When you drive into Williams, Arizona, you can't help but notice that you're on Historic US Highway 66, or, as it's better known, "Route 66." This highway officially began in 1926 when the Bureau of Public Roads launched the nation’s…
While digging through some old photos, I came across a picture of a bridge. It's the Astoria–Megler Bridge, which crosses the Columbia River and connects the states of Oregon and Washington. We crossed it quite a few times in our…
My wife and I lived in Portland, Oregon, for twenty-five years and often made day trips to Timberline Lodge. The Lodge is about 60 miles southeast of Portland and sits at an elevation of 5,960 feet on the south side…
From the Mackinac Bridge we headed south through the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Staying close to the Lake Michigan shore we eventually reached Empire, Michigan, near the entrance to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. One of only three National Lakeshores,…
St. Ignace, Michigan, sits on the north side of the Straits of Mackinac. On the south side of the Straits, across the Mackinac Bridge, is a town named Mackinaw City. I'm sure I'm not the first tourist to ponder pronunciation,…
As I'm sure you would expect, the shape of a National Lakeshore is long and narrow. Pictured Rocks extends 42 miles along the Lake Superior shoreline and covers 73,236 acres. Fifteen miles of this coastline consists of sandstone cliffs rising…
We went to Munising, Michigan, with plans to visit Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Like National Parks, National Lakeshores are managed by the National Park System (NPS). According to The National Parks Foundation, the NPS oversees 423 units that fall into…
We did a little shopping at the Gitche Gumee Landing Giftshop and the Nonesuch Gallery (aka Brad's Guitars) and then we packed up and started heading south on US 45. We could have followed this highway from Ontonagon all the…
Lake Superior has fifty-six lighthouses along its 2,730 mile shoreline. One of them -- a retired one -- can be found in Ontonagon. The current Ontonagon Lighthouse was constructed in a "schoolhouse" style in 1866 to replace an older wooden…