LIFE> Travel
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LIFE> Travel
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Smitten by 'The Mitten'
By Erik Nilsson (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-19 09:07
Michigan is saturated with pristine bodies of water that draw a deluge of visitors to the US state every year. On the map (pictured right), the Lower Peninsula looks like a gigantic hand slapped down with a mighty splash in the middle of a fifth of the world's fresh water, creating around it the five massive puddles that are the Great Lakes. The Upper Peninsula (UP), linked to "The Mitten" by the 8-km-long Mackinac Bridge, resembles a huge shark languidly swimming atop the lakes. Michigan's 8,288 km of coastline wrap around more than 11,000 inland lakes and 57,936 km of burbling rivers and streams. It's impossible to stand anywhere in the state without being within 10 km of a lake or stream, or more than 137 km from a Great Lake, Michigan's tourism bureau says. Consequently, Michigan is constellated with 116 lighthouses - more than any other US state - most of which tower above particularly scenic shorelines. These beacons that once repelled wayward ships today lure camera-toting tourists in much the same way that porch lights attract moths.
Because most of Michigan's appeal stems from its extensive water system, swimming, boating, water-skiing, shipwreck diving, ice skating and fishing are the big draws for visitors. In addition to its 100-plus beaches, Michigan also has 960,000 registered boats - again, more than any other US state. Most of Michigan is densely wooded and a host of wildlife, including black bears, wolves, deer, moose, porcupines, badgers, beavers and opossums, roam these splendid timberlands. More than 90 percent of the UP is forested and 150 waterfalls are tucked into its wild. Consequently, more than 600 campgrounds fleck Michigan's 97 state parks. Located in the Lower Peninsula's northwest are the 122-m-high Sleeping Bear Dunes, the world's highest freshwater sand dunes. These sandy mounds mash into one another over more than 20,000 hectares and spill into the glittery blue of Lake Michigan, creating truly spectacular landscapes. According to a legend of the Native American Ojibwa tribe, the dunes were formed over the body of a mother bear that swam the lake to escape a Wisconsin forest fire. She waited for her two cubs on Michigan's shore until her death and was covered with sand. The Great Spirit resurrected the cubs' drowned bodies as the North and South Manitou Islands. The other top scenic spot is the 30,000-hectare Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula's city of Munising. Here, multicolored limestone bluffs soar up to 61 m above the surf, morphing into stone arches and grottos along the western edge. The Grand Sable Dunes plunge into the waves on the eastern end. There are also many remarkable land formations on Mackinac Island, a car-free time warp to the 19th century known for fudge and for a stone fortress built in the 1700s. Michigan's cultural and urban center is Detroit, a metropolis of more than 900,000 and home to a multitude of museums, casinos and even a Greek Town. It was here that Michigan earned its title as "Automobile Capital of the World" and "Home of Motown". With all of its water and wilderness, Michigan is a natural choice for travelers with a passion for the truly great outdoors.
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