SUMMER 2022 | GO WEST
Stairway to Heaven Michigan’s western U.P. gateway serves up an amazing collection of outdoor adventures and natural wonders
Copper Peak is North America’s only — and the world’s largest — ski-jumping hill. Visitors can take the long trek to the top to view parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
By Mark Spezia
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Ironwood Chamber of Commerce director Michael Meyer. “This is a great region to savor nature, enjoy slow-down time for relaxation, and discover numerous entertainment and local culture opportunities.” Locals say there’s plenty to do around town and at neighboring locales, including historical attractions highlighting the area’s mining heritage, cozy parks, a thriving art scene, and inviting shopping and dining. Ironwood rates as a fun base camp from which to experience the waterfalls on two rivers as they descend to Lake Superior, pay a visit to North America’s only ski-jumping hill, or enjoy kayaking, Great Lakes beaches, picturesque inland lakes, and hiking and mountain biking on miles of trails with incredible scenic overlooks. Read on for a sampling of western U.P.
experiences most Michiganians don’t yet know about. These suggestions will help make planning your adventurous trek well worth the effort to get there.
GO WATERFALLING
The Black River features five of the Upper Peninsula’s most jaw-dropping waterfalls, as it descends steadily through a canyon-like setting in the final four miles of its journey to Lake Superior. All five can be reached from four parking lots along the Black River Scenic Byway, which runs for about 11 miles from Bessemer north to Lake Superior. • Great Conglomerate Falls, about a 3/4mile hike from the parking lot, divides the river into two sections around a huge chunk of conglomerate rock before dropping 40 feet. Old-growth hemlock and hardwoods
PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAVEL IRONWOOD
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ight exploring Ironwood, the state’s westernmost city, near the northern border with Wisconsin, be on your discover Pure Michigan bucket list? It’s a surprisingly long haul from the lower mitten to the distant end of the Upper Peninsula, clocking in at more than nine hours from Detroit — or about 40 minutes less than driving the roughly 640-plus miles to New York City. The destination of about 5,000 residents is a mere 8.5 hours and 546 miles from Grand Rapids. As the Upper Peninsula’s western gateway, it’s far from almost everywhere else in Michigan. But it’s “the perfect jumping-off point from which to sample all the natural wonders that make the U.P. such an amazing place,” says MICHIGAN BLUE
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