Hiking Pictured Rocks NP

Yesterday we packed up our hiking gear and went to Pictured Rocks NP to do some hiking. Dave wanted to go to Beaver Lake and hike which is within the park, and I wanted to see some falls. We started out at Miner's Castle overlook which we saw during our boat ride - but saw it from land. Pretty spectacular! From there we drove into Beaver Lake area which was an unpaved road, steep grades, and one lane most of the way. Dave was very nervous and at one point the truck skidded sideways toward the edge - did I say this was unpaved AND a huge dropoff? Whooohooo! The hiking trail into Beaver Lake was just beautiful - but very rugged. They said it was an intermediate class trail - but we went anyhow. Got to the lake and saw one beaver and then hiked further to Lake Superior's Twelve Mile Beach which is also part of the National Park. Again, blown away at the scenery.

Drove on to Miner's Falls where we again had to hike it in - fortunately this path is very even, you could tell it is visited alot. We figured we hiked in total yesterday about 7 miles. My foot and Dave's knee were killing us by the time we got back. I had to ice my foot for most of the evening - after I stood in a feezing Lake Superior for awhile. Spent the evening with a glass of wine and sitting on the beach at the campsite. Lovely day - temp only got 72 and again at night the temp drops down to 50. Today we need to grocery shop - I have already done laundry, and we'll grab lunch out, then go hiking again at Munising Falls. Tomorrow we pack up and head farther north along the UP.

Easy day at Munising

Our original plans to hike in Pictured Rocks was nixed. Dave wasn't feeling up to par - so we opted to just go to the Ranger Park station, get literature on the park, do some grocery shopping and then head back to the campground. Weather is very cool - but for the Yoopers, this is typical for summer. Gets down to 50 at night, yesterday's high was 71. Since Munising is in a protected bay of Lake Superior, the winds are usually from the land onto the water. Still brisk. Then by 6ish pm the winds die, then reverse from the lake. Brrr. People around us have their furnaces on at night, we instead just close everything down and put an extra blanket on.


We are enjoying sitting at the beach and staring out at life. A couple of things we noted - it stays light very late here. I checked sunrise/sunset - sunrise is same as Vermilion - about 5:54am. But sunset is 45 minutes later! No wonder some of these campers with small children are still running around at 10:15pm. It really doesn't get dark until 10:45. Another thing we noticed - lack of sea birds and ducks. Since the lake is so clean - wonder if that's got anything to do with it.


Today we will definitely go hiking at Beaver Lake within the park. There is a falls that we want to go to that during the cruise we didn't see.

Picture Rocks National Park cruise

We left St. Ignace yesterday morning in a light rain and drove 2 hours northwest to the top of the UP and got to Munising here with a beautiful sunny sky. We didn't have problems with the RV like we thought we would so the hook up and drive was really nice. One thing to do and put on your 'bucket' list of things to do before you die - do the drive along the top of Lake Michigan (and it's the southern shore of the Upper Peninsula) - it's absolutely stunning. I learned that from now on I need to keep a camera in the car to take pictures as we are driving.

Once we got here to the campground - different story. They first put us in a sight right at the water's edge - as a back in place - but our truck is too long and we couldn't maneuver the swing into the site. So, then we moved to another - only a dead tree limb was hanging down and would have scraped the top of the unit - so moved again. We still have a nice site although not full hookup - so have to monitor our water/waste output.

Not sure of the weather so we decided to do the evening/sunset cruise that goes out on Lake Superior and see the Picture Rocks. Absolutely stunning! Got back to the site at 10:30 and it was still light out. Today will are going into the park and do lots of hiking. You cannot see the rocks from the park so we are glad we did this cruise. One of the places we want to go in the park is Beaver Lake which was formed by beavers and is the largest natural - made lake in the US.

Horses and Fudge

We took the 10:30 ferry this morning over to Mackinac Island and once a day the ferry detours and goes under the Mackinac bridge for a quick tour. This bridge is 6 miles long and connects the upper peninsula with the lower state. The captain of the ferry boat explained that this bridge can sway up to 15 feet in one direction - which was engineered this way because of the winds through the strait. On one side of the bridge we were on Lake Michigan and as soon as we passed back on the side we came, we were on Lake Huron. On this trip we have now seen 4 of the 5 Great Lakes (started at Lake Erie - home, then Lake Huron coming up the east side of Michigan, then saw Lake Superior at the Shipwreck Museum and Whitefish Point yesterday, then today - Lake Michigan. Life style on this island reminded me of Jekyl Island in Georgia, or Camden Maine, or Key West Florida - alot of money, people wanting to escape so they go to a fancy hotel and pay big bucks for a hamburger, and rent bikes. The difference is - no cars or motorized anything allowed on the island. To see horses pulling a UPS guy and all his packages - gave quite a chuckle. People going to the Grand Hotel - their luggage is either put on a horse drawn cart or porters pile up luggage on their bikes and haul it up. I will never forget the smell of horse poop and fudge mingling together. And tourist trap - oh my goodness. If you like fudge, buying t-shirts, eating and drinking, or renting a bike and touring on bike - this is the island for you.

