Mackinac Island in October

Mackinac Island covers 3.8 square miles in land area, it is in the U.S. state of Michigan.  It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

We stayed three nights at the Inn on Mackinac, a very nice Bed and Breakfast on the island.  Mackinac Island is certainly a tourist destination but things start to slow down on the island in October.  There are also numerous trails on the more remote end of the island where you can hike and not see another person.  

                                                         The Inn on Mackinac

 They don't use cars on this island, so we bring our bikes.  The first thing we do is take a ride around the perimeter of the island which is just over 8 miles.  

There are caves, and forests, and swamps on the island.  This photo above and below shows Arch Rock.

We visited some swamps along the way and found Fringed Gentian, but since it was cloudy the flower wasn't open.  Still pretty.

 This duck was sitting quietly in the calm back edge of a swamp.

The sun came out the first night we were on the island, but all four days were rainy, cloudy, or overcast.  Still we never got soaked by the rain, but later we did get soaked...

The day we left the island there was more sun but it was cooler, 
~ 55 degrees F.  We use the Starline Ferry, they provide free overnight parking. We hopped on the ferry -  it looked something like the one in the picture below.

 

We...or maybe it was just me that wanted to sit up on top.  Mike wasn't so sure.  And, an employee did warn us that we would get wet sitting up there...  But we were so high above the water, right?  Like I said we didn't get soaked by the rain but we did get soaked on our 20 minute ride to Mackinaw City.  Ice cold water pelleted us several times, it was windy and so cold.  Maybe that part wasn't really fun.

Back to the car to drive the 5 hours home (wet).  I was hoping the sun would stay out so I could get some nice pictures of the trees in their autumn colors.  Ten minutes later it was pouring rain.  The windows were wet, very difficult to get a good shot of trees along the way.  But the sun did pop out and I decided to just enjoy the beauty. Some of the trees just made me say, "Wow!"  The colors are so vivid.  Every fall it amazes me!

 Another fun adventure!