Castle Rock: 170 Steps, One Dollar and One Heck of a View

You know you're at an old-school U.P. roadside attraction when you're greeted by a giant Paul Bunyan and a giant blue ox.

Next to them is a souvenir shop.

Behind them is a giant chunk of rock.

And somewhere way up there is an observation area that requires climbing about 170 steps to reach.

Oh yeah...

And as of 2026, they'll still let you climb it for a buck.

Welcome to Castle Rock.

I've driven past places like this before and wondered whether they're actually worth stopping for or if they're mostly there to separate tourists from a few dollars.

Castle Rock definitely has that old-school tourist attraction look.

Giant statues. Souvenirs. Stairs leading up a rock.

You know the type.

But for a dollar?

I figured I was going up.

And once I got to the top, I realized something.

The view is actually pretty darn good.

## Castle Rock Was Here Before the Mackinac Bridge

Castle Rock sits about three miles north of St. Ignace, near I-75 Exit 348.

But this roadside attraction goes back to a time when there wasn't an I-75 here.

There wasn't even a Mackinac Bridge.

Clarence and Helen Eby acquired Castle Rock in 1929, and Clarence opened the attraction to tourists that same year.

The Mackinac Bridge wouldn't open until 1957.

That means people were stopping to climb Castle Rock 28 years before they could drive across the Mackinac Bridge.

Think about that for a second.

In those early years, somebody coming from the Lower Peninsula couldn't just drive across the Straits and head north.

They would've crossed by ferry.

And Castle Rock was already waiting for them on the other side.

I think that's one of the coolest parts of this place. Castle Rock isn't just made to look like an old U.P. roadside attraction.

It actually is one.

And even more impressive, the Eby family continues to operate the attraction today.

## Originally, There Weren't 170 Steps

The climb has changed quite a bit since 1929.

When the Ebys first arrived, there weren't any stairs leading visitors to the top. People used a foot trail around the backside of the rock.

Clarence Eby added wooden stairs and a catwalk around 1931-32, and concrete stairs came later, after World War II.

Today, you're looking at roughly 170 steps, along with a ramp and catwalk leading toward the observation area.

And yeah...

You know you're climbing them.

This isn't one of those roadside stops where you step out of the vehicle, snap a picture and you're back on the road five minutes later.

You've got some climbing to do.

Not a mountain expedition or anything.

But 170 steps are still 170 steps.

You have to earn this view a little bit.

## Then You Get Up There

And once you do?

Yeah... okay.

Now I get it.

Castle Rock rises about 195 feet above the nearby water level and approximately 183 feet above I-75.

That doesn't mean the rock itself is simply a 195-foot-tall pillar sticking straight out of the ground.

But once you're standing at the observation area looking down toward the highway and surrounding forest...

You're definitely high enough.

On a clear day, Castle Rock says the view can extend for roughly 20 miles.

You can look out toward Lake Huron, Mackinac Island, St. Ignace and the surrounding landscape. Current St. Ignace tourism information also includes views of the Mackinac Bridge.

And that's where Castle Rock surprised me.

I expected the giant statues.

I expected the souvenir shop.

I expected the stairs.

What I wasn't really expecting was to get up there and think...

Okay, this was actually worth climbing.

The giant lumberjack and blue ox might get you to pull into the parking lot.

The view is what makes the climb worth it.

## Yep... It Used to Cost a Dime

This might be my favorite Castle Rock fact.

Admission started at 10 cents in 1929.

And it stayed a dime into the late 1970s.

Castle Rock even advertised itself with the slogan:

"Stop and climb, it's still a dime."

That's fantastic.

Today, you're going to have to dig a little deeper into your pockets.

As of 2026?

One dollar.

Seriously.

A roadside attraction that's been operating for nearly a century and they're still basically saying, "Ahh, give us a buck and go climb the thing."

I kinda love that.

Prices can obviously change, so it's worth checking before visiting.

But in 2026, a dollar doesn't buy you much.

Apparently, it still buys you Castle Rock.

