Menominee to Escanaba

Spiking south like a canine tooth between Wisconsin and the waters of Green Bay, the triangle of land comprising Menominee County and southern Delta County has been dubbed the peninsula’s “banana belt.”

Well, it does have the U.P.’s most temperate climate, thanks to the warm (okay, relatively warm) waters of protected Green Bay, and the lightest snowfall in the entire Upper Peninsula [1]—just 50 inches a year on average, a quarter of what typically falls on the rest of the U.P.

M-35 traces the shore of Green Bay, from Menominee [2], a handsome community near the Wisconsin border, to Escanaba [3], a sizable town by the U.P.’s standards, with a downtown district of shops, restaurants, and historic structures.

Getting There

The closest airport to this region is Delta County Airport (ESC) (3300 Airport Rd., Escanaba, 906/786-4902, www.deltacountymi.org/airport.php [4]), which offers limited service via Northwest Airlines. In addition, Greyhound (800/231-2222, www.greyhound.com [5]) provides bus service to Escanaba.

Still, the most common way to visit Menominee and Delta Counties is via car. From St. Ignace [6], U.S. 2 heads west to Gladstone and Escanaba, from which M-35 leads you down to Menominee.