Mackinac Bridge Bypass: The Insane Journeys to Avoid Michigan’s Mighty Mac

The drive between Mackinaw City at the tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula to St. Ignace in the Upper Peninsula is a five mile jaunt across the narrowest point of the Straits of Mackinac via the Mackinac Bridge.

It's also a white-knuckle experience for some driving over the narrow, open-grate deck of the grand suspension bridge.

While the Mackinac Bridge Authority famously makes a service available to do drive worried motorists across the span, what would it look like to go between the two cities and not use the bridge?

That's the interesting idea raised on the Geography subreddit of Reddit asking if there were any places in the United States that could only be reached via a freeway.

The Straits of Mackinac: A Natural Bottleneck

Where there is almost no place that can't be reached via surface roads as an alternate to an expressway, not using I-75, the freeway designation for the Mackinac Bridge) to travel between Mackinaw City and St Ignace would turn a 5 mile trip into hours.

Using the bridge, we mapped a trip from the tip of Mackinaw City at Nicolet and Huron to the US 2 exit at St Ignace. It's 6 miles and estimated to take 10 minutes.

Mapping the Mackinac Detours: Around Lake Michigan vs. Via Canada

Make the loop around Lake Michigan and across both of Michigan's peninsulas and the 6 mile drive becomes a 15 hour/897 mile slog.

READ MORE: Could a Tunnel Replace the Mackinac Bridge Across the Straits? + The Secret Spot You Can Drive Under the Mackinac Bridge

Want to try Canada? Using the premise of the Reddit thread where expressways are prohibited, meaning the crossings at Sault Ste Marie and Port Huron are out.

Avoiding the Mackinac Bridge and routing via Canada with non-freeway border crossings in Detroit and Grand Portage, Minnesota would mean a 1,671 mile trip taking 27 hours to drive.

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To be fair, these are very much the routes of the Great Lakes Circle Tours. But, 897 miles around Lake Michigan or 1671 miles around Lakes Huron and Superior to drive the 5 miles spanned by the Mackinac Bridge makes I-75 the only choice even if you have to drive really slow across that Mighty Mac.