## The Rock Is Older Than the Roadside Attraction

With Paul Bunyan, Babe the Blue Ox, the gift shop and the giant sign out front, it'd be easy to think of Castle Rock as nothing more than an old tourist attraction.

But the formation underneath all of that is the real deal.

Castle Rock is made of resistant Mackinac Breccia, and ancient wave action associated with Lake Nipissing helped shape the rock and surrounding cliff.

There's more geological complexity to it than simply calling it an old sea stack, so I'm not going to turn this into Geology 101.

The important part is pretty simple.

Paul Bunyan might be a tourist attraction.

The rock isn't.

Nature was working on this place long before anybody thought about charging a dime to climb it.

## Paul and Babe Came Later

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox have become such a recognizable part of Castle Rock that I would've assumed they'd been there from the beginning.

They haven't.

Castle Rock had already been operating for about 30 years when Paul and Babe were added in 1959.

Current St. Ignace tourism history credits local folk artist Ralph McCary with creating them.

And honestly?

They belong here.

They're big.

They're goofy.

They're standing next to a giant rock beside the highway.

It's pretty much everything you could ask for from an old-school U.P. roadside attraction.

Castle Rock without the giant lumberjack and blue ox would almost feel wrong now.

## Take a Look Inside the Gift Shop Too

Don't completely ignore the gift shop on your way to the stairs.

There's another little piece of Castle Rock history hiding inside.

The birch-bark walls and ceiling date to the early 1950s and are credited to local Native American artisans.

I don't have reliable names or tribal affiliations for the people who created the work, so I'm not going to guess.

But it's worth slowing down for a minute and looking around before heading outside.

Even the gift shop has been here long enough to have a story.

And at Castle Rock, that somehow seems fitting.

## What About "Pontiac's Lookout"?

You may also see Castle Rock associated with the name "Pontiac's Lookout."

This is one of those stories where local tradition and documented history aren't necessarily the same thing.

Castle Rock has long been promoted locally under that name and associated with an Indigenous lookout tradition.

What we don't have is solid evidence establishing that Chief Pontiac himself actually stood on Castle Rock and used it as a lookout.

So I'd treat that part as local historical tradition rather than settled history.

Could there be more to the story?

Maybe.

But based on what we actually know, that's as far as I'd take it.

Sometimes "we don't really know" is the right answer.

## Before You Climb

Castle Rock is located at N2690 Castle Rock Road in St. Ignace, near I-75 Exit 348.

Parking is right at the attraction.

It's generally open seasonally from around May into October, but check current hours and admission before making a special trip.

Pets are permitted but must be leashed.

There's also an important accessibility distinction.

The gift shop is accessible.

Castle Rock itself is not wheelchair accessible.

Reaching the observation area requires making the stair and ramp climb, so those roughly 170 steps aren't optional if you want the view from the top.

And after climbing them myself?

Yeah... I'd plan on taking your time.

The view isn't going anywhere.

## Is Castle Rock Worth Stopping For?

Yep.

And I think part of the reason I like it is because Castle Rock hasn't tried to become something it isn't.

It's an old U.P. roadside attraction.

There's a giant Paul Bunyan.

There's Babe the Blue Ox.

There's a souvenir shop.

There's a whole bunch of stairs.

There's a weird old slogan about paying a dime.

And there's a family that's been welcoming people here since 1929.

It's a little goofy.

Actually, that's part of the fun.

Because then you climb those 170 steps...

walk out to the observation area...

look across Lake Huron and the St. Ignace area...

and realize there's a genuinely impressive view hiding behind all that roadside-tourist weirdness.

That's what surprised me.

Castle Rock is a little goofy.

It's a little nostalgic.

It's been doing basically the same job for nearly a century.

And somehow, in 2026, it still costs about a buck.

So if I'm driving past and somebody in the vehicle says, "Eh... we're already here. Wanna climb it?"

For a dollar?

Yeah.

I'm going up.

That's about as Roadside Stops as it gets.