Is Michigan’s Copper Country Trail National Byway the Best Scenic Drive in America?

Michigan is home to more than 20 state and national byways and tour routes, each offering beautiful views of the state. The Upper Peninsula’s Copper Country Trail National Byway finds itself in the running to be named Best Scenic Drive in the country in a recent 10best.com/USA Today Reader’s Choice Poll. This 47-mile stretch of U.S. 41 runs from Houghton north to Copper Harbor and passes by many reminders of the area’s rich copper mining history. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why we love driving the Copper Country Trail as well as some of the other highways and byways it is up against in this contest:

The Copper Country Trail starts in Houghton, then crosses the Portage Lake Lift Bridge to reach Hancock and the rest of the Keweenaw Peninsula. It isn’t long before you reach Quincy Mine, which was the leading copper-producing mine in the country in the 1860s.

This trail is a gateway to four seasons of outdoor recreation opportunities, and the Boston Pond Nature Area is a great spot for a picnic or a scenic trail walk. Next up are the towns of Laurium and Calumet as well the headquarters of the Keweenaw National Historic Park.

Calumet is home to the Calumet Theatre, the Italian Hall Memorial, the Coppertown USA Mining Museum, the UP Firefighters Museum, and a downtown full of shops and restaurants.

The Copper Country Trail continues on through Centennial, Wolverine, and Kearsarge before reaching Allouez and Mohawk. North of here you will find the Keweenaw Snow Gauge, which shows how recent snowfall stacks up against the record 390.4 inches during the winter of 1978-79.

The remains of the Central Mine and the Delaware Mine are next, with the latter being open for below-ground self-guided tours. After reaching Copper Harbor, U.S. 41 heads east for a short jog as it passes Fort Wilkins Historic State Park and passes by the Copper Harbor Lighthouse.

Side trips from the byway are also plentiful: Eagle River Falls, The Jampot, Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, Cliff Mine, the Quincy Smelter, Jacobsville, the Open Skies Project, Brockway Mountain, Estivant Pines, Hungarian Falls, McLain State Park, and more. This is a beautiful drive in any season, but our favorite time to visit has to be the fall. The colorful leaves on the trees make for an even more beautiful drive (especially the last 10 miles or so).

You can vote for the Copper Country Trail National Byway once per day now through May 4th. Other routes in the running for this contest include Badlands Loop State Scenic Byway (South Dakota), Florida Keys Scenic Highway, Going-to-the-Sun Road (Glacier National Park, Montana), Minnesota North Shore Scenic Drive, Pacific Coast Highway (California), and more.