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.