Tour Groups

Each route each day will have 20–25 cars in rotating tours. The Red Group begins with Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. The White Group commences with the Mackinac Island trip. The Green Group heads to Charlevoix and the Old Mission Peninsula. Everyone will drive and see everything, but on different days.

There will be your choice of a traditional printed map or a Rallista route app to guide you.

Mackinac Island Tour

An easy but full day with much to see and absorb. The day begins around 10 AM with wrapping around the bay into Harbor Springs and following the Lake Michigan shoreline. Harbor Springs is a town where the 1930s depression never happened and still prospers. The Pointer Boat, reconstructed from that era, chugs along Little Traverse Bay, carrying tourists. During the 1920s and 1950s, it transported musicians and servants to summer homes out on the point. No cars are allowed on the point; one parks and takes a carriage to the great Victorian cottages of the DuPont, Busch, Astor, Hunt, and other families. The marina typically includes an interesting array of local yachts, such as a 1920s ship that was built for Buster Keaton. My personal favorite is a simple pontoon patio tucked away with a trio of 300-horsepower outboard engines strapped across the back. I do not know who owns it, but Detroit’s Tim Allen comes to mind.

The ridge above Harbor Springs includes M-119 with 20 miles of winding road called the Tunnel of Trees scenic drive. It largely follows the shoreline atop bluffs above Lake Michigan. The Tunnel of Trees section ends in Cross Village, and lunch is at Legs Inn. The inn essentially grew out of the woods, being made of found objects, on Ojibwa tribal land during the 1920s. The Legs Inn name comes from a row of white-enameled cast iron stove legs that someone long ago tossed into the forest and became the railing above the inn. You can choose whether to stay inside and gaze at its amazing woodland interior or sit outside above the lake.

Next, we will head across the dunes of the Wilderness Park and Sturgeon Bay areas, through the back door into Mackinaw City, then drive five miles across the Mackinac Bridge over the strait to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. As we cross onto the bridge, the Old Mackinaw Lighthouse will be to our right and the early 1700s French fort (Michilimackinac) to the left.

At the docks, hop aboard a jet-turbine ferry to Mackinac Island. No motor vehicles are allowed on the island, only buggies and bicycles in this Victorian town where “Somewhere in Time” was filmed. There are carriage rides, The Grand Hotel, shops, endless fudge places (tourists are known as “fudgies”, a British fort, scenic nature trails, and a rock arch near the shore.

After returning to the mainland, we will drive back down the Tunnel of Trees to Harbor Springs and dinner. The tour registration fee does not include meals, tolls (the bridge toll is $4) or the ferry to/from Mackinac Island (approximately $32/person, round trip).

If you are wondering about the pronunciation of Mackinac/Mackinaw, the first is French, the second is British, and both are pronounced as if ending with a “w”. Only the city is spelled “Mackinaw.” The other places retain their French spelling.