Almost every long Michigan drive ends at water. The state touches four of the five Great Lakes, and the deck is built around them: the Mackinac Bridge between the peninsulas, the Soo Locks, Pictured Rocks and Sleeping Bear Dunes, and an island national park you can only reach by boat or seaplane.
Crossing the bridge
The Mackinac Bridge is the big moment on any trip north. It’s five miles long, and at the center you’re about 200 feet above the Straits of Mackinac. Some drivers find the height hard. The Mackinac Bridge Authority has a driver assistance program: ask ahead, and a staff driver will take your car across for you.
Save four questions for the approach from Mackinaw City:
- How to pronounce Mackinac.
- Which two peninsulas the bridge joins.
- The island where cars are banned (you can see Mackinac Island from the bridge).
- What people on the other side call themselves.
A route idea: up the Lake Michigan shore
Take US 31 north from Holland. In May, Holland’s tulip festival fills the town. Keep going to Sleeping Bear Dunes, then Traverse City, which holds its cherry festival in early summer, then Petoskey, where the state stone washes up on the beaches. The Petoskey stone question pays off here: they’re easiest to spot when wet, so a quick beach stop turns the answer into a hunt.
The Michigan left
The deck has one question about driving in Michigan, and you’ll probably meet the answer on the road. On many divided roads, you can’t turn left at the intersection. Instead you go straight or turn right, then make a U-turn at a marked crossover in the median. Once someone in the car knows the answer, let them call out every one you pass.
Three Michigan facts that aren’t in the deck
- Frankenmuth, near Saginaw, is built in Bavarian style and calls itself Michigan’s Little Bavaria.
- Michigan’s state gem is chlorastrolite, also called Isle Royale greenstone.
- The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum is in Grand Rapids, where Ford grew up.