We toured Fort Mackinac quite extensively - Dave took some great pictures and I'll send them on when he's done editing them.

We didn't go to the famous Grand Hotel - you have to pay just to walk in the door. We were happy with just a picture. This picture shows the Grand Hotel on the left and the long building to the right is Fort Mackinac. It was abandoned in 1897 and then restored after WWII as a Federal Park but then was given back to Michigan as a State park. Too many people for us and we were glad to get back 'home' and relax. Tomorrow we head more up north to Munising where we will be and see Picture Rocks National Park.

Lake Gitcheegoomie

Today was a fun day. Started out pretty lousy - we had heavy rain all night, found the antenna for the TV still leaks - and Dave woke up with a wet side of the bed. Since the lousy weather we decided to drive up north to the most northern point of the Yoopy (Upper Peninsula) as we could, to Whitefish Point where the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is located. There is a working lighthouse for Whitefish Point for Lake Superior and if you recall - this is the area that the Edmund Fitzgerald freighter sank in 1975. Very impressive. While visiting the museum, Gordon Lightfoot's song "The Edmund Fitzgerald" was playing in the background. Very eery. We walked out onto their lookout deck outside of the museum and saw a huge tanker going by and you couldn't help thinking of the 29 men that lost their life back then on the Fitzgerald. I found that I was scanning the beach looking for artifacts when in fact there hasn't been a shipwreck since the Fitzgerald. Here's a picture of a freighter going through the pass down into Lake Huron from Lake Superior (Hiawatha's Lake Gitcheegoomie). Another A-Ha moment - one of the Life Saving stations where men were stationed to help rescue people who were drowning from their sinking ship was the Vermilion Life Station about 9 miles to the west. It's closed to the public and being restored with a grant. Vermilion is everywhere!


By the time we left the museum the sun was coming out - it had finally quit raining. We headed to Tahquamenon Falls, to the Upper Falls where they said it was more dramatic. This was also quite impressive. Typically about 2200 gallons of water go over the falls per minute - but due to all the rain yesterday and last night, they calculated over 8100 gallons per minute! The water is very brown from the tannic acid - from decaying wood and such.

Driving back to the campground we opted to stop in town and get fresh smoked fish. We picked up smoked salmon and smoked trout. Wonderful! But now we are so thirsty. Tomorrow we take the ferry to Mackinac Island and spend the day there. No cars allowed on the island so we will be doing lots of walking. And of course, getting some fudge!

Cold in the UP

We left Birch Run (Frankenmuth) by 10am this morning and had an easy ride straight up I75 across the Mackinac Bridge to St. Ignace (just north of the bridge). And it's cold! Right now it's 57 out and should get down to the 40's tonight. Good thing we brought heavier clothes. We got quickly back into the routine of living in an RV and of course - making some costly mistakes of doing routine things and possibly breaking some things - we should know better by now. Hopefully when we hook back up on Friday morning all systems will check out okay, with the exception of the annoying jack problem from day one.
Something cool - just south of Cheboygan near Gaylord we passed a sign that said we were at the 45th parallel and that the North Pole and the Equator were exactly the same distance from that point. No wonder it is colder. Dave said that we needed to start looking for Santa's toy shop.
Tomorrow we will drive about an hour north to Whitefish Point on the most northern point of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. If we drive any further we will be wet from driving into Lake Superior. There is a Shipwreck Museum of the Great Lakes that we want to go to and a bird sanctuary. From there we will drive to go to Tahquamenon Falls which are the highest falls north of the Mississippi. Hit the sand dunes about 20 miles from here, see Father Marguette National Monument on the way back.

Onward to Michigan

We left Ohio this morning about 10am, felt bad we left the cats at home but none the less - we did. A cat sitter is coming by daily so they should be fine. We drove 4 hours up route 23/Interstate 75 to Frankenmuth. This town is a large German/Bavarian settlement. We have been here before so we opted to eat at the Bavarian Inn where it's a family style dinner. Of course - ate too much. Weird observances by both of us - most of the people we saw were quite unhealthy - very overweight, very disabled (wheelchairs/struggling to walk) and just a very sad looking group of people. Depressing.

We had gotten the RV back from the dealer on Saturday the 12th and decided to pack up and get out of town. We are heading to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to Picture Rocks National Park, and on to Houghton where copper mines are. From there we go to Marquette and take a ferry over to Isle Royale National Park (island) where we have to spend the night since we can't get there and back in one day. Then we leave to head to Duluth Minnesota, on to Wisconsin and then down to Illinois and Indiana. Quick trip - have to be home by the 3rd of July - got commitments.

Have some trouble with the RV already. We can't get the front jacks down using electric hookup or the battery. Have to be hooked to the truck to do this. Has worked fine in the past and now why is this doing it? An annoyance, but able to function anyhow. At least everything else (so far) is working. Tomorrow we head to Mackinac City where we'll stay for about 3 or 4 days. We want to go over the Mackinac Island and then go to Tahquenema Falls which is located about 1 hour north of there. These falls are the largest north of the Mississippi.