Steve Hamilton of Hamilton’s North Coast Adventures

As a Wisconsin transplant, Steve Hamilton is embracing the Yooper lifestyle and welcoming visitors to experience adventure in the U.P.

Born in a small farming community in southern Wisconsin, Steve Hamilton has always been a fan of exploring the great outdoors. He first fell in love with snowmobiling growing up in Waunakee, when his family purchased their first sled to enjoy wintertime activities. Steve spent his days outdoors with his family riding ATVs, snowmobiling and hunting.

During his sophomore year of high school, he started a photography company, WFO FOTO, which took him on trips across the snow belts of the U.S. working in snowmobile and ATV racing. As a fan of those sports, Steve used the side hobby of photography to get him as close to the action as possible. 

Steve attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to study journalism and served for four years in the military. Throughout his late teens and early 20s, he also helped with his parents’ non-profit, the Wisconsin Military Snowmobile Ride, to execute its mission of safely exposing military members to snowmobiling.

While balancing his corporate gig with weekend snowmobiling trips to Wakefield, Michigan, a college friend encouraged Steve to leave his 9-to-5 to follow his passion. That’s when Steve started Hamilton’s North Coast Adventures in Ontonagon in 2016. Nestled near the Porcupine Mountains and Lake Gogebic, the business evolved from a weekend guide service to a full-time operation within five years.

In June 2023, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification announced Polaris Inc., the global leader in powersports, would receive $700,000 to establish a first-of-its-kind network of charging stations for electric off-road vehicles. The integrated network of multi-modal EV chargers that started in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula became available within a public off-road vehicle trail system. As a Polaris Adventures Outfitter, Hamilton’s North Coast Adventures became the first in the country to offer a rental fleet of the all-electric off-road RANGER XP Kinetic vehicles.

As he celebrates 10 years as a Yooper in 2025, Steve is proud to be a part of the “wild frontier” of the Western U.P. and invites others to experience it, too.

 

What inspired you to start Hamilton’s North Coast Adventures?

After several years of living back in my hometown and many years on the road traveling for business, I became burnt out. Having lost touch with everything that brought me to that point, I decided I needed to step away from it all and return to snowmobile riding. I began visiting Wakefield nearly every weekend, snowmobiling with new friends I made there through my travels. Finally, in February 2015, I decided to look for a job in the area after intolerable persistence from my college buddy, Matt Tingstad. I found a company in Wakefield and I moved north.

In November 2020, another college buddy of mine, Jay Mittelstaedt, clearly saw that I would be able to quit my normal 9-to-5 to focus full time on growing my guide operation, but I was too afraid of the unknown and fearful of a very narrow revenue stream – me! With some nudging and encouragement, I began looking for a place to create a campground for Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) riding and more. We quickly found our current location and began action plans to acquire it. We closed on the property in April 2021, I resigned from my full-time position, and I started full-time building out our business. 

 

How has your business grown and evolved over the years, particularly with the increase in EV technology and charging capabilities?

When the EV opportunity with Polaris and the MEDC came across my desk, I absolutely knew we were the ones to bring it to life. In June 2024, we launched the first-ever electrified public off-road trail system through the Polaris partnership with the MEDC. Our fleet of six machines and four charging stations across a nearly 100-mile loop opened our off-road sport to hundreds of first-time off-roaders in its first year alone. The vehicle looks identical to a normal internal combustion engine Polaris Ranger, except this one has nearly silent operation.  It lends itself extremely well to first-time riders as there is no revving engine or exhaust fumes that may take away from some riders’ experiences. 

I hold high regard for the privilege I feel I have in the opportunity to sell fun in Michigan’s wild U.P.  It’s been the most rewarding chapter of my life this far. I didn’t set out on this EV journey for sustainability or environmental activism, but I can tell you there was a barrel of oil not consumed in engines and well over 1,000 gallons of gas unburned through these EV rentals. That puts a big smile on my face.

     

What are the various opportunities available for those visiting Hamilton’s North Coast Adventures?

