Mackinac Island Tour 2004
| In Woodfill Park, we got probably as close as one can get to the property of the Grand Hotel without having to pay for it. There were little painted fences and lots of flowers, and people playing croquet on the lawn. |
| And now here is the warning. If you want to take a good shot of the Grand Hotel, for free, this is about as good as it's going to get. West Bluff Road, the road which leads past the Victorian cottages on the West Bluff, leads straight past the front of the Grand and of course I had intended on taking it, just to get to see the cottages--I've had a long-standing grudge against the Hotel because personally, I think it's rather an eyesore. Still, I thought, since I don't have any pictures of it, and so many OTHER people love it, I may as well take at least a few, and so here you go. This is probably the last time you will see it featured on my site except in distant photos because I do not plan to set foot near it ever again. >:P
You see, Ma and I walked all the way up West Bluff Road to the front of the Grand, intending to ONLY pass by the front, on our way to the bluff. We knew well that you cannot walk upon the porch of the Grand without paying a fee, so we didn't even intend to do that--what can I say, we're cheap. (More like, not the best off, financially; and I do not personally see the thrill in paying to walk on a hotel's porch, even if it is the longest front porch in the world. *shrug*) And based on what I've seen of the interior of the Hotel on TV, it's nothing to write home about--trust me, it's NOT all pretty and Victorian like you'd expect. More like horrid mismatched retro Seventies style. *aak* Well anyway...as soon as we had gotten up the hill and this close to the Hotel, we found a sign stating that persons walking on Hotel property must be dressed in DRESS CLOTHES, which meant suit and jacket for men, and no slacks on women. This baffled us--were they serious?? What, by the way, counted as "Hotel property"? Surely not the road...? We saw a pair of people dressed rather normally go on ahead, and so attempted to pass by ourselves. Two women, Hotel workers, were chatting near the porch and spotted us; one came up to wave us back. We were NOT allowed to pass the Hotel as we were, without paying the $10 fee. That's right--West Bluff Road, which is public as it leads out of town, and public again on the West Bluff, is HOTEL PROPERTY out front of the Grand. You cannot traverse it for free. (Unless you are approaching from the opposite direction--the West Bluff itself.) That was bad enough, but we could handle it--we'd just have to find another way. But as we walked away the employees LAUGHED, and rather loudly at that--and so that is why I am quite peeved about our Grand Hotel experience. You really cannot fault a tourist for being so naive as to think a public street is public all the way through. We may have assumed too much in not paying proper attention to the (IMO) vague warning sign posted there, but there was really no need to laugh at our ignorance! We are Michiganders too, you know! And lest you are wondering, no, there is NO alternate route provided in the vicinity of West Bluff Road--we had to head back to Cadotte Avenue, keep walking ahead, and turn out BACK of the Hotel, onto Algonquin Road, then turn and double back just to reach the bluff! This road is very steep and tiny (as well as unmarked) and I could swear we were passing through private property, it was so still and abandoned. o_o;; That was not the only time I'd get that feeling while wandering on the West Bluff. *groans* Well, that's our horrible Grand Hotel experience (sorry for the melodrama!); if you don't mind paying the fee to walk past the place, more power to you, but we just did not wish to spend our money on that this time around... (One interesting thing in this shot--peek down at the lower left corner, for the sight of a topiary cut to look like two horses pulling a carriage.) Back to the tour! |
| Once we had trudged up Algonquin Road and made our way to Pontiac's Lookout...this is the view we had of the Straits. There is Round Island and the Round Island Lighthouse in the distance, and you can see part of the west shore down below. |
| I must confess...after all that trouble, I was not much impressed with the West Bluff cottages, and so took only one photo of any of them! :/ That photo is here. They look nice from a distance, but up close they are all rather bland compared to those down near the shore (see previous tours for those). All of that trouble for this! So if you want so badly to see some pretty cottages, perhaps you should save your energy for the west shore rather than the West Bluff.
I then intended to take Pontiac's Trail on my way to seek out Lover's Leap and Chimney Rock...but again, my plans were foiled, as the precarious trail was strung with orange warning tape. Drat! Ma and I parted ways here, and I was left on my own to wander around the West Bluff and try to find some landmarks. I am NEVER, EVER going to try this again... >_< |
| I must confess, that no matter how unpleasant my West Bluff meandering turned out to be, they did have some pretty roads there... |
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