Four Places to Take a Day Trip in Michigan

If you were looking to take a day trip throughout your state, what would be the amount of time you were willing to drive?

A day trip in my book Is about a 4-5 hour drive. I would probably even do 6, but 7-8 I'd say is a bit much. I've thought about how I could drive in my state for as long as it took me to get to New Jersey! Michigan is huge! Because of that I’m always ready to be up early and on the road get to the destination as early as possibly. It helps that I’m definitely a morning person, especially when it comes to going on trips, so waking up extra early to start driving is not an issue!

My favorite place to take a day trip will be no surprise to you if you know me personally. I grew up going to Mackinac Island every year in the summer. My grandparents would rent a cottage on the island for the month of July and the whole family would come up whenever they could.

Fun fact! I started riding horses because of going to the island. All I wanted was to be able to go on a trail ride on the horses, and my mom said no way until I at least took one lesson. Here we are 14 years later.

Mackinac to me is like stepping away from reality. It really feels like you’re in a whole different world. If you have the chance to go there for any amount of time you should take full advantage.

On my birthday a few years ago me and my best friend Mel were in my jeep before 7 AM eating breakfast and headed up the highway to I-75 North. We crossed the Mighty Mac and I believe we were on the 1:00 boat to the island.

We first walked to the Grand Hotel and went to have Strawberry Daiquiris on the famous front porch!

After that we headed back into town to shop through some of the stores, Poppins is the main go-to store they always have such cute stuff! We also had to get our favorite pizza at The Island Slice. I would drive up there right now just for their breadsticks.

We ate our pizza in the park and walked up the 200+ stairs that lead to the East Bluff. This is where our cottage we would rent is at! The east bluff is one of the prettiest views on the island.

We watched some boats come and go, took pictures, and walked on a hiking trail that is basically above the stairs, it leads you to an outlet above the park where you can see right through town at all the horses, bikers, and families enjoying the scenery.

We were on the 7:00 boat back to the mainland, and stopped to take pictures at the bridge. We also had to change in the jeep out of our cute dresses/rompers we wore over there, back to sweatpants and t-shirt’s for the drive home.

We were home a little after midnight that day. We had such a blast and a 5 hour car ride with your best friend goes by like it’s nothing.

I definitely want to write a post for specific things to do on the island for new visitors that you might not normally think to go do!

The Tunnel of Trees is a gorgeous drive to take, especially in the fall! One day in early October me and Mel woke up again quite early and were ready for an adventure. On the road by 8:00 and headed to M119!

I remember we didn’t have an exact address, so when we got to the location we found on google it was just some cross roads .. whoops! But we were close to the water so at that point we were able to use the map on our phone to keep us going north. I think that was the most fun part of our trip, we secretly didn’t really know where we were going.

We found M119 and the trees looked like something you’d see on a postcard. The trees stood tall full of bright yellows, oranges, and reds, everywhere you looked. Our goal was to figure out how to get down to the lake. The highway sits up really high so you’re over looking the water, and every place with a view was private property.

We both ended up without service, and once we got to the end we decided our end goal was to make it to the Mackinac Bridge! You’re not up north unless you cross the bridge in my brain! We took a bunch of backroads the whole way up, and ended up finding almost like mini sand dunes, that led right out to the water! We parked the jeep on the side of the road and ran out to the lake!

We did making it up and over the bridge, and then headed back home. It was so much fun just finding new places to explore that we normally wouldn’t have found!

(I cant get this lake picture to rotate I'm sorry!)

Silver lake sand dunes is another place that would be super fun for a day trip! My personal two experiences at the dunes did not go well so I’m secretly paranoid to try going again. I think a weekend at the dunes would be more worth it compared to a day trip but it’s not the far from Metro Detroit so with an early wake up you could definitely make it happen!

St Helen trails is a great place to get your jeep out and see some pretty views no matter what season! I have been in the Fall and Winter and both times were such a blast. The trails were great in the snow. On that trip we left a day early because there was a giant snow storm coming so we wanted to be there before it hit.

We stayed at a hotel in West Branch so it was a super short drive to get on the trails!

Every trip could be more fun with a few extra days of course. When we went to Mackinac we stayed in St Ignace we stayed in some super nice hotels for great prices for a night or two, even with planning not that far in advanced!

I’m hoping my next day trip will either be to Indiana or Wisconsin, they both aren’t super far away from home and there’s a few different places I’ve looked into going! Hopefully I’ll be writing about those adventures soon!