Vacations to less popular destinations

[yakers]

OK, you've got me interested.

When is a good time of year to visit the UP of Michigan? I am talking weather.
I don't do snow and high humidity very well.

Definitely high summer. I worked in north Wisconsin in college nd the joke was don't get sick for a couple weeks in the summer or you'll miss it.

 

[DayDreaming]

Throw a dart at a map - I'm sure that if you really look into any area, you could find something interesting to explore there.

Unless that dart lands on Grand Forks, North Dakota. I circled the town twice in about 40 minutes and remember thinking, is that it? There was a river and a military base so maybe.

I don't know about that - I took a quick look at some maps and North Forks has the North Dakota Museum of Art. A bit out of town I see Kellys Slough National Wildlife Refuge with a group of other preserves called 'Waterfoul Production Areas' - https://whsrn.org/whsrn_sites/kellys-slough-nwr-complex/ . I also see something called "Alley of Love", listed as a local history museum - I'm intrigued. And then there's the Corn Maze - I bet I could have fun exploring Grand Forks for a week.

 

[ddoorn]

Upstate NY: Finger Lakes, Adirondack & Catskill Mtns & St. Lawrence Seaway

New York State is SO much more than the Big Apple!

I live in the Southern Tier and just treasure our safe country roads for bicycling!

Our Finger Lakes region offers beautiful lakes and wine country...as well as bicycling & hiking around the lakes gorges and waterfalls.

You can't soak up enough of our wonderful outdoors here in upstate New York!

Don

 

[Lsbcal]

A great resource for finding short walks to long hikes is https://www.alltrails.com/

We've even found a few hikes we did not know about in our area. Plus the user comments can be helpful. You can even download a map that works nicely on a smartphone with GPS. I think you need to get the annual membership for this map download.

In May we are headed to Kanab Utah with several nearby trails plus access to Zion National Park from the east end. Then over to Tropic (access to Bryce and Kodachrome Basin State Park). Then up to Torrey to get in some nice narrow canyon walks in Capital Reef National Park.

 

[2017ish]

....

There are several lesser-known places in SE Utah which are worthwhile. Natural Bridges Nat. Monument has few visitors and is very nice. A bit south, Gooseneck State Park has a stunning overlook of a double buckle in the San Juan River, and it's nearly empty compared to the similar landscape at Horseshoe Bend near Page, Arizona. And a bit further south from Gooseneck SP going to Monument Valley, is Moki Dugway, a crazy descent on an unpaved road with a bunch of switchbacks and grades up to 11%. 5 mph speed limit. Fortunately, traffic is minimal. Scarier if you're on the passenger side.

...

Amen to all of these. Gooseneck was so empty that we wondered if we were in the right spot! And the Moki Ascent was equally noteworthy....

 

[yakers]

If you are in Utah arches area check out the Utah Gobblins State Park, absoliutely worth seeing.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

We love driving our convertible on the backroads of the Driftless Area in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. We stop at breweries, antique shops, oddball attractions, dive bars etc. and stay at a motel within walking distance of a restaurant. Even at busy leaf watching times if you drive the beautiful county roads away from the Mississippi River there is very little traffic.

A little-known attraction along this stretch of the Mississippi is the Effigy Mounds National Monument. More than 200 effigy mounds are in this national park property on a scenic bluff along the river near Harpers Ferry, Iowa. It's well worth a visit. https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/explore-parks/effigy-mounds-national-monument

 

[Magus]

It was Mardi Gras break here last week which meant both of my teens had a week out of school. My kids had never seen snow and had been asking to for years, so this year we took a friend up on his invitation to visit in Michigan. We had an amazing week! We rented snowmobiles and tried 3 kinds of skiing, snow tubing, snow shoeing, etc. We hung out with the locals and had beer and bingo at a small town brewery.

We want to do more vacations is less touristed areas. Do y'all have any recommendations of other fun places to go that are less known? Or if you love vacations like this too, how do you find them?

My wife and I try to target tourist popular places off season. For example, I hate going to myrtle beach in the summer. Its horribly busy, expensive and the staff around town are not nice because they are slammed and frankly a lot of the people visiting are not pleasant. However, going to Myrtle over Thanksgiving time has been great - it's not busy, its way cheaper, the staff are generally in a good mood and walks on the beach are very easy to do. Some of the hotels have heated pools too if you want to swim.

Similarly we like to do Europe in late March through early May for the same reason - it's past winter and still can be cool (although not always) but its no where near as crowded as the summer time - and far cheaper - especially with airline miles and hotel points.

It's hard to go to places that have no tourism because there is a reason they don't have much tourism - there isn't much to do. But those places in the off season work great for us!

 

[Chuckanut]

Most people who it national parks in Washington visit Mt. Ranier and Olympic NP.

