Muskallonge State Park - Michigan's Upper Peninsula - July 28 - August 3

After approximately seven hours of traveling, we reached Muskallonge State Park in Deer Park, MI.  To say we were out in the middle of nowhere is an understatement.  The nearest Walmart was 90 miles away.  Unfortunately, after checking in and finding our site, we realized that this site was not big enough for our rig.  After several attempts of trying to make it fit the normal way, Jim took out the site post and we parked it
parallel to the road.  We were so close that we couldn't put the awning out for fear of other rigs hitting it when they went by and the back of our rig was just two feet from the fire pit.  Although the site was very disappointing, we made the most of our stay along Lake Superior.

Tahquamenon Falls - Upper view

The UP has several waterfalls to hike to so we took advantage of seeing them with our first stop being Tahquamenon Falls.  The Michigan DNR does a great job of keeping the walking paths up - some with blacktop - so we enjoyed the hike along the top of the gorge to see them.  We then headed in the other direction to walk down the 116 steps to the bottom of the gorge.  Only problem with walking down 116 steps is that you have to walk back up.  These old bodies had to pace themselves.

Tahquamenon Falls - Lower view

116 steps to the top

The next day we headed in the opposite direction to visit Sable Falls, the Log Sliding Sand Dune, Miners Falls, and Pictured Rocks.  Again, we hiked back into the woods - and down approximately 150 steps - to see Sable Falls.  It was definitely worth the trek.

Sable Falls

Logging Slide Sand Dune from the observation point

Logging Slide Sand Dune

Because the logging industry was in its prime during the late 1800's and early 1900's, it was interesting hiking to the Log Sliding Sand Dune and reading the history as to how the logs were harvested and then rolled down this huge sand dune to the ships waiting below to be transported to various lumber mills.

Our travels continued to Miners Falls and Pictured Rocks outside Munising, MI.  More hiking was involved to get to the falls that were six tenths of a mile into the woods.  As we walked along the path, we kept coming to numbered path markers and we thought we were very close - NOT.  But once we got there, it was well worth the hike.  After hiking to see Miners Falls, Pictured Rocks was easy to get to.  We could actually park the truck and just walk a short distance to the viewing platform.  However, there was another viewpoint that did require hiking back about a quarter of a mile.  Again, the hike was well worth it but the only problem was that it started to pour just as we were ready to leave.  We got just a little wet before taking the 70 mile drive back to the campground.

Miners Falls outside Munising MI

Pictured Rocks from the observation station

Pictured Rocks from the backside

At Pictured Rocks

Our final day of exploring we drove the 90 miles to Sault Ste. Marie to see the Soo Locks.  We enjoyed lunch at The Antlers Restaurant and then headed to the locks.  If I remember my facts, approximately 150 ships a day go through the five locks.  We were fortunate to be there when the Manitoba went through.  We aren't sure what its cargo was but we are guessing it was loaded with iron ore.  It was so interesting watching the entire process.

The Antler's Restaurant - just so happened
there was a badger right behind us.

A view of the Soo Locks from the Tower of History

The Manitoba going through the locks

When not driving around to see waterfalls and locks, we took a few walks along the shore of Lake Superior.  It's amazing just how huge this lake is and how different the sand and rocks are along the beach.  Although the top sand is what we are normally used to, underneath the sand is black.  Our only summation is that because of the high iron ore content in the area, some of the iron has worked its way into the sand.  The rocks we collected are also quite unique with their colors of pink, gray and blue.

The shore of Lake Superior

The black sand on the beach

Because our site was less than desirable, we found ourselves sitting across the road in a vacant site.  As we've traveled around, we've met many friendly people and our time at Muskallonge was no different.  There was a young couple from Ann Arbor and their 5 3/4 year old daughter tent camping across from us.  The dad was from Germany, the mom from Brazil, and little Elena was "American."  When Jim would sit in the empty site next to them, she would get her little chair and come sit with him.  She really was a sweetheart and when they packed up to leave, we sent along chocolate chip cookies for their drive.

Before leaving Muskallonge, we did walk through the campground to check out other sites.  If we ever return, we now know which sites are good for our rig.  We just happened to be in the old part of the campground that was set up for tent camping many, many, many years ago.

From here we head to Arbor Vitae Campground in northern Wisconsin where we will meet up with our daughter, Valerie, and our grandsons, Aiden and Jordan.  Our travels continue.

Our last night at Muskallonge Lake State Park