>>13299719Sault Ste. Marie is just a tourist trap for people who want to see the freighters go up and down in the locks. There's a low quality college there too (Lake Superior State). Canadian side is much better.
St. Ignace is a parking lot with hotels for tourists who want to take the ferry to Mackinac Island and aren't driving up from the lower peninsula.
On the left side of the oval is Marquette which is the most developed city, used to be a big mining town but those shut down decades ago and now the economy is entirely dependent on the university there (Northern Michigan). It's very liberal as a result.
Munising is a small town for tourists who want to go on a boat cruise or kayak Pictured Rocks (beautiful in the summer).
The best place IMO where you circled is Tahquamenon Falls, specifically the lower falls which you can walk. Pic related.
There's nothing much else really. A pretty cool shipwreck museum at the top of the oval. A spring outside Manistique called Kitch-Iti-Kipi, and miles of woods and beaches with water that is too cold to swim in. Internet and cell service sucks throughout the UP.
Honestly the UP is overrated. It's just a place where people go for a couple months in the summer to see the same few tourist sites. Lakes are too cold to ever swim in. There's biting black flies everywhere. You can get most of what is in the UP in the lower peninsula once you go north of Clare.
