Fayette State Park and Exploring the Garden Peninsula

It is said that the Garden Peninsula got its name because Native Americans living in the western UP would travel here to plant their gardens because of its rich soils and favorable weather. Farming is still very important in the Garden Peninsula, especially wind farming. We camped at the Bay Ridge RV Park and will include footage of and information about the campground at the end of this video. All the footage and photos in this video are by me and the music is by my daughter Aspen. If you like the video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:51 The Geology of The Garden Peninsula
01:38 Fayette State Park & Garden Historical Museum
07:59 4-Wheeling in Lake Superior State Forest
12:35 Bay Ridge RV Park
14:11 Kitch-iti-kipi, Palms Book State Park

The Geology of The Garden Peninsula
The Garden Peninsula extends 22 miles southwestward into Lake Michigan. The peninsula is part of the Niagara Escarpment that stretches from New York to Illinois. The glaciers and erosion that gave Michigan its mitten-like shape also stripped away the surrounding, softer layers leaving the limestone Niagara escarpment, which is named after its most famous feature, Niagara Falls.

Fayette State Park and
It was partly the limestone cliffs that attracted the Jackson Iron Co in the late 1860s to establish a smelting plant on the Garden Peninsula. They found an excellent harbor that had an abundance of raw materials including the limestone that was needed to support the smelting process and named the site Fayette in honor of their general manager, Fayette Brown. The State of Michigan acquired Fayette in 1959. Beyond the 711-acre park’s 1880s’ town site, there is a mile-long sandy beach, playground, picnic area, marina, five miles of hiking trails and a 61 site semi-modern campground.

If you visit the area, besides touring the State Park, also visit the Garden Peninsula Historical Museum in the city of Garden. Located in a former schoolhouse, the museum displays items from the peninsula's rich history including lumbering, fishing and the people of the cities of Garden and Fayette. This museum is a good complement to visiting the Fayette plant and city.

4-Wheeling in Lake Superior State Forest
The Garden Peninsula today is mostly agricultural and forest lands as well as an important area for wind farming. Wanting to get off the pavement for a while, I drove our Jeep down some dirt roads and two tracks taking in the sights. Then, after studying the topographical map of the peninsula and the seasonal forest road system that traversed the state forest lands, I spotted a place called Sucker Lake on the eastern Lake Michigan shoreline. I asked the boys if they were interested in an adventure to find Sucker Lake and they said with a name like Sucker, how could we not go looking for it. So, off the pavement we went.

Bay Ridge RV Park
We camped at Bay Ridge RV Park which was a fine base of operations for exploring the Garden Peninsula. Built in 2016, the park was still pretty new, and the modern bathrooms, showers, and laundry facilities were spotless. They have about 50 RV sites that overlook Big Bay De Noc. Every site has full water and sewer hookups, electrical service, a fire pit and a picnic table. A short walk down a path will take you to the waterfront where there is a sandy beach, a restaurant called The Dock and a marina.

Kitch-iti-kipi, Palms Book State Park
On our way home from the Garden Peninsula, we stopped at Palms Book State Park which is near the northeast end of the peninsula and along our way back to the Mackinac Bridge. Palms Book was acquired by the state of Michigan in 1926 and contains (Kitch it a Kipee), Michigan's largest natural freshwater spring.

This is a beautiful spot worth a visit if you are in the Garden Peninsula area. Thanks for watching our video. If you find it interesting, please subscribe to our channel. Keep wandering and stay curious friends!

Keep Wandering!
Ken Jacobsen, Jr.

About
A Visceral Life is dedicated to the explorations of the Jacobsen Family. All video footage is captured by Ken, and all music is by Aspen Jacobsen. Our videos capture our backpacking, camping and nature photography trips to wild places. We hope our nature videography and their music soundtracks inspire others to both explore and preserve our natural environment as well as fight nature deficit disorder.

Support All Our Creative Endeavors at   / aviscerallife  
Buy Photographic Prints at https://www.aViscerallife.com
Listen To Aspen's Music at https://www.AspenJacobsen.com/music
Aspen's YouTube Channel:    / aspenjacobsen  

#Camping #campingvideos #GoWild #keepwandering