Absolutely beautiful views of Houghton and Hancock. There are several tour choices. We picked the…read moresunset dinner cruise. Food was great. The boat goes down and back so you get the views both ways. Very reasonably priced. We will go again next year.

If you're reading this, you're either in the UP and looking for something to do or thinking of…read moreheading to the UP and.. looking for something to do. Either way, you should be in the UP. Just go. Seriously. And while you're there, Keweenaw Boat Tours is an excellent way to spend a couple hours. The scenery along the Shipping Channel is really interesting, and the captain (Jason) is very engaging and fascinating. He told us a lot of lore of the area as well as bits of his (very fascinating) personal history. The only caveat is: dress warmly. As you approach Lake Superior, wind off the lake can get downright cold. We were warned to dress warmly, which I *really* appreciated. And I also had the presence of mind to bring along a blanket, which really helped.

Nice Beautiful place to stroll…read more The people in period costumes are acting, don't fall for it!!! Lovely walk around the woods and along the water We enjoyed our time here Park rangers were pleasant and helpful

It's a nice and beautiful place. The lake view was wonderful. The fort has a lot of interesting…read morefacts about the fort. The reenactors were great with our kids, had them doing laundry the old fashioned way.

Brooke, our tour guide, was informative and fun. Such a cool, important piece of history to learn…read moreabout in the region. If you're in the UP, get to Quincy Mine and take a tour! Gift shop has lots of neat things, as well.

Such an interesting tour! You get to put on your lighted helmet and walk into the past, deep below…read morethe surface. Hope you read the rest of my review, but first I want to share something that pisses me off! When we go out to eat at a restaurant we tip the waiter for their service... but when I've been in these types of tours I can't believe how many people don't tip! Not even a couple of bucks! The people giving these tours work harder, share more information , and in this case, do it for almost 3 hours. Much longer than the waiter who brings you a cheeseburger... so stop being so cheep... you know who you are! (End of sermon)! Our guide (Cam) was spectacular! She had so many interesting stories and knowledge of a world in a time that is long gone... (thank god!) The days of this type of deep mining by hand or handheld drill are long over with. Not just because it's not profitable, but because it was inhumane! (Well sadly more because it's not profitable ) Many people worked here until they died of lung issues or were deaf from the drills. Be prepared for at least a 2 1/2 hour tour in the depths of a tunnel in a mountain. Don't worry the paths are safe and large enough that it's shouldn't be a problem if you're worried about claustrophobic conditions. It is cold however... it stays around 40 degrees all year. And it is a little muddy so don't wear your good shoes. If you love history, or think seeing a defunct mine would be interesting, I highly recommend this tour. And give your guide a tip for gods sakes!

Very friendly people running this tour. It's a self guided tour, 100 steps down, quarter of a mile…read morefrom shaft #1 and #3 then back to shaft #1. Kids loved it. Bring a sweater, it's cold in the mine.

Super cool place to visit. NPS-affiliated, but privately owned. Watch for the pet skunk!…read more Neat history. Extremely profitable mine from the mid 1840's to the 1860's of my memory is correct. You can go down, just make sure you can climb back up the 100 steps down. Do-able. Not for claustrophobics. Wear a coat down there it will be a steady 45° down there, or visit on a warm day for instant relief!

This is one of the least visited national parks, and it's not because it isn't worth visiting…read more Rather, it's so isolated that it needs a 3-6 hr ferry ride or a 45-60 min sea plane ride. Even then, there's only one hotel to stay in which is usually booked out pretty far in advance, unless you want to camp with potable water sources not the most reliable. Of course, this is by design in order to preserve the beautiful natural wilderness. I visited in the shoulder season in the first week of June, and there weren't that many people, emphasizing the wild solitude. It seems like all the visitors here are respectful of nature since there was not any litter nor any defacing at all. The trails here are primitive and not paved or lined with gravel. You can see so much wildlife here, from tiny amphibians the size of my fingernail to huge moose. The night sky is amazing with so many stars, and I saw the Milky Way due to the high quality of the night sky. It is very humbling. As a note, limited amounts of foraging is allowed. I didn't take anything, but I saw edible mushrooms and fiddleheads, and later in the season there's wild blueberries, strawberries, and thimbleberries. Even though it is early before the first hatch, the mosquitoes here are ferocious!

Isle Royale is a unique GEM in the National Park system. If…read moreyou want a beautiful, unique, and wild place with no tv and limited Wi-Fi Isle Royale is for you. I took the Sea Hunter 3 from Grand Portage, Minnesota. The Grace Point lookout trail from the Windigo Visitor's Center took me about two hours, I'm a 45 year old male in decent shape. The lodge is at the Rock Creek Visitor's Center, from the Windigo Visitor's Center this would be about a 40-50 mile hike, Isle Royale is HUDGE island. There are ferry's and sea planes to Rock Harbor. I would LOVE to come back and spend a couple of nights. Bring heavy duty bug spray and a bug cover for your head and hands. The rangers at the Windigo Visitor's Center are GREAT, the ranger in the picture gave an awesome presentation.

