Travels with Twinkles: Tahquamenon Falls, Michigan

August 27 - 29, 2017:

I pull out of the campsite at 9 AM to arrive at the dump station behind two middle aged women who were traveling together in separate motorhomes, a class C and a class A pulling toads with kayaks. They were both filling their water tanks and told me they were going someplace remote for a couple of weeks. I had to admire the independence of these two old girls going off on this adventure, even though they took what seemed like forever at the dump station.

On the road, I was looking for a place to fill the propane tank, which can be an issue on a Sunday. Anyhow, I see the big white tank in front of the gas station convenience store and pull in and they say the attendant will be right out. As I’m waiting, I go inside the RV and turn off the refrigerator to be extra safe, something I normally don’t do. The attendant comes out asks if there are any pets inside, something no one has ever questioned in dozens of prior tank refills and since I’m a really bad liar, or slow witted, I say oh, just a cat. It’s then explained that by company policy the pet must come out of the RV while filling the tank. Alice (our cat) is strictly an inside cat, she is cowering under a quilt inside the RV, I have no carrier to put her in, she has really powerful hind legs with large sharp claws (not good to hold in your arms) and if she gets away from me I do’t know what she will do. I pull her out from under her quilt, put her in a favorite box of hers, cover it with the quilt and take her outside as she is trying to get out and crying, none of this is good. You might wonder where my wife Twinkles is during all this, she has decided to drive separately today and is many miles down the road and will be extremely upset if anything happens to her baby. Somehow, this ends happily as I manage to keep the cat in the box and may have saved my marriage.

The rest of the ride is uneventful and we get set up in the Tahquamenon Falls State Park without issue. It’s an Ojibwa indian word, difficult to pronounce, but is pronounced like “Phnomenon”. We have electric here and best of all a shower room which we need badly. The area of this State Park formerly contained several logging camps and the area was heavily logged. The logs were dumped into the rapidly flowing Tauquamenon River, over the falls and eventually floated to the coast where that were loaded on ships. In the 1930’s, the CCC replanted the forests here and the state of Michigan established this State Park.

The fine print alludes to how proud they were to tame the river
so they could harvest the forest

Tahquamenon Falls is a huge attraction with an upper and lower series of waterfalls easily accessible by trails. The lower falls are close to the campgrounds and consist of several smaller but very scenic waterfalls. There is a 4 mile hiking trail through woods from the upper falls to the lower falls, 8 miles roundtrip, but for $17 they have a shuttle to take you between the two.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahquamenon_Falls

Just before leaving the campground I took my best photo of the lower falls with a
dark filter over the lens so I could get a long exposure

Another angle

Close up really accentuating the dark tannin colored water

A small little rivulet on the side of the falls

Looking upstream

A heron stalking near waters edge

This foam is a natural occurrence in the river

The upper falls are reported to be the second largest waterfall east of the Mississippi River. I not convinced of that size claim, but the volume (50,000 gallons per second), the velocity and amber color of the water is very impressive.

The golden rods were blooming nicely in the foreground

Another angle showing the downstream

They draw big tourist crowds here and are pretty good at promotion with a brew pub with restaurant, a snack and ice cream bar and a fully equipped tourist souvenir shop in the upper falls parking area.

The other major attraction here besides the waterfalls is the ride north on route 123 to the town of Paradise where you really can get “A cheeseburger in Paradise”. It is a small tourist town right on the shores of Lake Superior with several motels, a hotel, quaint tourist cabins, a couple of restaurants, wood carving shops and even a Gastro Brew Pub. It seems like many people are trying to leave Paradise, there were so many for sale signs along the road.

The welcome sign

Lots of chainsaw art in Paradise

This Eagle sculpture was especially nice

A fun mailbox outside Paradise

You then Continue north following the lakeshore to the end of the road at Whitefish Point and the Whitefish Point Light Station, the US Coast Guard Lifeboat Station and the Shipwreck Museum. We weren’t so keen on seeing the depressing shipwreck stuff, but in order to see everything else, you need to buy a ticket to the museum. As a result, we went in the Shipwreck museum and found it to have great exhibits with many interesting personal stories about numerous shipwrecks along the Lake Superior coast. The centerpiece is of course the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald with a tear jerking movie about the project to dive to the ship, remove the bell, install a replacement bell and bring the original bell back where it now sits in the museum. We then toured the light keepers house with more interesting stories, especially the arrest of the assistant lighthouse keeper who was found to be german spy during WWII. The Lifeboat Station was equally great, with a beautiful restored lifeboat and other lifesaving equipment and a woman docent who seemed to be able to answer any question well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitefish_Point_Light

https://www.shipwreckmuseum.com

This the the oldest Lighthouse in Michigan established in 1861, also one of the most
important, this area of the coast is known as the "graveyard of the Great Lakes"

The actual Whitefish Point showing remain of old docks

Etienne Brule was the first explorer
to the area in 1610. He story is amazing, but his
ending was not good, captured, killed and eaten
by the Huron Indians

The bell brought up from the Edmund Fitzgerald

In 1897 the Niagara sunk in a storm with all hands lost.
There were many of these accounts in the museum, some
very touching and personal, all sad

A huge Fresnel Lens on display

The story on the German spy who worked as the
assistant lighthouse keeper

The story of "Three Fingers Riley"

An amazing rescue by a courageous man
who met a cruel end

This wagon was used in rescues to fire a rope to a shipwreck
and rescue crewman. It took much strength and skill to be a
member of one of these lifesaving crews

We then walked the beach at the point for a while looking for colorful stones and took a short trail at the adjacent Whitefish Point Bird Observatory.

At Whitefish Point checking out the driftwood

The beach at the Bird observatory area

On the return to the campground we stopped at Paradise and had lunch at the popular "Berry Patch Restaurant" with a very friendly, folksy, vivacious elderly woman owner who told everyone, isn’t it a beautiful day !

They feature their cheeseburger, but I had a Pasty in Paradise

Back at the campground, I return to the upper Falls to do the lower observation trail which I hadn’t done before. I also check out a nearby off road parking lot with a sign “GEMS”. We had passed a few of them, but hadn’t stopped to see what they were. GEMS stands for “Grouse enhanced management sites” which basically is a state developed grouse and woodcock hunting ground. The signage explained that they clear cut the timber, then replant the area with trees that are more favorable to the birds. It’s an interesting concept, but I couldn’t help but be amused at the sign showing these happy animals and birds that are going to love this new woodsy area, so the hunters can come in and kill them.