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Home The U.P.
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Bike Week
This is one of the best ride at the eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I call it the Whitefish Point Ride because one of the premier destinations of the ride is the Whitefish Point Lighthouse. I made this ride in September of 2008. It was a cool morning as the Captain, Biker Bum and myself topped off our tanks at the Shell Station in Munising. The Captain took the lead on his recently purchased Honda Gold Wing in what was going to be a great day for motorcycling on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I pulled my Suzuki cruiser in behind the Captain as I heard the roar of Biker Bum's Harley fire up behind me. It wasn't long before we found ourselves cruising across the Seney Stretch on our way to Whitefish Point. Normally I wouldn't be doing any distance riding this time of the year, but as it was turning out September was serving up some of the best riding of the summer. This was the second half of a slightly modified 2009 Yooper Cannonball Run. As usual the ride started in Ironwood, but this time instead of heading straight across the U.P. I had taken a slight detour through the Porcupine Mountains, Houghton and L'Anse before heading to Munising. Not many bikes on the road as we exited Highway M-28 onto Hwy 123 and cruised through the town of Newberry. Highway 123 is a great motorcycling road which is kept in good shape because of all the tourists that visit Tahquamenon Fall State Park every summer. Tahquamenon Falls are just one amazing set of waterfalls and a must stop if you've never seen them. Normally I'd stop at the park, but today was all about riding and the three of us were having too much fun weaving our way through the turns right now. I could feel the much appreciated sun's heat starting to filter it's way through the trees. It's always a good day when the end of the road brings you to Paradise. Paradise is the last little town before you ride up to Whitefish Point. By now there were a lot bikes out on the road and many of them were pulled into the local gas station topping off their tanks. The road up to Whitefish Point would be a fun ride, but being the road in is also the only road out, so it can get real busy. The Captain pushed it best he could, but eventually we got behind some slow moving traffic and had to back it off. Probably just in time too as a County Sheriff's patrol car passed us going the opposite direction.
As we pulled into a full Whitefish Point Lighthouse parking lot, we looped around to find some parking. Biker Bum found an open space first and we pulled in along side him. There was a line of bikes parked across from us so I took a quick photo of them with Lighthouse as a background. After a short tour of the Whitefish Point Light, we climbed back on our bikes and headed back to Paradise. Just south of Paradise, we found the sign for the Curley Lewis Highway.
This was my first time riding the Curley Lewis Highway and I was disappointed in that I couldn't see much of the shoreline. Later I realized we were riding by turnouts that had parking access to the beach. Unfortunately, the thought of stopping wasn't on our agenda. Next time back, I'm going to make it a point to stop. While you don't get much of a view of the coastline what you get in return is a fantastic ride through a tunnel of trees. On the right they seemed to climb up the side of the hill. I was glad to see the Captain pull into the Iroquois Point Lighthouse. I'm a big fan of lighthouses and on this ride, there were two good ones. From the lighthouse you can look out over the water and see the wind farms on Canadian soil.
It was about then Biker Bum mentioned lunch and suggested we stop in Brimley at the Bay Mills Resort and Casino. The U.P. has a number of great casinos. As it turned out the Bay Mills Resort has five locations where you can grab some chow. Today it would be Sacy's Restaurant. Finally with full stomachs, we decided it was time to make the ride back.
Home The U.P.
Roads
& Rides Biker Discount Card U.P.
Bike Week
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Motorcycle Service U.P. State Parks - there are at least 19 good reasons to buy a park sticker.
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