Kris's Tour of the Beautiful Lake Superior Area

We have a guest poster today, Kris, a friend of the blog. She vacationed with her family in Michigan's Upper Penninsula (UP) this summer and is sharing her trip with us. I spent a summer in the UP during college doing geologic field work and saw nothing like the stunning sights she shares. In full disclosure, what I remember most about my summer there were the hordes of mosquitoes and the swamps we trudged through looking for rock outcrops. After reading about Kris's trip, clearly, I need to visit again. The area is quite beautiful along with some interesting history. With no further ado, get ready for a trip to the UP.

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Hello fellow Live-and-Learners-Toss-and-Turners!  I had mentioned to June that my family vacationed in part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula this past summer.  She asked if I would like to share about my travels, so here we are!  I hope you enjoy hearing about this beautiful section of my home state.  I have gained much from reading June's travel tales, and her descriptions of her home state of West Virginia have inspired not one, but two family trips there. I'm not June, but I can try to share my travels with equal excitement.  🙂

 www.mapsland.com.
As you have already gathered, Michigan is my home state.  Michigan is divided into two peninsulas.  The lower peninsula is the part that looks like a mitten and is where most of the population lives.  The upper peninsula is more rustic and remote.  Our peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac (say "Mack-in-aw") Bridge, which is a long suspension bridge over what is known as the Straits of Mackinac.  If you are curious about the bridge, here's a link:  https://mymichiganbeach.com/mackinac-bridge-facts/ We are surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes.  We vacationed near Lake Superior, which is the northernmost of the lakes, and is a major shipping area.  

My son attends university in the Upper Peninsula in a town known as Sault Saint Marie (say "Soo Saint Marie", commonly known as "The Soo").  He is spending the summer there working, so we opted for a vacation fairly close to him so we could spend part of our time together.  The Soo is well known for its locks, a parallel set of locks which enable shipping between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes.  While we have been to The Soo frequently, we haven't been able to go on a boat tour of the locks due to seasonal timing issues (tourist attractions lose their luster when you are moving a kid onto campus).  We spent a night in town to give us the chance to enjoy the area highlights.  The boat tour of the locks was interesting and picturesque. 

We found the locks tour interesting.

We were able to see the coastlines of both Michigan as well as Sault Ste Marie, Canada (yes, it's VERY confusing!  It's located directly across the St. Mary's River from the Michigan Soo) and learn about the history of the area.

We also toured a freighter-turned-museum named the Valley Camp Museum. The tour gave us a hands-on feel for what life on a freighter must be like, including the "guts" of the ship.  A lifeboat from the shipwrecked Edmund Fitzgerald was one of the displays, and a somber one, at that (Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about the wreck). 

Valley Camp Museum

Valley Camp Museum. The inside of a ship is a complicated place.
After our time in The Soo, we went west along the shore of Lake Superior to Munising, Michigan.  Munising is a town by Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We camped for several days near there, and that was our home hub for our trip. 

Pictured Rocks is named for 13 miles of colorful sandstone cliffs along the shore of Lake Superior.  The sandstone has been sculpted by natural forces over the years and contains, in addition to beautiful colors from the minerals in the rocks, caves, arches, and rock formations.  The best way to get a feel for the vastness of the area is via Lake Superior. There are many options available, but we opted for a boat tour.  It was choppy on the water, which didn't bother any of us, but some of the passengers weren't so lucky.  It truly was a beautiful ride, as you can see by the photographs.

 

There are many waterfalls in this area.  I won't include all of them, but here are two:  

Wagner Falls

Munising Falls.

We visited Miners Castle Rock, one of the iconic rock formations in the area. It can be viewed by land, unlike some of the other formations.

Miner's Castle Rock

Another view of Miner's Castle Rock

We went on a lengthy hike along the North Country Trail one day, where we were surprised to learn we could view some of the cliffs from shore.  It was a stunning sight. 

View of cliffs from North Country Trail

Another cliff view

Along the way we saw yet another iconic rock formation known as Chapel Rock.  I am including different views of this rock to illustrate the unique feature of it. There is a lone pine growing here; originally, the outcropping of rock with the pine was connected to the mainland, but over time, erosion occured.  As you can see, the roots for the trees stretch across to the mainland. 

Chapel Rock
Chapel Rock. Notice the stretching roots.
 
No trip for me is complete without nerding out on history.  We spent a day visiting the Au Sable Light Station (say "Aw Sahble) and were able to tour it, including the catwalk at the top.  Unfortunately it was a drizzly day so the views were somewhat obscured.

Au Sable Light Station

Light station light

View from the light station

Along Lake Superior's beach in that area are the remains of shipwrecks, which you can walk beside on the beach.  We saw two within close proximity. 

Shipwreck remains

Remains of another ship that didn't make it.

We also went to Log Slide Overlook near the town of Grand Marais.  This is a very steep sand dune and the site of of former log camp.  The loggers slid the logs down the dune to Lake Superior, where they could be loaded onto ships.  We didn't opt to run down the dune--it's nearly vertical and takes about an hour to ascend.

Notice how steep the log slide is.
 Our last waterfall viewing was also our favorite.  Here's a picture of Sable Falls.

Sable Falls

I will leave you with a peaceful view of the lake at our campground.  Thank you for coming along this tour with me! 

We had a beautiful campground to come home to every day.

Thanks, Kris. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about your vacation. I think we have very similar interests when taking a trip--outdoors with some history thrown in.