hale

Rifle River

2026 Vacation: Hale, Michigan

For the last leg of our summer holiday, we traveled down to Hale, Michigan, to stay with my dad.

We try to do this every summer. My dad has an RV on his property, which helps us feel like we’re camping out, and we join my sister and other family members for a big get-together over the long summer weekend.

For the first part of our vacation, it was just us five – driving around Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, going hiking, venturing out to see new places. Now, it was a big, noisy crowd of family. A capstone on our two-week getaway.

We went swimming and kayaking in the Rifle River Recreation Area, on a remote, wild lake. We grabbed the paddle board and paddled around Long Lake. 

It was one of those #PureMichigan settings – the ideal version of what a vacation should be.

The sad part was that we’d be heading home after this was over.

But before that? We’d enjoy every minute of it.

Summer’s not over yet, after all. 

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Hale

It’s been a year of new homes, with our family’s, and my dad purchasing a cabin in Hale, Michigan – in the northeast, close to Lake Huron.

We took Independence Day weekend and traveled there for the first time. It was our chance to get out of town, spend some summer days outside, and see a new place. 

We found everything we were looking for in the pastoral scenery, the cool and clear lakes, and the natural beauty you find in northern Michigan. 

I almost brought a film camera to fit the setting. After all, every 50 miles you go north you travel back in time 10 years. But that will have to wait. I didn’t want to fuss with film and settings and remembering how to use my Canon AE-1. I wanted to keep it simple.

Simple is good. That’s why we’re here. 

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