St. Ignace, Michgiran - Day 31
Mystery Spot
We started the day by driving from Empire, MI to the Tiki RV Campground in St. Ignace, Michigan. After we plugged Big Hat into power and put out the slides, we first headed to the Mystery Spot ($12 per person), an interesting tourist trap in this area.
According to our tour guide, in the early 1950s a few surveyors were exploring Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and one day they realized that none of their equipment was working properly. The problems, they discovered after some testing, were only apparent in a circle about 150 feet in diameter. The birth of the Mystery Spot!
Supposedly, millions of visitors have stopped at the Mystery Spot over the years to experience a place where “gravity does strange things” (or more accurately, your brain does strange things as it tries to make sense of contradictory input). Tom and I took our boys to a place like this in South Dakota where they were young. Makes for a fun stop! In addition, the place had two zip lines (that we couldn’t do because of the COVID restriction), but we were able to also play a round of miniature golf.
Castle Rock
Our next stop was another touristy stop called Castle Rock ($1.00 per person). Castle Rock is a natural limestone tower rising almost 200’ above lake level of Lake Huron. We walked up 170 steps to see a panoramic view of Lake Huron.
Here’s our next short hike up to the top
View of Castle Rock from the highway
One set of the 170 steps
Tom almost reaching the top
I don’t know the significance of Paul Bunyan at this spot, but as you can see, we are both wearing our masks!
Ice Cream!
After dinner we walked one mile from the campground to get some ice cream. Tom had a flavor called Michigan Pot Hole which was delicious! Moose Tracks wasn’t bad either.
Trip Statistics
- We’ve driven a total of 3,716 miles - 2,571 in Big Hat and and 1,145 in the car.
- Our tourist expense for today was $39 for a trip total of $812.2
- Tiki campground cost was $26 per night. Total $1,168.36 or an average of $37.64