Exploring Michigan's Upper Peninsula (Part 12) - Tahquamenon Falls

“Mother Nature is the greatest artist and water is one of her favorite brushes.”

― Rico Besserdich, professional underwater photographer 

July 28, 2024

Our exploration of the the eastern section of Michigan's Upper Peninsula began with a trip to Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (see our previous post), and was followed by a visit to the nearby Tahquamenon (Tah-kwa-me-non) Falls State Park to see its famous waterfalls. Tahquamenon Falls State Park is located between Newberry and Paradise. The park is 13 miles long, covers nearly 50,000 acres and includes a series of waterfalls on the Tahquamenon River before it empties into Lake Superior. In addition to the waterfalls, the park has multiple campgrounds, overnight lodging facilities, a boat launch, and more than 35 miles of trails. The park is also known for its abundance of wildlife, including black bear, coyote, otter, deer, fox, porcupine, beaver, and moose are occasionally seen feeding in wet areas of the park. Unfortunately, we didn't see any during our visit. A wide variety of birds can also be found in the park including songbirds, waterfowl and bald eagles.

Naturally, the centerpiece of the park is the waterfalls, which are viewable from multiple overlooks. We started our exploration of the park at the Lower Falls, which is located 4 miles east of the Upper Falls. An ADA-accessible trail from the parking lot takes you to the riverbank where there are views of the falls. There's also a universally accessible pedestrian bridge to an island in the river where there is an ADA-accessible boardwalk that takes you around the island for closeup views of the falls. In addition, the falls can also be viewed from the water by renting a rowboat from a park concession.  Two campgrounds are located within the state park at the Lower Falls.

Tahquamenon Falls - Lower Falls Tahquamenon Falls - Lower Falls Tahquamenon Falls - Lower Falls

Sign along the trail

Visitors to the park can take an approximately 4-mile trail to the Upper Falls and use a fee-based shuttle to return, but we opted to return to the parking lot and drive to the Upper Falls since we had other stops to make that day. From the parking lot we followed the short ADA-accessible path to the right where there's a boardwalk that takes you to a viewing area with direct views of the falls from above. From there we took the 94-step staircase down to another viewing area at the top of the falls. After returning to the top, we went in the opposite direction and took the 116-step staircase down to the base of the gorge. 

The Upper Falls, at 200-feet-wide and with a drop of 50 feet, is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River. More than 50,000 gallons of water per second plunge over the falls when the river is at its highest. The rusty color of the water is from tannins leached from cedar, spruce and hemlock trees in swamps drained by the river. The large amounts of foam below the falls are caused by the extremely soft water being churned by falling water.

Upper Tahquamenon Falls Upper Tahquamenon Falls

Upper Tahquamenon Falls

After finishing our exploration of the falls, we headed back to the parking lot and stopped at the large park store where you could buy snacks, refreshments and souvenirs. We purchased some new stickers to add to our camper window.

To view a short video of our visit to Tahquamenon Falls, click here for our YouTube video.

* All photos and videos are the property of the owners unless otherwise noted. *

Exploring Michigan's Upper Peninsula (Part 11) - Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

 "Life is short, make every day an adventure."

- Unknown

July 28, 2024

One of the items on our bucket list of things to visit during our stay on Michigan's Upper Peninsula was the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, located at the Whitefish Point Light Station, 11 miles north of the town of Paradise, about a 1.5 hour drive from St. Ignace. It's one of Michigan's most popular tourist destinations, and a must for lighthouse and shipwreck enthusiasts. 

The museum complex includes the Shipwreck Museum Gallery, the restored 1861 Whitefish Point Light Station, the 1923 Lookout Tower, the 1923 Lifeboat Station Surfboat House, the 1923 USCG Motor Lifeboat House and the 1925 Assistant USCG Chief's Quarters. 

