On to Paradise (7/26/2015)

This morning we left the "free camping" casino and moved on up the road toward Paradise.  From Munising, we took H58 to Grand Marais, stopping at a overlook viewing point, then at a Log Slide viewpoint. At the scenic viewpoint, we could see a freighter way off in the distance.  We assumed it had come out of the ore dock in Marquette.

 The drive back to the log slide was very woodsy, pretty.

"The log slide itself was a chute that loggers used to move logs from the top of the dunes down to lake superior to be loaded onto boats for transport.  The wooden chute is no longer there, but it was said that sometimes the logs traveling down the chute would catch fire due to the friction from the sand and wood, as well as the heat of the sun."

Off on another point from the end of this trail is another lighthouse -- a very familiar part of the scenery in the U.P.

Walking back to the RV, Joe spotted this tree that the woodpeckers had really done a job on.

We continued on to Grand Marais where a Pickle Barrel Museum was of interest to Joe, but we didn't go inside, just took a photo.

"This larger-than-life pickle barrel was originally built in 1926 by the Pioneer Cooperage Company as a summer home for cartoonist William Donahey. Donahey, the creator of the Chicago Tribune's popular "Teenie Weenie" cartoon strip, also drew advertisements for pickle-peddlers Reid-Murdock & Co., who sold their product in a much smaller version of the barrel you see here. The cottage, which contains a living area, pantry, kitchen, and bedroom, stood on the shore of Sable Lake until 1937, when the house was moved into Grand Marais and placed on the corner of Lake Avenue and Randolph Street. For years it was a visitors information center, ice cream stand, and gift shop, and in 2003 the Historical Society purchased the building. It has been restored to its original condition as a summer cottage of the 1920s."

We continued on our way, down 77 to Seney, then over to Newberry on the 28.  We had lunch in Newberry, and fueled ($2.779), then turned onto the 123 to the state park at the Lower Tahquamenon Falls, just a little southwest of Paradise.  The checking-in process at this state park leaves a little to be desired, and most of the campsites are a bit short, but we got ourselves situated and called it a day.  We were here about 2:30, set up by 3:30.  It was pretty warm here today, high 80s.  I think a storm is headed our way on Tuesday.  We drove 133 miles and the only wildlife we saw was a couple chipmunks, one deer, fawn actually (it still had its spots) crossed the road right in front of us.  Newberry is the Moose Capital of Michigan, but we've yet to see one.  Part of our route today is on the "Fall Color Drive," and I imagine it would be beautiful.  This is also snowmobile country.  Lots of things to do in Michigan, year-round if you can stand the cold.  But it is a beautiful state.

Munising Cruises (7/25/2015)

Today was a busy day.  At 9:00 I was washing up the breakfast dishes, and by 9:45 I was in line for a boat tour.  Mazie came over and said she would like to do the Glass Bottom Shipwreck Tour, so off we went.  There were 3 shipwrecks we stopped over, and it was amazing how much of the underwater ships we could see.  This water is so clear that the visibility even from the top of our boat was pretty good.  And from the viewing platform, Mazie kept worrying that the boat captain was going to hit the ship, it appears that close.

Our tour was good.  As we moved over the wreck, our guide explained what we were seeing.  They divided us into 2 groups, and there was enough room around the viewing glass for half of us to see it at a time, so our captain (female) drove back over it a second time for the second group. 

She swung in close to shore and let us take a picture of this restored lighthouse on Grand Island.  The shoreline here keeps getting less and less as the water level of the lake continues to rise from global warming.  One of the passengers on the boat said her parents had a cabin here when she was a kid, and there was a pretty good beach in front of the cabin then.  Now, the cabin is right at the shoreline.

The three boats we saw were the Bermuda, the Scow Schooner and the Herman H. Hettler.  The literature says there is up to fifty feet of visibility in this water, but all of these wrecks were in much shallower water now.  One had been moved, and one had been destroyed in place.  The other one, the Scow Schooner, was discovered accidentally and they don't know the name of it, or when it sank.

 We had to wait for a dive boat to move for the third wreck.  I'm sure Joe was wishing he was diving with them, even though the water temperature, near shore, is only about 70.

The third wreck actually got stuck on a reef in shallow water and stood upright for several years.  But it was determined to be a safety hazard, so they blew it up.  You could still see the anchor, and a bathtub and toilet seat.  The toilet seat even shows up in the picture.

When we got back to town, we had lunch then dropped Dave and Mazie off at the campground, then Joe and I chased down some waterfalls around town.  The first one is the Munising Falls.

Down the road a ways was a trail to Miners Castle, so we checked that out.

There was a very busy beach right below this.  These Michigan Yuppers (yuppers is the name for those from the Upper Peninsula) are tough!

We had to drive back into the edge of town to go to the second waterfall, so Joe stopped and got a soda.  When he came out to the car, he said they had some pretty good looking ice cream inside, so of course I had to go check that out.  Then we went looking for the second waterfall, Wagner Falls.

Today's Ice Cream Cone -- Yummy

Then we went to our third waterfall, Alger Falls, which was right beside the highway.  There are lots of other waterfalls in this area, but we stopped at three, all pretty short hikes.

We got back to camp and had about 30 minutes to rest before venturing out to our second cruise of the day, the Pictured Rock cruise.  This was pretty awesome.  Some of the rocks looked like an artist had just taken a paint brush to them.  On  the boat on the way to the Pictured Rocks, we passed Miners Castle that we had "hiked" to earlier.

And we passed several groups of kayakers near shore.

We took lots and lots of pictures of the Pictured Rocks, so I'll just post some of the best ones, hopefully I won't blow up my computer with all these.

 And interspersed with this beauty were rock formations, caves, holes, arches, etc.

 Most of the rock formations were named.  Here's a few I remember.

Indian Drum

Indian Head

Broken Vase

We had so many people for this 6:00 cruise that they sent out two boats.  Here's our sister boat coming out from a cave we got to go into, then back out of.
 

David opted out of this boat ride, but Mazie is here right along with us.

We could see this waterfall flowing right over the rocks.  I bet that water was C O L D!

Depending on the time you select, some of the cruises include a pass by Spray Falls, so of course we made sure that was included in our tour.  That adds about 10 minutes to the tour, and is the turning around point.

Spray Falls

 Joe took the pictures on the way out, but on the way back it seemed to me that just maybe some of the colors were more vivid, so I took a few more.

But Joe captured the sunset.  It was still quite daylight though, as you can tell from this picture of Mazie and me -- and it's about 9:00 then.

That was a nice boat ride and the rocks lived up to their name!