Our first two nights are at Tahquamenon Falls. We headed straight there and discovered how isolated locations in the UP of MI are. We planned on stopping in the little town of Paradise to gas up and provision. Paradise is best described as a wide spot in the road with two convenience stores, a gas station with not enough pumps ( Regular was $3.99 a gallon.) , a hardware store ( more about that in a minute.) and a quilting shop.(the winters are very long and cold here)
We pulled into our campsite and setup. On setup we discovered that one of the rear stabilizers on the trailer had lost a bolt and was almost hanging on the ground. We setup best we could and said we would have to visit the hardware store on our return to Paradise. It turned out that the hardware store was one of the best equipped that I have seen having everything from a post office to the two odd sized screws I needed to make the repair. You have to love a good hardware store and when you think about it, during the winters , you just can't run to a home depot when something breaks. A good hardware store in the UP may mean life or death in the depths of winter.
After the hardware store we headed up to Whitefish point. If you will recall the Gordon Lightfoot song about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, He sings that they miught have made Whitefish Bay if they had put 15 more mile behind them. This corner of Lake Superior is considered the graveyard of the great lakes due to the long fetch across the lake and huge waves that will form quickly. Images from Whitefish point:
We explored both upper and lower falls. There are excellent viewing areas and even opportunities to swim in the falls.
Forecast was for rain so we put up both the easy-up canopies. The guy camping next to us kidded us "Expecting rain?" It did not rain that night but the next night was torrential rains for most of the night. We felt sorry for the neighbor as he was camping with his 5 year old daughter. We even offered to cook them dinner as they had no shelter outside their tent. It turns out the little girl was having the adventure of a lifetime with her daddy and they both declined. The love of that father daughter is forever bonded by that camping trip.
Our original plan was to go to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the next leg of out trip but we decided that it would add three hours to what was already a 6 hour drive (the UP is huge) We decided instead to drive the 110 miles and go on the boat cruise the day before while exploring the surrounding area. It turned out to be a wise decision. Our 10 am trip got rained out but we were able to go on the noon trip. Pictured Rocks is one the most amazing places I have ever been. Words do not describe so here are a few of the over 700 images we took.
On the way back to camp we took back forest roads (Many unpaved). We found some excellent deserted beaches and a hungry bear up in a tree, eating his fill of cherries. All in all it was a great day.
On to the Porcupine Mountaiuns
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