Photo Gallery: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Lighthouses
Michigan is well-known for its plentiful lighthouses, with more than 100 still standing today on the shores of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Superior. The Upper Peninsula is home to many of these lighthouses, and we have been fortunate enough to visit almost all of the ones located on the mainland and a handful of those located offshore. Some of these Upper Peninsula lighthouses are found in very remote locations, like the Stannard Rock Light (24 miles from land) and the four lighthouses that surround Isle Royale (Rock Harbor Lighthouse, Rock of Ages Light, Passage Island Lighthouse, Menagerie Island Lighthouse). Lighthouses at Marquette, Whitefish Point, Ontonagon, Copper Harbor, Eagle Harbor, Manistique, and Munsing are easy to visit while others like Crisp Point, Bete Grise, Peninsula Point, and Au Sable Point require a bit more effort to get to. Each of these lighthouses is unique, whether it is a simple tower marking the end of a breakwater or a large complex on an island. As our efforts to see every Michigan lighthouse continue, we have had to use charter services and boat cruise trips to get close to some of the remaining ones on our list (links below). Here is some additional information on U.P. lighthouses as well as a gallery of our favorite photos. Have you been to any of the ones we have yet to visit?
Upper Peninsula Lighthouses with museums: Ontonagon Lighthouse, Marquette Harbor Lighthouse/Marquette Maritime Museum, Whitefish Point Light Station/Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Seul Choix Point Lighthouse Museum, Sand Point (Escanaba Lighthouse Museum), Eagle Harbor Lighthouse Museum.
Upper Peninsula Lighthouses you can stay at: Big Bay Point Lighthouse (B&B), Jacobsville Lighthouse (B&B), Sand Hills Lighthouse (B&B; currently closed for renovations), Whitefish Point Light Station (Coast Guard crew quarters), Eagle River Lighthouse (vacation rental)
View from the Crisp Point lighthouse tower
Upper Peninsula Lighthouses with open towers (on a regular basis): Crisp Point Lighthouse, Point Iroquois Lighthouse, Ontonagon Lighthouse, Au Sable Point Light Station, Whitefish Point Light Station, Big Bay Point Lighthouse, Jacobsville Lighthouse, Sand Hills Lighthouse, Peninsula Point Light, Seul Choix Point Lighthouse, Rock Harbor Lighthouse.
Charters and tour boats we’ve used to see lighthouses: Sand Point Charters (Lac LaBelle), Glass Bottom Shipwreck Tours (Munising), Riptide Ride (Munising), Pictured Rocks Cruises (Munising), Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry (Mackinaw City/St. Ignace), Grand Portage Isle Royale Transportation Lines (Grand Portage, MN), Soo Locks Boat Tours (Sault Ste. Marie).
