Summer of 18-#38-Mackinac Island Carriage Tour

Sunday August 19th, 2018 

This blog is just about the carriage tour and places we saw while on the tour on Mackinac Island today.  For the rest of the day, before we got on the tour and after we left Fort Mackinac, please see the other blog HERE.  If you've already read that, you can disregard the link.


The first thing we did after reaching Mackinac Island was to go on the carriage tour with Mackinac Island Carriage Tours.  We walked from the ticket office to where we could board the carriage.

These was our horses, carriage and driver.  

We started off along the main street.  This carriage had two horses and it was quite narrow.  They were squashing four people into a row and to be honest it was a squeeze, and you couldn't see a lot in front or past people sitting on the side. Fortunately the four of us were in one row, and so we had the two guys on the edges and Kathy & I in the middle, so at least we could get some pictures.

Andy, I didn't know you had a hotel here!!!

Going along the main street

Heading up the road toward the fort.

We turned off on one of the side streets.

It was more laid back and not as crowded.

There were several hotels and B&B's.

More horses & bicycles for hire

Cute shops

and houses

One of the private carriages for hire

French Outpost Restaurant, loved the turtles!!!

Getting around on horseback

The Grand Hotel is a luxurious hotel on the island with luxurious prices and dress codes.  Reading the wikipedia site it says that Carleton Varney designed the hotel.  Maybe he was a descendant of mine, although I highly doubt it.  You never know though, my grandparents did own racehorses, go on cruises and have a chauffeur(family friend), when I was a child.  They were however the most down to earth people you could ever meet.  Here's a LINK if you want to look at, or book a room, or meal.

We headed further out of the town and away from the crowds.

Hey, there's an empty carriage.  I want to go on that one!!!!

The stables are behind here where the horses rest in between rides.

The carriage driver passed around a horseshoe of the type the horses here wear.  It is a special type of horseshoe.

I copied this from Midland Daily News.

"The horseshoe has a typical steel core that has rubber moulded around it, and the idea of rubber horseshoes is to prevent damage to the paved roadways.  Due to heavy horse drawn traffic on the roadways, steel horseshoes would be tearing up matters in no time.  Just as with tires for automobiles, rubber horseshoes get readily worn out after some mileage, and have to be replaced. A very important factor about these horseshoes is the tall steel toe-clip, which is needed due to Mackinac Island's up and down hilly terrain. When a horse is going downhill, the hoof slides forward, and if a toe-clip isn't present,the sliding action would literally pull the horseshoe off. A newly developed molded polyethylene horseshoe does all that the rubber ones do, except without any of the flaws, such as the rubber separating from the steel core on occasion."

Surrey Hill Square was the home to the carriage museum.  We were also required to change carriages at this location for the second part of the tour.  This gave you time to look around the museum, have something to eat and there is also a butterfly house here if you want to tour that.  The butterfly house was an extra cost and we decided not to do it.  We have to be mindful of the amount of walking we will be doing and we still wanted to tour the fort.

Our carriage and driver after we all got off at the Carriage Museum.  Those seats really aren't that long for four people.

It was a pretty shaded area.

We did look around the old carriages.

This one was on runners like a sleigh

I think this bear was real and about to steal my hat!!!!!

After we had looked around, grabbed donuts and a drink, we were ready to get on the next carriage.  This one was larger thankfully, and had three horses to pull it.  I thought it was more comfortable than the first and we weren't so squashed in.  

This part of the tour went into the more remote parts of the island.  The guide explained that the first part of the tour the guides have to cover a lot of the history and have to give a lot of information and tell bad jokes!!!!  It appeared that this part of the tour was more laid back and he liked to interact with his passengers.  He told us about the horses and their temperaments. They all had names but the middle horse was called Ryan and apparently he was the troublemaker of the three and would nudge the others and irritate them if he got a chance.  He had to control Ryan more than the other two.  Wonder how I managed to remember his name!!!!

The cemetery on Mackinac Island is an old one with  what's thought to be a catholic side and a protestant side. Also, a civil war cemetery. This LINK will tell you more about it.

Civil War Cemetery

We went past Skull Cave.  You can read more about it HERE.

Kathy & Johnny enjoying the ride.

The driver telling us about the area while letting the horses have a rest.

A peek-a-boo view of Lake Huron.

We stopped at Arch Rock for a very quick visit.  That is one problem when you go on tours, often they don't stop at the places that interest you for as long as you would like.  We had 7 minutes!!!  I realize this is probably due to the continuous tours that are coming here, and to accommodate more people.  There is not room for more than a couple of the carriages at a time.

Our carriage

It was beautiful but we really didn't have time to explore it fully or take pictures of the surrounding area.

The guide explained that this natural formation is eroding and the decision has been made to allow nature to take it's course.  They estimate that it will be gone in approx. 50 years or as he said probably in his lifetime!!!  Now, I really feel old!!!

If you rent a bike there are many trails to ride and you can take as long as you want at each attraction, as long as you don't get lost!!!

Our next stop was Fort Mackinac.  Here you had a choice to get off and explore the fort, and then you could either get on a later carriage back down to the town, or get off and walk back down to the town, or stay on the carriage and go back to town without getting off at the fort.  We decided to get off and explore the fort and then see how we felt as to whether we walked back to town or got a carriage.

This soldier greeted the carriage, welcoming us and giving us some information about the fort.  There were historical demonstrations going on during the day.

We walked around and looked in several of the buildings.  There were many museum type displays.

Overall though I think the views were the outstanding part.  The fort did not seem as authentic as some we have seen, although I believe it is.  I guess the buildings are just a different construction to those in the south and even at Niagara Falls.

Look at that view.  Good job I wasn't a soldier I'd be admiring the view daydreaming, instead of looking for the enemy!!

Restaurant at the fort

This is the gateway to the walkway down to the town.

 

These are the views from the platform shown in the above picture.

Parasailing, I've always wanted to do this but as someone who can't swim and doesn't like water on her face I don't think it's ever likely to happen.

I consider that the end of our carriage tour, because at this time we chose to walk back to town and not continue on the carriage.  The guide had explained to us that there was no further commentary on the carriage ride after the fort, so you didn't miss any information or sites by walking instead of riding.  

I was glad that they changed the carriages as I think it wouldn't have been so enjoyable on the smaller carriage for an extended time, and I'm glad we did the carriage tour as we saw & learned more about the island by doing it.