Headlands International Dark Sky Park

Last fall there was a weekend when it was predicted there would be good chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan. We decided to take a shot and drove to the Headlands dark sky park about 4 hours north of our house. We stopped in Mackinaw City to eat dinner, do some shopping, and buy fudge.

This isn't what we saw, this is a sign at the park with what we hoped to see.

We found a nice spot on the shore of Lake Michigan and setup our chairs and blankets and hoped for the best.

This the event center at the park. There was a wedding reception going which was a surprise since we expected the park to be completely dark when the sun goes down. As it turns out all events have to end by dusk so they can turn the lights off.

We saw geese which we can see at home at almost anytime.

We saw a beautiful sunset over the lake.

Once it got dark we saw fireworks across the bay.

We saw the moon.

More fireworks.

And finally once it was completely dark we saw stars, lots and lots and stars. However we never saw any northern lights and about midnight we packed up and drove home in the middle of night. The highlight of the trip was the fudge.