Thursday morning, we remembered the crowds Wednesday at lower falls, and arrived at the upper Tahquamenon Falls about 8 am. We visited all the lookouts and 92 stairsteps down to the brink and climbed down all the steps of the gorge trail (116 one way) and were almost back to the van before we saw the first person. (416 stairsteps done before breakfast). We saw a total of 6 people on our morning hike. The upper falls are far more impressive than the lower but there is no swimming, so families probably like the lower falls better. The Tahquamenon River feeds the upper and lower falls as it runs north to Lake Superior. The Upper Tahquamenon Falls is Michigan’s largest waterfall. The Upper Falls are nearly 200 feet across and 50 feet high. Each second you spend at the viewing platform, up to 50,000 gallons of water flow down the falls right before your eyes! Pretty impressive.
Upper Falls parking lot at 8:15 am. At Lower Falls the day before people were driving round and round trying to find a place to park.
Tahquamenon Upper Falls
Viewing the Upper Falls
Some of the steps to the base of Upper Falls
View from the bottom of Upper Falls
After our trip down to Upper Falls, we came back to the campground and cooked up a package of bacon, some of which we saved for future use.
We left Tahquamenon Falls State Park around noon headed for the north shore of the upper peninsula. Two of our Bible study friends, Geane and Bill, recommended we check out Oswald’s Bear Ranch in Newberry, MI. We did and are glad. There are about 40 North American Black bears at the ranch who for many reasons are not able to live in the wild. We could have spent much more time in the park, but we had a boat to catch.
The bears appear to be well cared for.
At some of the enclosures there are elevated platforms so visitors can look over the fence.
Visitors can buy apple to feed the bears, so the bears try to look cute so you will feed them.
Posing for a portrait
A couple of yearlings play fighting
This little cub looks sad but we have to remember all these bears are rescues and probably would not have survived if not for the ranch. Actually, this cub was on picture duty. Visitors could pay $10 have a picture made with it.
He headed on to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. You may recall we were at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore a few years ago and Sleeping Dunes National Lakeshore earlier in this trip. Those are the only three National lakeshores in the US. You can see a lot of the beauty of the lakeshores from hikes but we decided to do the boat tour at Pictured Rocks. We had a two hour tour on a catamaran and it was great! Pictures really don’t do it justice but it’s the best we have for you.
Our tour boat
Miner’s Castle
Examples of some of the colors in the rocks caused by different minerals brought out of the rocks by water seepage.
A seagull nesting area in the rocks
Indian Head Rock
The captain advised us not to show our love by jumping off Lover’s Leap because the water is on 3′ deep underneath.
Battleship Row
The Flower Vase. There is not enough soil on top to keep the tree alive. It depends on the root that extends across to the other rocks. The root developed on a rock bridge that has since collapsed leaving the root in the air.
If you look closely in the previous picture, you can see one of three Bald Eagles we saw on the cruise in the top of the tree.
We also saw this juvenile eagle and one other adult in flight.
Spray Falls and more examples why this is called pictured rocks. Our captain told us people saw all kinds of images in the rocks – from pirates to dinosaurs. He told us one boy said he saw a picture of Dwayne Johnson, but all he really saw was the Rock.
The trip out was cloudy and windy but we were able to get the pictures we wanted. The trip back was rainy so we just looked.
The rain broke long enough to get a picture of the East Channel Lighthouse
Next we headed back south to Lake Michigan and another Boondockers Welcome site.
While we were working on the blog at our site, we got a message from our hosts that there was a rainbow over the lake. Of course we had to rush out and get a picture for you.
RVing With a Purpose 