Upper Peninsula Drive - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 586

along the shore of the Garden Peninsula to historic Fayette townsite. Here, being restored
toits19th-centuryambience,you'llfindafascinatingiron-industrycommunity.From1867
to 1891 Fayette was a bustling company town where barges delivered ore and ships took
away tons of pig iron—the product of Fayette's gigantic smelting furnaces. The furnaces
and many of the town's original buildings are still here, including a hotel, several houses,
the town hall, and the remains of a company store. Tours of the village begin at the town
site's visitor center.
Fayette Historic State Park is a fine spot for a picnic, and five miles of hiking trails
wind through beech and maple forest, along sandy beaches, and atop 90-foot-high lime-
stone cliffs that overlook Green Bay.
4. Palms Book State Park
DoublingbacktoRte.2,thedrivejogseasttothevillageofThompsonandthenturnsnorth
to Palms Book State Park. Here, at a 40-foot-deep natural spring known as Kitch-iti-kipi
(meaning “Mirror of Heaven”), you can board a wooden raft and, using a guide cord, pull
yourself across the 200-foot-wide pond. The raft has observation windows that allow you
to look deep into the crystal-clear depths, where oversize trout glide among the limestone-
coated trunks and branches of fallen trees. The underground aquifer below maintains the
water temperature at a constant 45°F, even in the subzero winter.
At nearby Indian Lake State Park, an 8,400-acre bodyofwater was named forthe Indi-
ans who lived there more than a century ago. Today its pristine beaches attract swimmers
and sunbathers, and its whitecapped waters are a lure for anglers.
After rejoining Rte. 2, head east into Manistique and cross the unique Siphon Bridge.
Designed to float like the hull of a boat, at one time this remarkable road was four feet be-
low the surface level of the Manistique River.
Did you know…
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is home to two arctic disjuncts—Arctic
crowberry and thimbleberry—which are usually found far to the north. These
plants thrive because of the cool and moist microclimates caused by Lake Su-
perior.