Petoskey, Michigan

October 8, 2023

Summer was forecasted to return for the next few days, and we were set on enjoying every fleeting minute of it amidst the continuing fall color. Our next destination was Petoskey State Park, set along the shore of Little Traverse Bay in the northwestern part of Michigan's mitten.

Leaving Munising

Driving along the shore of Lake Michigan in the UP

Crossing the Mackinac Bridge 

A random shack along the side of the road made for a nice "still life"

It was sunny and in the low 80s when we arrived at the campground, so we headed a few hundred feet from our campsite down to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. Julie tried to find a Petoskey stone, but she had no luck. There were some hard-core retirees on the beach with scoops and buckets, so maybe she just didn't have the right equipment 😉.

The beach was just steps away from our campsite

Painted rocks left by vacationers

Cute kid humor

Little Traverse Bay

The park has one mile of beachfront

A great day for wading, and in such clear water!

After dinner, we went back for the sunset.

The next day was also fabulously gorgeous--sunny and low 80s once again. We hopped on the bikes and took the Little Traverse Wheelway west to Petoskey. We had planned on going almost to Charlevoix, but a significant portion of the trail was closed down a few years back when a storm collapsed that part of the trail into the bay. So, we just went as far as we could go (21 miles total trip).

A fancy home along the main strip going to Petoskey

The Bear River in Petoskey

One of the several beachfront parks

St. Francis Solanus Indian Mission 

Nice Petoskey neighborhood

The high rent district

The next day was also pretty warm (low-mid 70s), but mostly cloudy. We got back on the bikes to head the opposite direction on the bike trail to the uber quaint town of Harbor Springs (another 21 miles total).

Whew--missed the jet plane!

Harbor Springs had skeletons set up everywhere. These were sewing.

Fun roadside humor

Couldn't quite figure out what this building was for - perhaps more signage would help?

Such cute houses!

We stopped here for a couple of expensive cookies They were good 😊

That's quite the stairway up the hill

We passed a lot of private enclaves politely instructing us to keep out

Julie was mostly impressed with the hydrangeas at this house (the house was nice too)

Rain on the horizon that evening--the end of the nice weather for us here

The rest of the time was spent doing normal life things and taking walks along the beach-forest loop trail right off of our campsite. The temperatures dropped daily, ending with highs in the 40s by Sunday. Mostly it was cloudy, sometimes the sun peaked out, and sometimes it rained. 

Sunrise light shining on the distant trees across the bay

The campground at sunrise

Some good sized waves on Little Traverse Bay

A forest trail that made a loop back to the campground from the beach 

Sort of a Petoskey stone, but definitely not a fully fossilized premium specimen

For reference, these are considered "nice" Petoskey stones (image from the internet)

We had gotten a loaf of what we thought was Rosemary Olive Oil bread from the bakery across the street. Turns out it was Rosemary Olive bread (with chunks of olives). Julie loves olives, Rick not so much. So, it was a serendipitous win for Julie! 😁 Rick admitted that he didn't "hate" the bread, and ended up having several slices, despite the olives.

St. Francis Xavier Church in Petoskey

We (Rick) eventually did find a Petoskey stone (left) --and a Charlevoix stone (right) Now we need to figure out how to polish them so they look nice when not wet!

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