Living in the state of Michigan is truly a unique experience. It's the only state in the union that is comprised of two separate peninsulas. Nevermind the fact that those two peninsulas are connected by a five mile long suspension bridge that you see in the photo above. Despite being five miles long, the distance between spans is much less than that. In fact, it doesn't even rank in the top 25 list of longest suspension bridges since they use the distance between spans as the measure.
It is one of the oldest though, being built in 1957. I'm pretty sure that puts it in the top ten right below the Golden Gate Bridge (1937) and the George Washington Bridge (1931). You can find them all here on wikipedia.
For many people living in the state, going over the bridge for the first time is almost a right of passage. I've been over this bridge probably close to 50 times in my life if not more and trust me when I tell you, it never gets old. It's just as amazing the 40th time as it was the first time. I'm guessing people who have to travel over it every day for work probably don't feel the same, but most others would agree with me.
Don't believe me? Just ask @jongolson who traveled over it for the first time a couple of years ago in his truck.
There is also a considerable amount of debate in the state of Michigan about what the phrase "heading up North for the weekend" means. For some, anything North of the middle of the lower peninsula is considered "North". For others, you ain't North until you cross the bridge.
A couple of months ago we took a trip to Straits State Park which sits right on the shores of Lake Huron in the town of St. Ignace, MI. It's possible I visited this park as a kid, but this was the first time @mrsbozz and I have ever camped there. We had our nephew in tow as well!
We were meeting up with @diamonddave's wife and son as well who were pulling their own trailer. My friend was staying home due to his medical issues that hadn't yet exploded into the ordeal he is dealing with now. Their daughter had something else going on, so it as just the five of us for the weekend.
The campground entrance is actually in the middle of town, but once you turn off the main road and head into the heart of the park, you kind of forget you are in the middle of St. Ignace. Minus the road noise from US-2 which runs through the town and the traffic over the bridge.
The campground itself is split up into two different sections. There is the part up towards the entrance of the park where we camped. It's a nice area made for larger trailers and it is actually a decent distance away from the waterfront. I'd guess at least half a mile if not more.
The other section of the park sits down by the waterfront and gives views like you see in the opening photo. Unfortunately, the sites down there fill up quite fast and they are very tight space wise, so if you have a larger rig it might be hard to fit into one. In addition to that, the sites right along the shore where you get the best views of the bridge are tent only and have no power, so if you are a rustic camper, you might love this park.
I didn't realize it at the time, but there was a path right near where we were camping that led to this awesome viewing area of the bridge. I've seen people post photos from this spot before, but I never realized exactly where it was.
You can see the vantage point in my second photo above.
So we obviously decided to go on an adventure and check it out for ourselves!
The walk from our campsite to this overlook area actually wasn't that far. Probably only a couple hundred feet. As we stood there and took our photos of the bridge, three things became very apparent to us.
First, we needed to come back later when it was dark out.
Second, if we did come back when it was dark out we needed to bring bug spray because the mosquitoes were horrible!
Third, it became pretty obvious to use that the photos we had seen from this vantage point in the past were taken with professional cameras using a telephoto lens. While the photos from our smartphones turned out nice, they pale in comparison to the shots others have taken from this spot.
Near the viewing platform the path branched off, so of course we had to check out where it led to. We walked through a pretty dense forest for a while before we eventually found ourselves at the end of the trail. It dumped us out down near the other camping section which is at the bottom of a pretty substantial hill. On the way down the path it didn't feel like we were losing that much elevation, but on the way back up the road, it was very apparent!
Throughout the weekend the boys would return to that hill and ride their bikes down it. They installed a speedometer app on their smartphones and tried to see how fast they could get going. I think something like 25 MPH was the record!
As the night started to settle in, we did make our way back down to the viewing area and these were the best shots I could get with my Pixel 8 Pro. I think they turned out pretty decently. Actually, believe it or not, they turned out better with night sight off. With the night mode on it made it look too much like daytime.
We didn't realize it at the time, but we would eventually get a much closer view of the bridge. You have to wait for another post for that though!
Back at the campsite we sat around the campfire and wondered at the massive number of stars in the sky. I continue to be impressed by how well phone cameras can take photos of the night sky these days.
We had only been at Straits State Park for a half day and it was already shaping up to be a pretty amazing weekend!
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