It’s no wonder some of Michigan’s best-known festivals take place in northwest Lower Michigan. This region has plenty to celebrate—from its tastiest crop to its splendid golf courses to fishing that’s the envy of the world. It’s enough to make an area break out in song—which it does splendidly too!

A can’t-miss event on the annual calendar is the National Cherry Festival (www.cherryfestival.org) in Traverse City. Merchants say they sell 40,000 pounds of red cherries the week of the festival. Organizers also line up more than 150 events under the festival umbrella in a single week—from national-name concerts to a milk carton boat race, from classic car shows to a Native American pow-wow.

This year’s Cherry Festival is July 2-9, 2005, and once again you can count on events, including free air shows over Traverse Bay, parades, concerts, sporting events, midway rides—plus the trademark pie-eating contests and other cherry delights!

This is the silver anniversary of the Blissfest Folk and Roots Music Festival (www.blissfest.org) in Cross Village, a celebration of traditional and innovative music from around the world. The July celebration features workshops, craft booths, concessions, camping and children’s music, arts and dance activities—plus top-flight musical acts. Three stages present about 30 acts during the weekend, with many repeat performances to make scheduling choices less painful. It’s all held at the 120-acre Blissfest Festival Farm in Harbor Springs.

Can’t make Blissfest’s Folk and Roots event? Last year the organization held its second annual Harbor Celtic Festival in late August in downtown Harbor Springs. All bets favor its repeat this year. And the Blissfest folks schedule other concerts and street music events throughout the year.

The Cadillac Jam Festival (www.cadillacjam.com) takes place a few weeks after school lets out, at the intersection of M-115 and US-131, just outside the city. The fun includes a three-on-three basketball tournament, a carnival, and two nights of good old-time rock’n’roll from some of the stars who first made it famous. Last year, they included Steppenwolf, Grand Funk Railroad and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels! You’re sure to drool over the vintage and collectible cars on display.

Another musical charmer is the annual Wheatland Music Festival (www.wheatlandmusic.org) in Remus. A September staple, it draws national-class folk music performers. This year will be its 32nd, and again you can expect music on two stages, food concessions, music workshops, and even free shuttles into Remus for shopping.

The Wheatland Music Organization also holds a Traditional Arts Weekend each May, with more than 80 workshops in traditional dance, crafts, vocal and instrumental music, plus evening performances and dances. The group also schedules art classes, dance lessons and other meetings throughout the year.

Fore, and much more!

Want to make a golfer celebrate? Give him or her a tee time for a golf course in northwest Lower Michigan. The first Michigan golf course opened here, in Harbor Springs in 1896. And while golfers no longer play its links, they have plenty of other options.

It’s no wonder that Golf Digest magazine, listing the world’s 50 greatest golf destinations, placed northern Michigan in the top dozen. The criteria? Plenty of great courses, superb settings, nearby attractions, amenities, and great places to stay, with good value and good service. The magazine was especially smitten with the Traverse City and Gaylord areas, where fine courses sprout like spring wildflowers.

Yes, thanks to the glaciers that left rolling topography and rich soils, and to the weather-moderating influence of nearby Lake Michigan, many of the state’s top golf courses are located in northwestern Michigan. Their magical names light up the faces of links-lovers: A-Ga-Ming at Kewadin; The Bear, The Wolverine and Spruce Run, all at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa; High Pointe near Williamsburg; Elmbrook, Bay Meadows and Crown, all near Traverse City; Kings Challenge and Sleeping Bear, near Sleeping Bear Dunes to the west; Leelanau Club at Bahle Farms, amidst a cherry orchard, and Mistwood near Leelanau; overlooking Crystal Lake and Lake Michigan at Beulah, Pinecroft and Champion Hill.

Mosey up toward Petoskey, and you can test your skills on favorites such as Bay Harbor, Boyne Highlands, Boyne Mountain, Chestnut Valley, Crooked Tree, Hidden Valley and Little Traverse Bay.

And, many other courses throughout northwestern Lower Michigan are, in the words of a feature on the West Michigan Tourist Association web site, “hidden gems.”