I was quite cautious about being a passenger in such a small plane, but this was the only option…read morethat would work with the itinerary. Yes, it is expensive, but the 45-60 minute flight is much quicker than the 3-6 hr ferry options. Check in was quite smooth. You park in the lot, and give them your car keys (I guess in case they need to move your car? It's also $8/day for parking). Your luggage gets weighed as there's a 45 lb limit per passenger (and no individual bag can weigh more than 45 lb). Thankfully they don't weigh the passengers, instead they just eyeball you and might tell you if you need to sit in a certain seat to balance the plane. The whole process was a breeze. The flight out was very smooth, while the flight back was a bit rough. It was raining pretty hard with a chance of thunderstorms, but as the weather improved, my flight wasn't delayed. There was a screen at the outside of the Rock Harbor visitor center with updates, but you can also ask the NPS ranger who has more detailed information too. The company tries their best to make sure you aren't delayed, including adding extra flights if there's a backlog. If you have the cash, definitely splurge on the seaplane as you get a cool view of the island, and you have the chance to sit in the co-pilot seat too!

DO NOT TAKE THE SEAPLANES!!! I explored the seaplane option as I've heard the waters can be rough…read moreand I wanted to save some time. HUGE MISTAKE. They also have terrible reviews on Google. I submitted my first request to their website on May 7th, they responded May 12th that "On 7/6 the latest available flight is 1pm." even though 1pm isn't an option in the dropdown, so I replied on May 16th that yes okay I'll book that time, again on May 21st, and then May 26th asking what to do. They replied "please resubmit. We discarded your request because you didn't respond from 5/12 to 5/16." ARE YOU KIDDING ME. That is so unhelpful. So I sent a screenshot showing how that isn't an option on the form and what time to select instead when I resubmit, and he replied "It's not in the menu but is one that we provide most days. Let us know if you want it." Like obviously I want it??? I've told you 3 times I want it??? So I resubmitted May 30th with the new incorrect time since both the times I wanted weren't listed, and didn't hear back until June 18th: "The requested flights are sold out." Well in the meantime I had to schedule the rest of my trip so I scheduled the Voyageur II boat from one part of the island to another, which now I cannot take, and because they took so long to reply I'm outside the cancellation window and have to eat the late cancellation costs. I called them and there is nothing they can do. They provided alternative options which is the inverse trip of what I wanted, which would require me to change my vacation dates and I still wouldn't make the boat that I have booked so I would have to eat that cancellation cost either way. They've sabotaged my entire trip that I've spent months meticulously planning out. Now if I want to go I have to rework my entire itinerary with only a week left to plan this, and hope that other routes to the island are available. Either way, I will not get to see the island as much as I had wanted, and I will have to eat the costs of the boat I reserved, all because of Jon and Kirsten at IsleRoyaleSeaplanes. I called the Voyageur company as well to explore alternative options, and they said they are not surprised to hear about my experience, and have seen this happen before. It is very well known that Isle Royale Seaplanes has horrible customer service and cancels on customers outside of weather reasons.

We toured with a party of 11. 8 of is we're together and the other 3 included a young (carried)…read morechild. The 3 and one of our party did the shorter prospector's tour (all walking - no repelling or climbing harness needed). With the large party we were a little over 3.5 hours. Plenty to see and do, but the wait for the rappelling section was a little long (one at a time). Just walking through the mine, seeing the fog, feeling the cool temperatures, and the overlook before the repelling is nice. Plenty of story about the history, mining in general, and features in the mine. That's the prospector's tour and the first part of the miner's tour. Then there's repelling, clipping in to walk down a hill, walking over a shaky bridge, and exiting through the ice cave (temps in the 30s). We had a good time and I recommend it. Don't go overboard dressing warmly. There's a decent amount of activity, especially on the last part of the miner's tour.

