area. You drive through several ranches with fields on either side of the road full of horses grazing. When we arrived at the distillery it was very crowded. When you enter there is a large waiting room full of couches and a fireplace. There is also a small café where you can purchase sandwiches and snacks while you are waiting for your tour to begin. The tour again goes through the entire distillery, barrel aging buildings, and ends with a tasting. You get to sample the standard Woodford Reserve and then you try the double oak. They also give you chocolates with your tasting. We loved the double oak and ended up leaving with a bottle. It is definitely one of our favorites!

Buffalo Trace: When we arrived all the tours for the day were full so we did just a tasting. Tours are available Monday-Saturday 9:30 AM- 4 PM and Sundays 12-3 PM. The standard tour you don’t need a reservation for but they do tend to fill up so we would recommend getting there early. They do offer other tours as well which you can reserve online at their website. https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/visit-us/our-tours We did get to walk around the grounds of the distillery while waiting for our tasting. We just didn’t get to go inside all the buildings since we were not on an actual tour. The biggest complaint we had about the tasting here is that we have had all of the bourbons that were included in the tasting. We were hoping to try some of the bottles they make which are not readily found at any grocery or liquor store. We did get to try their white mash and their vodka which we hadn’t had before. The Bourbons we tasted were the standard Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare. We don’t really care for vodka so for us we were really hoping to try some new bourbons. The grounds of the distillery are really pretty, there are some old buildings nearby that are not part of the distillery. If you are there for a tasting or tour take some time to walk around the area as well before you leave.

After our Bourbon tours, we headed to the Old Bourbon Kitchen (OBC) near Lexington for dinner. This place was awesome! They had an extensive bourbon list to chose from. They offered flights so you can try multiple Bourbons. We really enjoyed their Barreled Old Fashioned. We had an ahi tuna appetizer then we enjoyed shrimp and grits and fried chicken for our main courses. All of the dishes were great.

Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum: Sunday we decided to see some horse racing at Churchill Downs. Tickets for a covered seat were extremely affordable, $10 a ticket as it wasn’t the Derby or another important race. Races started at 1 pm and went all afternoon with races starting every 30 minutes. We arrived early so we could walk around and see the museum. A separate entrance fee is required to see the museum. We paid for the museum entrance and a tour of the grounds. On the tour, we saw the paddock- the area where the horses line up in preparation for the race. We also got to hear some additional history and facts about the derby and got to watch the first race from right at the gate without any other visitors blocking our view. The museum is very well done and definitely worth a visit. You can get through the museum in about 45 minutes to an hour and the tour is about 30 minutes long.  After the museum and tour, we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the races. It was not very busy the day we were there so we could move around to different seats to get a better view of the races. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon in Kentucky. We decided not to do any actual betting but instead spent our money on lunch and Mint Juleps.

After our afternoon at Churchill downs, we went back to downtown Louisville for some appetizers and drinks. We would recommend The Bristol for a drink and their green chili wontons appetizer. We also really enjoyed Proof on Main which was right down the street. We got a Bourbon flight here to try even more Bourbons. There is a lot of cool art throughout the restaurant to take a look at while you’re enjoying your drinks and some food. We shared a few more appetizers here before heading back to relax at our Air B & B. We stayed at a farmhouse in between Louisville and Lexington and it was one of the best Air B & B experiences we have had! Air B & B has a lot of great options in both Louisville and Lexington and the surrounding areas. Whether you plan to focus your time in one of these two cities or drive around as we did you will not be disappointed! If you are anything like us you will also leave with an even greater love of all things Bourbon!
Leave a comment below and tell us your favorite stops along the Bourbon Trail! or just tell us your favorite Bourbons!