Road Trip To The West; Part X; Driving East On U.S. Route 2; The End Of My Adventure; Home Again!

We saw this building with its "unique" hand-painted sign on our way to Hancock, Michigan.
Evidently some people in Michigan's Upper Peninsula have a keen sense of humor!
(click any image to enlarge)

This post is a continuation of my 2024 road trip out to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks primarily to photograph grizzly bears and other large mammals.  However, along the way out and back, I planned my adventure to be able to stop at various places and photograph.  You can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VI here, Part VII here, Part VIII here, Part IX here and a post about what gear I took and why here.

We left Duluth, Minnesota after spending part of a wonderful day exploring the waterfront and its attractions.  The weather was absolutely perfect in every way, as far as I was concerned.  What a beautiful day!

We next drove through the little upper corner of Wisconsin, which had the least expensive gasoline of the entire trip, then on to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Our destination was Ontonagon, Michigan, a very small, town on the shores of Lake Michigan.  Like many small towns in America, Ontonagon is struggling with closing businesses and young people moving away.

You might wonder why we chose Ontonagon.  Well, my lifelong friend and traveling companion for this portion of the trip's wife is from that small town.  He had visited it and the surrounding area many times and had all good things to say about it.  So, to Ontonagon it was!

We stayed for three nights in Miller's Cottages.  If you like a bit of rustic (but not too rustic), warm and welcoming husband and wife hosts (The Millers) and a base out of which to visit the area, I can recommend Miller's Cottages.  I found our cabin charming replete with a wood stove and a nice porch on which to sit in the evenings.  Good stay.

Just a few comments about Ontonagon.  I found the people absolutely some of the nicest and friendliest people that I've met anywhere I've traveled in the United States.  We met several people in Syl's Cafe, 'the' place to eat in what's left of downtown Ontonagon.  The food was excellent and the wait staff, especially Payton D., was friendly, funny, attentive and had a million dollar personality.  Having wait staff like Payton makes you want to go back and eat again.  Thanks for the great conversation and laughs, Payton!

On one of the three days in the UP, we drove north to Hancock to visit the now defunct Quincy Copper Mine #2.  I won't go into the history of the mine.  You can find more about it here if you are interested.  We found it fascinating and ended up spending several hours exploring the buildings, talking to staff and taking a tour which included walking about 2000 ft. into the mine.

The old Quincy Copper Mine #2 is now defunct.  It is a fascinating place and if you like this sort
of thing, I would encourage you to visit if you are in the far western part of Michigan's Upper
Peninsula (Hancock, Michigan)

We took a group tour and walked 2000 ft. into a horizontal shaft in the mine.

This is a depiction of the mine shaft.  It is 9260 ft. long and descends 6225 ft. below the surface.
Notice the shaft is not 90 degrees vertically but was dug at an angle of 54 degrees.  That is because
that is the angle of the layer of the copper layer in this volcanic rock.

Copper from the rock in the mine.  I don't remember if this has been partially refined as I would 
think natural copper in rock would be greenish.  In either case, it is interesting to see copper in rock.

After three days, we left Ontonagon and drove to Marquette where we had some local delicious ice cream and bought some frozen pasties from Lawry's Pastie Shop.  If you don't know what a pastie is, here is the Wikipedia story about English Pasties.  But they are essentially the same.  My buddy wanted to take them home to eat in the future.  I had never had a pastie, tried it and wished I would have bought some to take home as well.  Delicious!  I'm told that locals eat pasties with ketchup.  Visitors sometimes order gravy with theirs.  If you order gravy, be prepared for some looks from the locals!  Lol.

Lake Superior.  Gee, it looks like a million other bodies of water but it is huge.  It is 350 miles
(563 km) long and 160 miles (258 km) wide.  It has a maximum depth of 1332 ft. (406 m).  I had
not seen Lake Superior before this trip.  I had seen and felt all of the other Great Lakes, however,
So, I had to put my hand in it just to say I did!  It did feel a bit different, sort of like Dihydrogen
Monoxide.  Strange.  

We then drove to my friend's home in southern Michigan where I spent the night.  The next morning I left and drove to Bedford, Pennsylvania, which is about halfway between my friend's home and mine.  I didn't want to drive the 12 hours nor the almost 800 miles in one day.  If I don't have to drive those kinds of miles, I don't.  

On my last day, I drove from Bedford to my home in southeastern Virginia, where I was welcomed with open arms by my lovely and talented wife of over 49 years!  

As much as I love to travel, it is always good to be home.  Interestingly enough, after a trip such as this, about three days after I returned home, I was ready to travel again.  I just love exploring, meeting new people, finding unexpected interesting things and just being out on the road wandering and photographing.

In my next post, I'll have a wrap up about my gear, how well it served me and what I would do or not do differently, anything I would change about the trip, etc.  One comment I will make is that the weather was fabulous for almost the entire trip.  The temperatures were moderate, the humidity was low even in the Midwest and upper Midwest and the sun shone almost all of the time.  There were a few storms and some heavily overcast days but you need those to better enjoy the sunny ones!

More next post.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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