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.
Wednesday morning we left the Walmart parking lot and returned to the Rotary Park thinking it would be nice to watch the ships while we had breakfast. We had breakfast but not a single ship passed by the park. Guess that was why there was nobody else in the park. The locals know the schedules and we obviously did not. We still enjoyed the quietness of the park.
Our next stop was Whitefish Point which is the most northerly point on the east side of the UP, and about 75 miles from the Rotary Park. We enjoyed another beautiful day walking the shore of Lake Superior and admiring the rocks. Whitefish point is also the home to Whitefish Point Lighthouse and Whitefish Point Shipwreck Museum. We arrived just after 3 buses of children arrived – maybe a day camp? Anyway, we decided to view the outside of the buildings and take pictures but did not venture inside. The adults were struggling to herd their cats and we decided to stay out of their way.
Whitefish Point Lighthouse
This shows how large a ship’s rudder is.
A nice stroll on a pebble beach on Lake Superior
By then it was time for us to go to Tahquamenon Falls – lower falls. We arrived before our check-in time so we would have time to hike to the falls and see everything on the lower end and still have time to be ready for Bible Study. We did not count on the huge crowds of people at the lower falls.
There’s probably many messages in the words on the back of the Lower Falls sign
Tahquamenon Lower Falls. The water is brownish because of all the tannin it picks up coming down the river.
More of the Lower Falls
Crowded Lower Falls area
Crowded trail to Lower Falls
One of the places on the trail not full of people
At 3:00pm and not one minute before, they allowed us to check-in. Very inefficient way they handled the check-in process – but maybe they have their reasons. We made our reservation on Tuesday and got a nice pull through site. The only catch was that the trees had grown from what was shown in the online pictures. Starlink would not work. We thought that would be okay because we had excellent coverage with AT&T and Verizon. We had coverage all afternoon when we were preparing for the meeting but, when everyone else in the campground came home for the night and began streaming, we had nothing. We quickly drove to the front parking lot and set up Starlink with about five minutes to spare. Then, while we were streaming our meeting, there were some loud noises outside our window. We then noticed the big green steel box in the parking lot with us. It was a firewood dispensing machine. Insert you credit card or 6 dollars cash and there is a loud thump, you open the door and there is your neatly wrapped bundle of firewood. This was our first experience with automated firewood dispensers, but others obviously knew all about them. There was a steady line of trucks and cars purchasing firewood Wednesday night. Just added a little extra laughter to our meeting.
Firewood vending machine
We are enjoying our visit to the UP. In some ways it reminds us of our 2014 Alaska trip. Beautiful scenery. For the most part quiet and peaceful.
Tuesday, after crossing the Mackinac Bridge, we stopped at the St. Ignace Welcome Center. This may be strike three for us but again the Welcome Center was closed – on a Tuesday. Sign said closed Tuesday and Wednesday. How is one supposed to know these things? There were a few brochures outside that helped. However, without any help, we found the Wild Blueberry Breakfast and Bakery. We did have to turn around because we didn’t see it quickly enough. Yes, it was very good.
Traveling in BB makes essential u-turns easy.
Donut shop wisdom
The blueberry cream cheese croissant did not survive long enough for the picture.
Next stop was the Wawatam Lighthouse in St. Ignace. This is where we ate our first pastry. We also met a little four-year-old girl who didn’t have a shy bone in her body, and was spending the week with her grandparents. She introduced us to them. Thought we were going to spend the day at the lighthouse listening to her talk.
Wawatam Lighthouse
Just a few miles later we stopped at Castle Rock. We had been told it was sort of a “road side attraction”. It costs $1 to climb to the top of Castle Rock (171 steps) and from there, you could see for many miles on this beautiful day. It was also a big souvenir shop and no we didn’t buy anything but our ticket to climb the rock. The people were very nice and friendly. We decided we really liked the little town of St. Ignace.
Statues at Castle Rock
Castle Rock from below
Anne loves all these steps we keep finding.
After climbing the steps, you walk out this boardwalk to the top of the rock.
View from the top of the rock
The real purpose of this little side trip was to get to the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. This has been a long-term bucket list item. A lot of you probably don’t know that we owned a boat at one time and considered buying a larger boat and doing the Great Loop instead of buying an RV. That’s when we learned a lot about the locks and dams and became interested in the Soo Locks. The Soo Locks raise and lower boats between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes and complete more than 7,000 vessel passages every year moving over 75 million tons of cargo. Vessels locking through vary in size from small private boats to 1,000 foot long ships carrying up to 77,000 tons of freight in a single load. Currently there are only two locks operational because two others were torn out and they are building one larger lock. There is a large viewing platform where you can watch the huge ships and small boats like we owned, lock through. Interesting to us was that the huge ships lock through basically the same as we do in a little boat. Anyway – it was a fun afternoon for us.
