LH to see in Western Michigan?

Hi,

Ron and I are heading for the western part of Michigan on friday. We have decided to take a lighthouse trip for our anniversary (which is thurs.) Just wondering if there is anything anyone could recommed that we should not miss. We plan to see Grand Haven Lights,Muskegon S.Pier, White River, Little and Big Sable, Pentwater, Ludington and Manistee. We may try and get a couple of others in, depends on time. Are you able to go into any of these?
Also I have heard that there is a lighthouse on the eastern side that you can actually stay in, anyone know which one this is. Plan to take lots of pics.

Thanks for any info you can give us.

Gwyn & Ron

Hi!

You got a good list of lights to see. What you named off will fill up an entire day. Plan on leaving early! Pentwater is just a pierhead light - not very scenic, but the town is gorgeous. Maybe you could start in Holland and hit "Big Red" and then work your way north up US-31. I would take I-96 to I-196 in GR and start that way. Are you going to stay the night in Ludington?

The only ones that are open to the public are White River and Big Sable but they are both closed for the season. Big Sable is a mile and 1/2 one way hike through Ludington State Park. The others are relatively easy to get to.

There are no lighthouses in the Lower Peninsula to stay in (talk is Point Betsie may become a B&B in the next couple years). There are only two lights in the state at this time you can stay in overnight and both are in the UP - Big Bay Point west of Marquette, and Sand Hill Light up in the Keweenaw Peninsula. I have stayed at Sand Hill twice and don't regret any minute. Bill and Mary, the oweners, are FABULOUS. Both lights are open year round but require advance reservation.

Enjoy! Be sure to tell us about your trip when you return. Safe driving!

Hi Ron & Gwyn,

Jenifer pretty well covered the subject .... if you do the hike back to Big Sable, I recommend doing a loop .... can walk the trail through the State Park one way and walk the beach the other way. It's a shame it isn't open at this time of year. The view from the top is awesome.

Have a great trip and drive safe.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

Dan

Five years ago I did a loop of the lower penisula. Started in St. Joseph and made it to Ludington in one day. I would skip the lights in Pentwater, not very interesting. The rest are great. If you get to Manistee, you should visit the firehouse; very interesting design and color.

Robert

Thanks for the info. We just weren't sure where to start.

We were planning to stay in Grand Haven and head north on saturday to visit lighthouses. Sounds like Big Sable may or may not get seen. Lot depends on how the knees hold out. Ron has arthritis and I have had surgery on both knees. Also on how tired he is, gets in from Venezuela tomorrow (thursday).
On sunday, we plan to head south and see a couple of more on our way home. Short trip, but hope to see quite a few of the lighthouses.

My next excursion is to see the Port Huron Lightship. It is within about an hour to hour and a half from me.

Oh and Robert thanks for info about the firehouse. My husband was a volunteer firefigher for 13 years and know that is one stop he will be wanting to take. I was raised around fire departments. My Dad was a firefigher for about 40 years. He started as a lantern boy when is was about 16.

Jen I really love the pictures you have posted.

Thanks again for your help.

Well, plans have changed a little. We are now planning on staying in White Hall tonight and then heading up to Manistee saturday. Then Sunday head south and check out the ones down to about Holland (don't know if we will go further south or not). This is our first planned Lighthouse trip. We have been to others (lived near them) like Cape Hatteras (before it was moved),Bodie Island, Old Point Comfort (there 2 years ago) and a couple of others in VA.

Plan to make some more of the MI ones soon.

Ron & Gwyn,

Make sure you take some pictures and post them for us to see. Unfortunately, I haven't been out to Michigan for over 35 years. Hope to make it someday, maybe if there's a reunion there next year or the year after. That would be great.

Bert

Friday, with map and directions in hand off we went. Stayed in Whitehall friday night-hoping the rain would stop by morning.

Up and off on saturday morning-partly cloudy, but NOT raining. We visited 6 Lighthouses (made it all the way up to Point Betsie). Originally we were only going as far as Manistee, but with not stopping in Pentwater and deciding agains Big Sable we added Frankfort and Point Betsie. For the most part directions were great. The gravel road to one is now paved and the road (5th Ave) to Manistee has a big area taken out (made a canal for the people in the condos to get their boats in to dock). So we went around and came in another way- we were determined.

Sunday we headed south to Muskegon and Grand Haven. It was really windy with 3-4 foot waves. Sure hope some of the pics with the waves hitting turn out. We ended up driving about 700 miles over the weekend.

Oh, and Robert we went to the Firehouse (we were taken on a tour inside. They still use one of the original slide poles. One of the firefighters was working on a 1949 MAC truck-got a pic) There was no way we were getting that close and not going in. lol

Hope to have pics to add within the week. Just need to find out how to post them. I did it (OPC) a while back, just don't remember how.

What a great trip. Thanks to all for your input and information.

Sounds like you had a nice weekend.

John and I saw the same grouping of lighthouses in June when we attended the Grand Rapids regional event in June. We flew into O'Hare and ended up putting over a 1000 miles on the rental car in 3 days.

That was my first time in Michigan...but it won't be my last.

The old adrenalin is running, waiting for those photos. Sounds like a great trip was had. THanks for the run down, now we wait for the photos.

Bert

Sounds like you had a great time! Where in Whitehall did you stay, the Ramada? Whitehall is only about 25 minutes from where I live. Sounds like the weather was nice for your trip too! We'll look forward to your pictures.

Film was dropped off this morning, should have it back in couple of days. I have a few more pics on the roll in the camera to finish up. It is more of Grand Haven. Hope to finish up in next couple of days. Taking pics of lap robes/quilts I am making. My husband has some on his digital camera and I hope we can get those downloaded tonight.

We stayed at the Best Western this time. We have stayed at the Ramada in the past when we went to a in store event in Grand Rapids and on up to visit band camp my 2 boys had attended.(Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp). Their high school band went up for the week before school started every year. Now my youngest is marching his senior year at Michigan State University.

Can someone refresh my memory as to how to post the pictures? It has been a while.

We did have a good time and I am looking forward to heading to the eastern part (lots closer) for our next adventure. I am thinking warmer weather will be nice. Although I would love to get some with the ice and snow on/around them. Some I have seen posted are beautiful and I would like to try my hand.

Here's the skinny on how to prepare and upload your images...

http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/uploads/how_to_upload.htm

Be sure to write down the EXACT name of your image. the extension can be capitalized or lower case, but you need to know which it is to properly include a link that will work.

Try doing the first image in the PLAY ROOM and if it isn't working, one of the regulars will jump in and help you. Once you have a link that works, copy that link and paste it in for the next picture, changing just the name of the photo and keeping constant the rest of the long link.

We're looking forward to seeing them!

Thanks John,

Maybe I should paste directions in one of my folders so I won't have to ask again. lol

Am hoping the pictures turned out ok. I should know by friday (with any luck by thursday).

Oh, I looked at the site with all the Lighthouse Stickers last night. I really like them. Such talented photograhers.
Thanks again.

I picked up my pictures yesterday and hope to get some posted on Sunday. We are off to the big in-state rival football game today or I would start trying to get them on today. I am very happy with most all of them.