Spring - Wildflowers, Waterfalls and 5-Star Wilderness
Spring begins as a trickle in the Upper Peninsula. The warming winds push down our snowpack as the thawing earth nibbles from below, sending rivulets of melt water down hillsides in a maddening rush. Gentle rains mark the end of the snow season and swell our many rivers to capacity.
Over 150 named waterfalls await your viewing. Some beg from deep in the backwoods, thundering away anonymously until your arrival. Others are roadside attractions asking only that you slow a bit to acknowledge their gravity-inspired dance downward.
Along the shores of the Great Lakes mighty waves churn up a new selection of driftwood and agates ripe for picking by beachcombers. Great rafts of stubborn drift ice linger on Lake Superior, migrating with the winds. Stop by a hidden cove on a sunny spring day to eavesdrop on their hushed, melting conversation about change.
Walk along a carpet of wildflowers that change seemingly daily among our forested hills and roadside wildlife areas. Spring beauties, arbutus, trilliums and lady slipper orchids await. Maple sap drips into tin pails in the sugarbush, where sweet smelling steam rolls above a syrup maker’s purring woodfire. Blossoms of every variety fill the air with nature’s perfume. Lilacs, apple trees and wild cherry blooms confetti the air on a southern breeze.
Black bears and their cubs emerge from winter dens and whitetail fawns the ferns. Geese and other waterfowl are headed back north, filling the sky with their honking. Wildlife preserves seem to overflow with the newly hatched chicks of swans, ducks and loons. The scented air is filled with the wild calls of spring love and renewal.
Climb a rocky ridge and behold eagles and a multitude of hawks and falcons gliding by at eye level. They follow the melting snow north, buoyed on warm thermals radiating off the thawing land.
Inland lakes are released from their icy spell, allowing fishermen a chance at some of the year’s best sporting opportunities at ice out. Trout fishermen discover all the old leaks in last year’s waders as they pursue their speckled quarry along our dark, tannin-rich rivers.
Camping season is getting underway, from well-appointed private campgrounds to rustic and remote quarters in our national forests, state forests and parks. Or for more civilized pursuits, visit our immaculate golf courses, and tee up for an early start to the season.
Spring is a time for change, and in the Upper Peninsula, change is good.