The best value we provide is our sincere appreciation for the time and energy our customers spent just getting away and finding us. We know the mountains they moved to be here, and we hope they trust that we have plans and activities to reward those efforts. We offer the Western U.P.’s No. 1 waterfall UTV tour, the Borderland Waterfall tour. It takes you through the amazing rugged and wild terrain of the extreme Western U.P.’s border with Wisconsin and the amazingly large waterfalls that dot it. You can rent one of our UTV machines, gas or electric, or bring your own, and your friends, and follow us for an eight- to nine-hour excursion through 85-140 miles of trails along the border of Michigan and Wisconsin. 

We also offer a 40-site campground designed for the largest RVs down to tent campers. All sites are wooded, and we feature business class, 10-access point fiber Wi-Fi system for the busiest digital nomads around! We expect to break ground in July on a brand-new shower, laundry and bathroom facility that we expect to open in summer 2025. Our campground sits on our over 1,000-acre private ranch filled with abundant wildlife from the upland to the wetland. We welcome our guests to explore the over 12 miles of private trails.

 

What does it mean to you to be a part of the state’s thriving outdoor recreation industry?

As a Cheesehead transplant to Michigan’s premier peninsula, the Upper Peninsula, I take immense pride in creating a business that truly brings greater appreciation to our natural world around us. I feel that I have a tremendous privilege and honor in the fact that I get to share my wild and undeveloped corner of the U.P. through every season with other like-minded people. Whether it’s the roaring spring waterfall season, the brilliance of the trillium bloom of early June, the lupine and wildflower blooms of late June, the berry ripening of late July and August or the final glorious fall color blooms, there’s always something to leave you speechless. Don’t get me wrong, us Yoopers have required intimacy with mud season.  But no matter the time of year, Michigan is surely ‘Michiganing,’ as I like to say. She’s doing something epic and awesome somewhere, you just have to know where to look. Or in our case, who to ask!

 

What do you think sets Michigan – and the U.P. – apart from other places?

Michigan has something rare in the Western U.P., and I feel it’s the notion of a wild frontier. For the first time in over 100 years, just 20 miles east of my location, mountain lion cubs were discovered.  It’s actually getting wilder here! 

Apart from the rural, wild, undeveloped feeling that permeates everything, Michigan recreation is simply in good hands. Michigan is the leading model of protecting motorized recreation through user-funded permanent easement purchases. This is bringing permanence to our recreation-based tourism economy that doesn’t exist elsewhere. I’ve worked hand-in-hand with Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) Parks and Recreation Trail Division staff for nearly a decade and I can tell you the passion for the sports I love is shared by many in the department. If not for the sport, they absolutely love what motorized trails do for our underserved rural communities here in Ontonagon County.  In my time volunteering for organizations that maintain our trails, I’ve helped execute millions of dollars’ worth of grants from our user-funded trail program. All of that was facilitated by MDNR staff. 

Further, we have a state willing to invest in cutting-edge recreation technologies that bring our state and specifically my region an opportunity no one else in the world has. We still have a long way to go to actually capitalize on the low-hanging fruits of opportunity that exist here. What also sets specifically our area apart are the passionate non-profit clubs that maintain the trails we operate the rental program on. MI-TRALE is Michigan’s largest ATV club, and they call Ontonagon home.  These public-private partnerships are the cornerstone of the success of Michigan trails.

     

Outside of work, what are some of the things you enjoy doing in the U.P. and around the state?

I’m an entrepreneur. Every day is Monday and there are 365 of them in a row! Jokes aside, spending time visiting my family is my number one hobby outside of work. With them, I get to hunt white\tail deer, turkey and bear, and go slalom water skiing. I absolutely love to float-camp down rivers, fishing along the way. 

One of the main things I enjoy doing outside of work is volunteering my time to help my local trail organizations. These are the non-profits that make and keep our trails open, and without them there would be no trails. I can remember when I was six or seven, running around restaurants during snowmobile club meetings with my dad. It was always understood if you wanted nice things, we had to put in our own sweat equity. It’s why I spent 2016-2023 leading the Gogebic Range Trail Authority Snowmobile & ORV club as president. After I opened shop on another club’s trail system, I quickly became their club secretary to fill a vacancy they had. It’s why I spend most of my winter nights volunteering to groom area snowmobile trails. Things are just better if we all win together.

Learn how the MEDC is helping support the state’s outdoor recreation industry.