CENTRAL UPPER PENINSULA (Lots of photos and a video, so this post may load slowly)

We left the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and drove west along Lake Superior to Marquette.  Marquette is the largest town in the Upper Peninsula and we needed some supplies, so booked a night at their city campground.  Large sites with lots of trees - a good base camp for doing errands, shopping and letting Jack get some additional rest for his cold.

Since Jack isn't feeling well and the Canadian fire smoke is forecast to drop south, we decided to abandon our scenic tour of the northern Keweenaw Peninsula that is known for copper mining and iron ore.  Instead, we drove due south, making a quick stop just outside of Marquette at Lakenenland -   a funky junkyard art outdoor installation.  The artist, Tom Lakenen is a construction worker that scavenges scrap iron from construction sites  It was quite large and too much walking for Jack, so we drove through and took lots of photos - a fun little stop.

Giving our donation

This guy made us feel like home!

This was a working swing

Twin Towers

Evil Kneevil?

We booked a campground on a lake in the central Upper Peninsula so we could visit Kitch-iti-kipi, an unusual crystal clear spring in Palms Brook State Park.  It was only about 2 miles from our campground and we got there early as the campground owners told us it gets busy and crowded later in the day.  Jack wasn't up to going, so Beau and I walked the short boardwalk from the parking area to the small spring-fed lake.  There is a raft that is tethered to a cable across the lake that allowed us to turn this huge wheel that would pull us across the lake.  The raft has a walk around standing room that overlooks the open bottom of the raft, allowing us to view the sandy bottom of the lake.  Lots of large trout swimming around and bubbling sandy whirls where the spring water is gurgling up.  A beautiful morning!

The early morning mist did not impact our viewing under the water at all

This is the self propelled raft that allowed us to view the spring

This video shows the puffing sand swirls that is the bubbling spring.

Jack's COPD and asthma is being aggravated by the Canadian fires' smoke and his cold, so we continued south, back over the Mackinac Bridge for a one-night stay at our previous TeePee Campground with views of the bridge.  We are staying AC indoors because of the smoke and will continue south to try to get out of the unhealthy air.

PICTURED ROCKS NATIONAL LAKESHORE

 

Our cruise boat - holds over 300 people on 3 decks.

We booked a 2 hour cruise of the pictured rocks for 1pm as we had a 1 1/2 hour drive from where we had been staying in Tahquamenon Falls.  

It was spectacular and highly recommend to anyone coming to this area.  The park is a long narrow strip along the coast, but there are few roads that primarily go to beaches or trailheads.  The pictured rocks are the cliffs along Lake Superior that are painted by leaching minerals - primarily copper (blues and greens) and manganese (black) and some iron oxides (yellow).  Contrasted with the gorgeous blue-green caribbean/mediterranean colored water, it made for a fabulous afternoon.

Miner's Castle

Kayakers exploring the cliffs

Lots of caves

Rookery in the cave

The captain pulled the boat into this cave and we could reach out and touch the walls on either side!

Spray Falls

Old Lighthouse

Jack has come down with a cold, so we are cancelling our scheduled glass bottom boat shipwreck cruise tomorrow so he can get some extra sleep.

LAKE SUPERIOR, WATER FALLS, PICTURED ROCKS

Crossing the Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula and driving north, we finally got our first glimpse of Lake Superior at Whitefish Point on the northeast coast.  

We got super lucky with a campsite at Tahquamenon Falls State Park for the weekend.  Before settling in, we drove to Whitefish Point, AKA "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" to visit the Shipwreck Museum.  There have been more than 6,000 shipwrecks of this coast since the 1800s and the museum told the  stories of the major shipwrecks here, the most famous being The Edmund Fitzgerald of Gordon Lightfoot fame (you're already humming it, right?).

They had a very emotional video about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975 with interviews of the families of the 29 men who went down with the ship.  In 1975, they brought up the original bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald and replaced it with a bell engraved with the names of the deceased.  Although the wreck happened only 15 miles from here, it is in Canadian waters.  It is now protected by the Canadian government and preserved as a burial site (similar to Pearl Harbor), but there is no way to visit it.  

Whitefish Point had a lighthouse and a lifesaving group (a sort of forerunner to the Coast Guard).   Many of the wrecks happened close to shore, but the water was so cold that just a few minutes in the water would cause hypothermia and result in death.  The lifesavers would use a canon to fire a lifeline to the ship, then use a fancy set of pullies and winches to bring the stranded sailors to shore, without touching the water.  Quite ingenious for the 1800's!  

We toured the buildings they had there, including the lightkeepers home, a radio building and our first view of Lake Superior.

Wooden rudder of an old ship

Lake Superior with one of the giant ships in the distance (many carrying iron ore)

After our visit to the museum, we drove back down the peninsula to our campground at the State Park to settle in.  The next morning, Beau and I took a long walk (almost 5 miles) along the Lower Falls of the Tahquanenon River.  Not spectacularly high, but definitely impressive.  The brown pitch color is  from the tanins in the evergreen trees.

For lunch, we drove to a brewery within the State Park for a pastie (the 'a' is a 'short a' like patsy).  These were the iconic lunches for the miners, most from Cornwall.  They are beef, potatoes, and vegetables encased in a pie type pastry crust that they would eat them like a sandwich.  Jack and I split one, using forks and knives, and it was good, but Jack thought a bit bland.  Duh, traditional English food!

A Pastie served with a side of gravy.

After lunch, Beau and I walked to the Upper Falls - considered the second largest (not tallest) waterfall east of the Mississippi.  We didn't explore further because it required going down more than 90 corrugated steel steps that would not have been good for Beau's paw pads, but I did get this photo from up top at a distance.  Not to mention, the only return is back up the 90 steps.

  

Tomorrow we are taking a cruise to see the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore....