Mackinac Island charms visitors

Mackinac Island is located in Lake Huron about 20 minutes east by ferry from Mackinaw City (or from St. Ignace, located on the Upper Peninsula just north of the Mackinac Bridge). 

The town has about 600 year round residents, another two thousand or more summer time workers, and horses (600-800 in the summer and over a hundred in the winter). Over 25 fudge shops are located here; the smell of chocolate greets you repeatedly while walking around town.

People rent or bring bicycles with them, or hire a horse-drawn carriage on arrival to get to and from the Grand Hotel, or ride a continuous loop of horse-drawn carriages to take a 2 hour tour of the island. No vehicles are allowed other than an ambulance or fire truck.

Our carriage tour included a loop along the town center near the docks, then up the hill past the Grand Hotel and golf course and a couple of cemeteries, then across the island to Arch Rock and finally past Fort Mackinac and back down the hill to town.

 

After a late lunch we walked back thru town to look at some shops, and then headed toward the dock and caught a late afternoon ferry back to Mackinaw City. The view on the way out from the jetty included 2 lighthouses located on tiny spits of land that define the harbor. It was a perfect day!