Tuesday, September 17, 2019

St. Ignace, Gateway to Mackinac Island

Our drive for the day was not a long one, we drove south to St. Ignace to camp at Kewadin Casino for a few days. The casino was our base to visit Mackinac Island. We arrived at the casino before checkout time. We found a site without a tag and parked Sol, then we went to  the casino to wait for time to check-in. It was a good thing we arrived early, the sites filled up and so did the parking area!

After eating lunch at the casino, we returned to Sol and got ready to return to use the pool and hot tub. Not bad for a $15 dollar site with 50 amp electric! After a good soak, it was time to plan our adventure for the following day...Mackinac Island.

When we arrived at the ferry to take us to the island, we all decided to sit on the upper deck.
As we got underway, it got a little windy and chilly!
But the views of the island were magnificent! This is Grand Hotel from Mackinac Straits.
And this is Round Island Lighthouse.
Once we docked, there were horses with carriages and wagons everywhere. No motorized vehicles are allowed on the island. Deliveries are made by horse and wagon.
After looking around town and checking out the visitor center, we decided to split up. Larry and Connie took a horse and buggy tour while Bob and I walked the trails and found some geocaches. We planned to meet for lunch at the fort's tea room.

Bob and I took the road to Grand Hotel. No, we didn't take the tour; we will do that next time we visit.
We did get a good look at the grounds. We walked past the pool area and the yard games...croquet and corn hole.
 Then we took the rustic Pontiac Trail along the cliff side.
 These stairs were added several years ago for those who wanted a shortcut to Lakeside Drive.
We took a photo op near the old cottages. They all had well manicured lawns.
Bob and I continued our hiking and geocaching. We stopped in front of skull cave before heading to the fort to meet Larry and Connie for lunch.
We arrived first, so we claimed a table and relaxed after our island hike.
 We had an excellent view from our outdoor table.
 This is a view of the tea room from below...the yellow umbrellas mark where we had our lunch.
After lunch we toured the fort, then split up again until time to catch our ferry back to the mainland. We enjoyed our trip to Mackinac Island and would like to return another time to ride the bike trails and do more hiking around this historic tourist island.














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