Check out the Miner's Tour. This tour is LEGIT…read more This is not a commercialized, santized tour company. No guardrails. No lights inside. No paved trail that everyone has to stay on. There's exposed shafts and pipes sticking out. You crouch through tunnels that are less than 5 feet tall and have sharp rock edges poking down. You are seeing a real mine and how it looked back in the 1800s. I've done some mine tours in Colorado. This one is way, waaay better than those - this is the real deal. Really fun. Use the portapotties before the tour starts. You do not need to bring anything on this tour. You arrive in the gift shop and after checking in, they bring you to get suited up for the rappelling portion. You get a harness, gloves and a hard hat with headlamp. Then the tour group gets on a 6-wheel military bus over some extremely bumpy terrain to the mine entrance. Hold on! The tour is very hands-on and engaging. Our guide Katelyn had a lot of info to share about the mine and its history. Inside, there's lots of old artifacts like old tools recovered from the miner days. You can see the wooden planks from the old miner carts. You'll see how they actually worked using the quarter-crank rod, it looked miserable. You really get a feel for how laborous and dangerous mining is. *** 3 things I'll call out in case you have fears: BATS. Yes, there are bats in this cave. I am not afraid of bats, BUT not a fan. The bats I saw were tiny, maybe the size of a golf ball. They are terrified of people so they cling tight in the rock crevice and hope we don't notice them. None were flying around, but I could hear some chirping in the cathedral room. DARK. The headlamps are good at illuminating, so at one point everyone turns off their headlamps to see how dark it is. I knew it'd be dark, but once in it, it's kind of unsettling how pitch black it is. HEIGHTS. There's 2 places on the rappelling tour where you will be dealing with heights. *** Ok, so rappelling! I'm not athletic, so I wasn't sure how hard this would be for me. They have you practice on the vertical metal barrier fence around the top of the shaft. You get strapped in and do a trial run against the fence before going into the shaft itself. The practice is harder than the real rappelling! The scariest part of the rappelling was actually the first step off the ledge, because it's a vertical drop of 2-3 feet. The guide will go first so you can watch where they put their feet, the first spot to put your foot was a whitish rock. The rest of the way was MUCH easier, because you are at a 45 degree angle so it isn't straight up and down. When I was actually descending, I had to feed the rope with my hand. I was actually really worried about my arm strength not being able to support me, but it really wasn't a problem. Arm strength is not what is needed, the rope is supporting you. You just need to hang on to the rope, no prob. I'd estimate it took 10 min or less for each of us to get down. The bottom of the rappelling section is a steep slope as well. Again, remember that this is the real deal, no guardrails. Wood slat bridge. I missed everything about this bridge when I looked up the different tours online (not sure how since it's prominently featured). If you are afraid of heights at all, the bridge is going to be the scariest part of the tour. It's wobbly, narrow, and about 15? feet across a deep dark gorge that I did not look down into because I didn't want to pysch myself out. There's a rope overhead you secure to, so you are still in the harness for this. I went across pretty smoothly. My husband, who is a foot taller and 100 pounds more, had a more difficult time. I think it was because I'm shorter, I could use the rope to hold myself up since I was under it. My husband was above the rope so it was more difficult for him. Check out pictures online. Or dont. I think if I knew the bridge was a part of the tour, I'd have been more nervous leading up to it. PRO TIP: instead of walking normally across, try doing a shuffle, facing sideways, kind of sliding your feet. This keeps the bridge from rocking from the weight of each step. *** Wear: - Layers: think of a 45 degree day with no wind, so it's chilly. I wore a t-shirt, a fleece, and light jacket, and jeans, and I was fine. My husband wore a long sleeve t-shirt and light jacket. You will be moving so that keeps warm too. - Old shoes with grip: sneakers, hiking boots, trail runners. Everyone on our tour had sneakers on and they were fine. Wear shoes that can get wet or muddy; there are some areas of the trail that are wet. Not wet enough that my shoes let water in, but enough that you would not want to wear white canvas Keds. - Jacket with zippered pockets: if you're bringing your cell phone (for photos, no service obv), you'll definitely want pockets that zip shut on the rappelling part of the tour. The way you sit in the harness, you wouldn't want your phone (or car keys etc) in your pants pockets.

Baraga State Park is a small State Park situated in a perfect area across from Lake Superior that…read moreis between somewhere and nowhere. This isn't a State Park made to stay at for any extended period of time but rather a great stopping point for us on our Circle tour of the biggest lake of all the great lakes. We rolled in on a Friday mid-afternoon and couldn't be more pleased with our one night stay. Yes, the highway is nearby and you do hear the traffic but for our visit, it couldn't have been more perfect. We saw the sunset and the moon on full tilt out on Superior. It was truly a welcoming rest on our journey through the North. From Milwaukee, expect about a 5 or so hour drive. From there you have just about reached as far as you can go before you run out of road. Next stop, Copper Harbor. Our favorite amenity about Baraga was the bathrooms. They were absolutely the cleanest facilities we had use of during our 9-day jaunt. The showers were solid and the water was hot. Baraga was a great start for our camping adventures to come! We would stop through this place anytime!

My wife is not happy tonight as this park sits right alongside the main highway US-41 that runs up…read morethrough Baraga and north toward Copper Harbor. This was a mistake coming here as the road noise is terrible, it sounds like the Indy 500 and it is not conducive for an enjoyable camping experience. We won't camp here again and we will be sure to look into the next camping area we pick as an unhappy wife creates an unhappy life.