The Soo Locks
One 1,000 foot ship can haul as much as 700 train cars or 3,000 large trucks.
Ship and tour boat leaving the two operational locks at the same time
From the Soo Locks, we drove to the Rotary Island Park in Sault Ste. Marie to just have a little rest and eat dinner before we headed to Walmart for groceries and a good night’s sleep. It was another very nice day – and it’s finally cool enough for jackets.
We had a restful dinner at Rotary Island Park, which is just below the Soo Locks. We also discovered that ship watching is very popular with the locals.
After our morning sunrise Sunday, we said goodbye to Rogers City and continued our trek to the north. Max found us a local restaurant “The Chuckwagon” along our route up the coastline. We had a great country breakfast with some locals. This was one of those places where everyone in the restaurant knew everyone except us, and there was constant banter between all the tables. We checked with our server to be sure we hadn’t sat at someone else’s table, but she assured us that we were fine. We enjoyed a great breakfast of eggs, hash browns, buttermilk biscuits and gravy and bacon cooked just right. If you ever happen to be on Highway 23 between Rogers City and Mackinac City, you should definitely stop for a meal.
Continuing on highway 23, we stopped at a roadside pull-off and sat enjoying a nice view of the shore of Lake Huron while we streamed our Lester Memorial worship service.
Streaming church beside Lake Huron
We arrived in Mackinac City before check in time at the RV park, so we went to the visitor’s center which was unfortunately closed. There were some brochures available outside that were helpful. Then we got our first view of the Mackinac Bridge. There is a nice park where you can view the bridge and the lighthouse, so we spent some time there and then wondered around town a little. After lunch we registered at the Mackinac Mill Creek Camping for a two-night stay. All our Switch Crew friends will remember this as the location of the huddle last year which we were not able to attend. We spent the rest of Sunday walking around the park, playing miniature golf and visiting with other RVers. During the night we had several episodes of rain. There was none in the forecast and new the forecast for Monday was supposed to be good for a trip to Mackinac Island but…there was some lost sleep. This is the third time we have tried to make a trip to Mackinac Island. We had to cancel the other two, and we were so close we definitely didn’t want it to be a rainy day.
Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse
You can walk under the bridge on the beach
The bridge has become the dividing line between Lake Michigan (on the left) and Lake Huron.
Our campsite in Mackinac Mill Creek Camping
To celebrate its 60 year, the campground was giving free “Fun Truck” rides, complete with siren.
Monday morning we were at the shuttle pick up at 8:30, on the ferry at 9.00, and had a beautiful day on the island. Sunshine. Light breeze. We rode bikes around the entire island and had a perfect day. We had lunch at the Great Turtle restaurant and our brisket sandwich was great. We visited all the beautiful spots like the Grand Hotel, the view across the lake to the bridge, many of the gift shops and most of the chocolate shops. Of course we came home with some wonderful Mackinac fudge.
We took the earliest shuttle from the campground, but still did not arrive at the ferry in time to get a seat on the open upper deck.
Our ferry captain took us under the bridge before going across to the island.
Approaching Mackinac Island
We went over on the 9 am ferry and the streets were already busy when we arrived. They were just plain crowded when we left.
The main street is called Bicycle Street. For those who may not have heard, motor vehicles are not allowed on the island.
Start of our 8 mile bike ride around the island
The were quite a few people on the perimeter road but we still enjoyed our ride.
One of the requisite stops on the bike ride is Arch Rock … we enjoyed the stop …
… and it was only 207 steps to get to the top.
Another ferry going by the bridge. The ferry ride is less than 30 minutes.
The Grand Hotel
We visited a few fudge shops, got a few free samples, and watched fudge being made.
Of the few churches on the island Saint Anne’s Catholic Church is probably the most ornate …
… and The Little Stone Church is probably the most famous.
We completed our Mackinac adventure today (Tuesday) when we finally drove across the Mighty Mac (Mackinac Bridge). It was another beautiful morning with light traffic. There was some repair work in two spots, but it was an easy drive. One more item on the bucket list checked. We feel so blessed.
Crossing the Mackinac Bridge for our long awaited visit to the UP.
RVing With a Purpose 