EP 13: Our Favorite Upper Peninsula Spots for Summer Family Travel

In this solo episode, I'm sharing my family’s favorite destinations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — from forest hikes and cold lake dips to waterfalls, magical trolls, and glass-bottom springs. I'm recapping our RV adventures, favorite campgrounds, and tips for exploring the UP with kids. Whether you’re dreaming of an epic family road trip or just want to know where to start, this episode is packed with relatable stories and practical ideas to inspire your next outdoor adventure.

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Transcript

Julianne Nienberg (00:00)

At the time this episode drops, we are deep into summer 2025. This past week, I, along with a fellow mom, put on a three day nature camp at my kid's school. My kids had swim practices all week. We had two away swim meets and a heat wave that would not break. I'm talking 90 degree weather and all the sports moms know and they feel me when I say I was sweating my brains out this week. I was sweating from places I didn't even know were possible.

We celebrated a friend's 40th birthday and we also celebrated my daughter's eighth birthday. Eight, I can hardly believe it. On her birthday, I had so many moments of looking into her eyes and seeing the big girl that she is and that she's becoming. But then my brain and my heart were just flooded with all the memories of her as a baby, her as a toddler, and oh, time. It's such a gift.

Parenting is a privilege. So naturally, I was all up in my feels this weekend. But as I look to the week and the fun ahead, I'm packing up for one of our favorite summer traditions, and it's a trip to the Upper Peninsula. And I figured it was the perfect time to take you on a virtual tour of some of our favorite UP spots, especially if you're dreaming of a family road trip this summer or next summer or planning your first UP adventure.

So here's the thing. If you're not from Michigan, you might not realize that the UP is practically its own universe. the Upper Peninsula, or as us Michiganders like to call it, the UP for short, is this wild, forested land.

tucked between three great lakes, Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron. It's 16,000 square miles of old growth forests, waterfalls, sandy lake shores, and tiny towns that feel like time has frozen in the best way possible. One interesting fact is 84 % of the UP is forested. Yes, 84%, which means you're more likely to see a bald eagle or a bear than a stoplight.

It's peaceful, it's rugged, and as an adult and as a mom, it's become one of my favorite places where I can exhale, take in, and rest in God's creation. we've always driven up either from Southeast Michigan or when we lived in Chicago, we would drive up through Wisconsin to the Western UP. It is a trek, but pack your snacks, pack your road trip entertainment, and enjoy the ride.

If you've got kids, I cannot recommend RV travel enough. We rented our first RV through Outdoorsy in 2022 and fell in love with it. Ever since then, every year my kids ask, when are we gonna go on the RV? So if you're like us and wanna experience RV life without owning an RV, I'll drop my affiliate link in the show notes. We've always rented from RV owners near us and we've even had an RV delivered to our home.

to remove an extra step in our travel day, and it's become a form of travel that our family loves.

So let's start with one of our absolute favorite spots, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, affectionately called the Porkies. This place is Michigan's last frontier. It is located in the western UP,

the Porkies is Lake of the Clouds.

It is one of the most photographed views in the entire state because it's breathtaking. You get up there and you don't even realize that you're in Michigan.

It's got these Blue Ridge Mountain vibes, but there's a lake tucked between all of the forest. We've hiked to the Overlook, which is a pretty easy hike.

It's about half a mile, and you've got amazing panoramic views. And it's a place that we have taken family pictures over the years, and it's always so fun to see how much our kids have grown, how our family has changed over the years, in front of this beautiful backdrop.

When it comes to where to stay inside of the Porkies, we've always camped. We've camped at Union Bay Campground. It has an amazing playground for kids and access to Lake Superior. We've also camped at Presque Isle Campground, which is a beautiful campground located along Lake Superior as well, but it is rustic. So Union Bay has modern amenities, including a bathroom, showers, electricity hookups.

but Presque Isle is totally off the grid. No electricity, no hookups, no bathrooms. So you've been warned.

We've also stayed at Union River Big Bear Campground, which is right outside the park. this campground was a great location because right across the road and the road is pretty quiet is Lake Superior

We've spent many afternoons at that beach swimming, rock collecting, and just hanging out as a family. One thing I will say, we've always gone up to the UP in August, which I think is the best time to go because the days are hot. and the lakes are still pretty brisk, which makes it a really nice and refreshing dip. Some people might say it's a little too chilly for them.