Shopping and sand

“Small town, big beach, close-by,” brags the Ludington Area Chamber of Commerce’s (www.ludingtoncvb.com) Web site, and it’s no idle boast.

As small as Ludington may be, it still offers all the fine dining and shopping experiences you could ask of a vacation destination. Thrilling dune rides to world-class fishing to exciting casino action, Ludington’s got it all, in a way that Jesuit missionary and explorer Fr. Jacques Marquette could never have imagined when he stepped ashore here in 1675. History buffs can visit his burial marker on the peninsula between Pere Marquette Lake and Lake Michigan.

Logging and lumber built this settlement in the mid-1800s. Shipping followed, and people quickly found it as attractive for recreation as for industry and commerce.

There’s plenty to keep you busy. Ludington State Park has 14 miles of hiking and bike trails, plus miles of sandy beach. Historic White Pine Village (www.historicwhitepinevillage.org) preserves and presents Mason County history in a community of 21 buildings. The Scottville Old Engine Club exhibits old engines and farm machinery within Scottville Riverside Park. And, of course, the Pere Marquette River, the first Michigan home to brown trout from Europe and rainbow (steelhead) trout from the Pacific Northwest, offers blue-ribbon fly fishing for those plus several other trout and salmon species.

Rock on!

How many towns have a stone named after them? Petoskey (www.petoskey.com), on Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay in the wonderful northwest, does.

A Petoskey stone is fossilized colony coral, a species scientists have named Hexagonaria percarinata—critters that lived in the seas that covered the Lower Peninsula about 350 million years ago!

Watch for Petoskey stones as you walk near road cuts, ditches, gravel pits and sand blows. Your best bet is probably along beaches, since the distinctive honeycomb pattern is much easier to see when the stone is wet. And don’t worry if you can’t find a Petoskey stone on your own, several area shops and jewelry stores have a polished one waiting for you!

Of course, there’s much more to do in and around Petoskey. Rent a pair of inline skates and stretch your legs on the Little Traverse Wheelway. If paddling’s more your kind of action, try a float in a rental canoe down the Bear River. Several downtown stores have just the carry-out treat to make a fine picnic in the park.
Bay Harbor History Museum or Little Traverse History Museum (www.petoskeymuseum.org) can fill your day with knowledge, the latter with a new exhibit exploring the influence the area had on author Ernest Hemingway, who summered here. Crooked Tree Arts Center (www.crookedtree.org) can provide inspiration and entertainment through visual and performing arts.

And, if deep down you just know it’s your lucky day, Victories Casino (www.victories.info) is near at hand.

A salmon shoreline

Northwest Michigan is where salmon from the Pacific Ocean first began to swim in Michigan anglers’ dreams and memories. It’s been nearly four decades since fishery managers planted first coho, then Chinook salmon in Platte Bay, hoping they’d adapt to freshwater and consume overabundant alewives—and maybe provide a bit of sport fishing.

Oh, and did they! Now Michigan’s king and coho fishing is the best in the nation, this region still leads the way.
Platte Bay itself is largely the playground of smaller boats. Only after dredging of that river mouth begins at Labor Day can even mid-size (say, 16-foot) boats journey easily onto the big water.

But Frankfort, just around Point Betsie, has everything a fishing boater could ask for—from restaurants and shops to a fine launch ramp and a thriving fleet of charter boats it shares with its across-the-Betsie-River neighbor, Elberta.

There’s good fishing, too, at every Lake Michigan port in this region, from Pentwater to Petoskey.

The best way to sample this fishing is on a charter boat. The Michigan Charter Boat Association (www.micharterboats.com) can help you find one. Licensed captains on inspected boats know where the fish are and what they’re biting on. Book a trip and bring your sunscreen and raingear, food and beverages, and a thirst for adventure. You won’t be disappointed.

In fact, there’s nothing about northwest Lower Michigan to make a vacationer anything but happy!

• Northwestern Michigan
  Many Reasons to Celebrate
• Northeastern Michigan
  Plan a Long Stay
• Southwestern Michigan
  Southwest can be "Up North" to travel-savvy
• Southeastern Lower Michigan
  Perfect Time to Visit
• Michigan's Upper Peninsula
  Pleasures Expected, and Unexpected