After 6 weeks in Ohio, we started on our adventure to the northern most points of this trip.
Michigan to most means Detroit and maybe Ann Arbor and Lansing due to the well known Universities. We wanted to see what places outside these cities had to offer. We decided to take a wide detour around Detroit and went through Ann Arbor to Flint and then East to Port Huron, the last exit before the bridge to Canada.
Leaving the Interstate and heading up the eastern side of Michigan’s thumb to the village of Port Hope
were we had a reservation at Stafford County Park right on Lake Huron
We had chosen this park as it is half way up the eastern side of the thumb and a look on google earth had shown us lots of shade trees. Unfortunately the ash borer beetle also decided to visit this park last January and the trees are now gone.
Port Hope used to be a lumber mill town until 1881 when 2 fires destroyed the forest and farming has since replaced the lumber mills. The sawmill chimney, erected in 1858, is one of the last remnants of this era and is a national historic site just on the edge of Stafford County Park, named after Port Hope’s founder William Stafford.
The smallish city with 130+ households proved to be just the right place to relax
and makes a perfect platform to check out the rest of the thumb of Michigan.