I suggest a trip to Mt. Saint Helens National Monument. Where else can you see a giant volcano with its side blown out? It's just enough out of the way of the main routes on the west side of the state that it doesn't get the stop for a few hours crowd on the way to Seattle or Portland.

 

[Koolau]

New York State is SO much more than the Big Apple!

I live in the Southern Tier and just treasure our safe country roads for bicycling!

Our Finger Lakes region offers beautiful lakes and wine country...as well as bicycling & hiking around the lakes gorges and waterfalls.

You can't soak up enough of our wonderful outdoors here in upstate New York!

Don

It's been 50 years since we did upstate NY - Finger Lake region. It was beautiful. Don't know if it's still available, but we got a guided tour of Cornel Univ. in Ithaca. It's the most beautiful campus I've seen - even more so than the various colleges here in Hawaii. Probably need to stay off the Interstate which means longer driving times but much better scenery. YMMV as always.

 

[Trailwalker]

Muscatine, Iowa. Great Mississippi River town. Lots of history. Decent restaurants. A good local brewpub (Contrary Brewing), a riverwalk, friendly people (Iowa-nice).

 

[chucky]

OK, you've got me interested.

When is a good time of year to visit the UP of Michigan? I am talking weather.
I don't do snow and high humidity very well.

I live in the UP and it is seldom too warm. I would recommend August to early september. Any bugs are usually gone by then. There are way too many things to see but if you want to see some scenery try all along the Lake Superior shore. Tahquamenon Falls is a popular place along with Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore from there all along the Lake to Copper Harbor in the Keweenaw Peninsula. These are a just a few of the places. Lot more places to hike and see if you have the time.

 

[savory]

I live in the UP and it is seldom too warm. I would recommend August to early september. Any bugs are usually gone by then. There are way too many things to see but if you want to see some scenery try all along the Lake Superior shore. Tahquamenon Falls is a popular place along with Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore from there all along the Lake to Copper Harbor in the Keweenaw Peninsula. These are a just a few of the places. Lot more places to hike and see if you have the time.

I've camped and biked in many places throughout the world. Pictured Rocks rates high on the places I have enjoyed. And a thumbs up for Cooper Harbor.

 

[yakers]

Hey in the UP they have more than 4 seasons, they also have black fly, no seeum and several others.

 

[Sunset]

My wife and I try to target tourist popular places off season. ......

It's hard to go to places that have no tourism because there is a reason they don't have much tourism - there isn't much to do. But those places in the off season work great for us!

Our funniest off season experience was going to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.

A large hotel was closed, and we ate a restaurant when a fellow walked in and the owner told him that tomorrow he was closing for the Winter season.



I went to a hotel, and the lady said the price (high) . I told her there are no tourists anywhere, so I can go to any hotel and find a room. She cut the price in 1/2 if I paid cash.

 

[Ronstar]

I live in the UP and it is seldom too warm. I would recommend August to early september. Any bugs are usually gone by then. There are way too many things to see but if you want to see some scenery try all along the Lake Superior shore. Tahquamenon Falls is a popular place along with Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore from there all along the Lake to Copper Harbor in the Keweenaw Peninsula. These are a just a few of the places. Lot more places to hike and see if you have the time.

One of the nearby great places is the Porcupine Mountains.

 

[Rianne]

Road trip. Get in a car, camper, or SUV, whatever is comfortable, and head West. So many places to experience. We did this in 2017, missed so many cool places but only had 3 weeks. Went to Dillon, CO, Mesa Verde National Park, Arches National Park, Salt Lake City to see friends, Canones New Mexico, and everywhere in-between.

IMO, we could do this every couple of years and see new places every time. I'm not even touching the surface of what to experience out West.

 

[Koolau]

Hey in the UP they have more than 4 seasons, they also have black fly, no seeum and several others.

Worst thunderstorm I ever experienced was in UP. We had just stopped for the evening at a cheap hotel. Thunderstorm hit and knocked out the electricity for the whole night (had to pay cash next morning as nothing worked.) I wasn't sure we were going to survive and seriously considered sleeping in the Faraday cage (aka car). Probably a fluke storm and not typical so YMMV.

 

[Chuckanut]

Hey in the UP they have more than 4 seasons, they also have black fly, no seeum and several others.

Ugh! What months do those seasons occur?

 

[Koolau]

Ugh! What months do those seasons occur?

Heh, heh, I'd wager it's NOT in the winter (you know, October through April! ) Of course, YMMV.

 

[finnski1]

Heh, heh, I'd wager it's NOT in the winter (you know, October through April! ) Of course, YMMV.

Yeah and he also forgot about mud season!

 

[Theoldbreed]

Really enjoyed Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park not far from Kanab… will be heading back out there this September!

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Really enjoyed Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park not far from Kanab… will be heading back out there this September!

+1. Love that park.