Posted on 03/14/2015 5:06:24 AM PDT by cripplecreek
ONTONAGON, MI -- The Michigan Department of Natural Resources hopes you'll think "Porkies" when considering which state park is best in the U.S.
The Upper Peninsula's Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park is leading the pack among 19 other state parks across the country vying for the title of "Best State Park" in a new USA Today travel awards poll.
The 60,000-acre park near Ontonagon on the shores of Lake Superior is one of the few remaining large wilderness areas in the Midwest, according to the Michigan DNR. The park is popular with hikers drawn to the large tracts of towering virgin timber, secluded lakes, waterfalls and miles of wild rivers and streams.
The park features 90 miles of hiking trails, kayak rentals, mountain biking and skiing in the winter. It is Michigan's only designated wilderness area.
Other nominees in the poll include Antelope Island State Park in Utah, Stone Mountain State Park in North Carolina, the Indiana Dunes State Park, Humboldt Redwoods State Park in California and Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin.
Fans of the park can vote daily through March 30 at 11:59 a.m. to help the Porkies win the USA Today poll.
Vote
Sorry, Michigan...had to go with Grayson Highlands in southwest Virginia. Sadly, with musloids flooding into the area; the park’s best days may be behind it...
Where are the mountains? It is beautiful.
They’re in the western upper peninsula.
Kind of misleading to call it one of the largest remaining wilderness areas in the miswest. Nearly the entire upper peninsula is wilderness.
The two best ways to ruin ones vacation spot is move there or tell every body about it.
The porkies are nice only a few hours from me.
Those are "midwestern mountains."
Yeah, cuz the Boundary Waters in the arrowhead of Minnesota is just a backyard playground ...
Half of Minnesota is state parks, national forests, or wilderness.
Go to google street view and pick any road covered in that part of the country and you’ll see wilderness.
When I was a teeneager, I learned to ski in Pennsylvania. After going skiing 7 or 8 times I could go down the expert hill without much difficulty. The next year I moved out west. My new friends were (real) skiiers. They invited me skiiing after I told them I knew how. About half way up the lift I knew I was in big trouble. I got off the chair and wobbled over to the edge and looked down into ...oblivion. That's when I realized what a mountain really was.
Plus, baby porcupines are adorable.
Drove across the UP on Route 2 back in 1965...can’t imagine it has changed much since then...real nice relaxing drive.
Another god outdoor/semi-wilderness drive is the Blue Ridge Parkway for a little over 400 miles from western North Carolina up to northern Virginia. It ends about 80 miles west of Washington, DC. Makes for a very pleasant, scenic 3 day drive. It’s particularly fun on a motorcycle.
Couldn't agree more...the southern Appalachians are LOADED with great motorcycle rides...lots of off the beaten path highways with twisties and hairpins galore.
Real wilderness starts after the last road north in Canada.
My family went up there on our vacation back in the late 1950s, and my little brother went running up ahead of us - he very nearly went flying off were not for a man who grabbed him at the last minute. No guard rails back then. Are there now?
I’ve never been further west than Munising.
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