Simmons Road

Simmons Road is a nice drive. It runs maybe 15 miles north and northwest of Hessel, Michigan in the eastern Upper Peninsula. I think what I like the most about it are the areas where the trees form a canopy over the road. They are thick enough at points where the sunlight is noticeably dimmed. I don't mean dimmed like shady. I mean dimmed like twilight. It's a rather nice sight at two in the afternoon. If I tended toward the horror genre I could describe it as foreboding. But that would not be fair. It is serene and quiet and deserves to be mentioned as such.

There are other areas both in state and out of state I'm sure which are as compelling. M-119 in the tip of the Thumb is close. It is as I understand the least used signed highway in Michigan. The one time I drove it it was definitely unhindered by fellow travelers. I seem to remember (help me out, southern family) some dirt back roads in North Carolina which were similarly tunnelish. I enjoyed walking them as a youth.

Simmons Road runs through what used to be the town of Simmons. As near as my feeble research can tell, it disappeared from state maps in the middle 1960s. I have a Michigan map from 1964 which still notes it (it shows Islington too, just south of Cedarville which is east of Hessel) and a 1955 road atlas which shows it as well. The only reminder I noticed last Friday is the Simmons family cemetery. It appeared kept up and had graves marked as recently as 2016. Someone still has eyes for Simmons. That, I will argue, is good and well.

Anyway, I like driving the road less traveled and Simmons Road is a great example of one. If I get back in the fall I will aim for the time of the changing leaves. I have to believe it would be an especially beautiful drive then.