My kids love swimming in the lakes,

it's the best natural cold plunge you'll ever have.

could spend an entire week in the Porcupine Mountains and still not have enough time to see everything that

It's a huge park. There's so much to see, so many trails to hike.

so many views, so many overlooks,

we just keep going back year after year and exploring new things and also going back to some of our favorite stops. I also love that when we go there, we stay at campgrounds, which my kids have a blast at. There is nothing better for kids than a campground because when they're a certain age, they can get on their bikes and bike around the campground. They make new friends, they meet friends.

at the playground, they meet friends down by the water. Of course, we're always with them when they're by the

My daughter would wake up early and the first thing she'd do is hop on her bike, do her loop around the campground, come back and tell us everything that was happening on the campground and who was awake and what everybody was doing, and then she'd go to the playground with her brothers and they'd make new friends and tell us all about the friends that they've made.

I love a campground personally. know it's not everybody's jam, but we love a campground. Next up is Taquamonon Falls. Yes, that's how you pronounce it. Taquamonon Falls. It's basically the Niagara of the Midwest and it's located in the upper northeast corner of the Upper Peninsula.

The upper falls of Taquamonon span 200 feet and drop nearly 50 feet. And it is a sight to behold. You truly have to experience it in order to believe it. The water is this coppery brown from the

And its nickname is Root Beer Falls. And there's trails, overlooks,

And there's this misty spray that comes off the water that your kids will love. It's like a natural sprinkler. we've stopped here for long afternoons. We've picnicked, we've used it as a place to stretch our legs where the kids climb up and down the stairs to get to the falls. And it's just been a great place to let the kids run around. But you can also make it a destination on its own. You can spend a few days camping there. You could spend a week camping there.

Either way, it's a must see and it's a quintessential UP place to visit.

Another stop that has big hidden gem energy is Kitchitekipi or the Big Spring. It is Michigan's largest freshwater spring. And I grew up coming to this place. It is ingrained in my core memories as a kid. There's a little raft that you take out into the spring and it's emerald green waters that are so clear you can see 40 feet to the bottom.

There are glass bottom panels, so the kids loved looking through the bottom to see everything that was down in the Springs. The raft is self operated, so it takes you out over the spring and back. I recommend trying to go early or you will wait in line, but it is worth it. It can be a quick stop on your way somewhere else within the UP.

I think a lot of people don't realize is that you will spend a lot of time driving in the U.P.

It's quite large, but it can take you hours to get from one destination to the next. So while the journey in the drive is beautiful, there is just no way you can see all of the UP in a couple of days or even a week or maybe even in your lifetime. We've been going for the last four years and there are spots that we continue to go back to because we love it so much. And then each time there's a new spot that we add on and then we just keep seeing more and more and keep going back to our favorite places. So it's going to take us

a long time to see everything that the UP has to offer, there is so much beautiful wilderness to discover

So if you need a quirky roadside stop to break up your drive, may I introduce you to Benny the Beardfisher. He is a 14 foot tall troll sculpture hidden in the woods near Northland Outfitters in Germfast, Michigan. He is an art installation.

don't know if you've ever seen any other

the US or maybe in Europe. We had the chance to see

Louisville, Kentucky,

on the short trail out to Benny. He's huge. It's a great place to take pictures. And you can also stop into the Northland Outfitters general shop and take a look around. There's great toys in there. There's all kinds of Michigan artifacts.

It's another great place to add to your UP road trip. One awesome thing about Benny the Beard Fisher is your kids can look for the trail signs and you can kind of turn it into a scavenger hunt to find him.

the Bush Bay Hiking Trail, AKA the Narnia Trail. It's located in Cedarville, Michigan.

near the Le Chineau Islands, picture rock scrambles along Lake Huron, mossy boulders, old growth woods complete with a Narnia lamp post in the middle of the forest. My daughter is a big Chronicles of Narnia fan, and so I actually went out and bought Turkish Delights for us to snack on out on the trail. This place was quiet, it was serene, there was nobody else out there but us, and it's filled with just good old-fashioned nature fun for kids and adults.

So there you have it, some of our family's favorite UP spots. From cold lake dips and forest hikes to springs and waterfalls and magical trolls in the middle of the forest, the Upper Peninsula has become a place our family returns to again and again. And it's not just about the scenery, even though that helps. It's about being together outside. It's about quieting our minds. It's about taking in all of God's creation. It's about a slower pace and not being on a schedule.

and the sense of freedom that comes when your GPS drops out and you enter SOS mode and your kids all of a sudden bicker maybe a little less because they're outside and they're getting to explore new things.

challenge this week is to start planning your own adventure. It doesn't have to be a full blown RV trip. Maybe it's a single night of camping. Maybe it's camping in your backyard or a day trip to a local state park

The goal is to go somewhere new or try something new with your kids this summer.