Visitors to the site can also follow a boardwalk out to the shore of Lake Superior where you can watch huge cargo ships on their way to or from the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie. Although visitors can roam the grounds freely, there is an admission fee to enter the buildings, but we found it to be well worth the price.

Cargo ship on Lake Superior as seen from Whitefish Point
	Memorial marker for the Edmund Fitzgerald

Shipwreck Museum Gallery

The area off Whitefish Point has more than 200 shipwrecks lying in the water and is known as Lake Superior's Shipwreck Coast. The Shipwreck Museum Gallery is small, but it's loaded with exhibits containing shipwreck artifacts, models and artwork. In addition, the 2nd Order Fresnel lens from the White Shoal lighthouse is prominently displayed along with the bell of the famous Edmund Fitzgerald. The ship sank in 1975, 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point during a powerful storm. Those of us of a certain age will remember the popular 1976 ballad sung by Gordon Lightfoot called "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". The bell from the ship was recovered from the wreck in 1995 and serves as a memorial to the 29 crew members who lost their lives in the tragedy.

The ship bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald

White Shoal Lighthouse Lens   Ship anchor retrieved from a shipwreck

1923 USCG Motor Lifeboat House

This building was restored for use as a theater in which a 14-minute-long documentary about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald can be viewed. 

Whitefish Point Light Tower & Keeper's Quarters

The 1861 Whitefish Point light tower replaced a stone tower that was constructed in 1849. It's the oldest active lighthouse on Lake Superior. The 76-foot-tall tower isn't open to the public. The two-story keeper's dwelling, also built in 1861 for the keeper and his family, housed Coast Guard personnel until 1970. It was restored to 1920-era condition in 1996 and features period furnishings, descriptive panels, exhibits and artifacts. 

Whitefish Point Keeper's Dwelling & light tower

1923 USCG Surfboat House

This building was restored in 2001 and displays a full-size replica of the Beebe-McClellan, a 26-foot surfboat, as well as other historical exhibits.

USCG Surfboat House

Museum Store

After finishing our exploration of the museum buildings and grounds we stopped in the large museum store. It was very well stocked with items related to maritime life and the Great Lakes including clothing, books, souvenirs, artwork and models. We even found a counter where we purchased more fudge to replenish our supply.

To view a video of our visit to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, including some of the video about the Edmund Fitzgerald, click here for our YouTube channel.

* All photos and videos are the property of the owners unless otherwise noted. *

Review - Lakeshore RV Park, St. Ignace, Michigan

 “You don’t have to be rich to travel well.” – Eugene Fodor

July 27 to August 3, 2024

We typically prefer state park campgrounds when we travel. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get reservations at any of the very popular Michigan state parks along our route during our Michigan trip. When we aren't traveling with our grandchildren we don't need the typical amenities found at most family campgrounds, such as swimming pools, playgrounds and organized activities for kids. Instead we look for small campgrounds with few of those extras - not because we don't like families, but because we just don't want to pay for amenities we aren't going to use. The following campground is a great example of a nice, reasonably priced, low amenity campground.

Lakeshore RV Campground in St. Ignace, Michigan, is a small, family owned and operated campground. The campground is located just off of Michigan's scenic Route 2, high on a bluff above Lake Michigan.

The campground is full-service, offering 20-30-50 amp electrical service with water and sewer to all of the 53 RV sites. Big rigs are easily accommodated. Both pull-through and back-in RV sites are available. The back-in sites are closest to the road, but provide the best views out over the lake. There are 9 tent sites - 2 of which have water and electric service; and there are 3 yurts available for rental. The campground is pet friendly.

Amenities include fire rings and picnic tables at every site, a laundry with 4 washers and 4 dryers attached to the campground office/store, and a little free library. There's also a small, rocky beach across the street with benches and a fire ring from which you can get great views of the Mackinac Bridge. The campground does not have a playground, swimming pool or other activities for children. It does have a small pavilion, but it wasn't used at all during our week-long stay. WIFI is free and was pretty good during our stay. We were also able to bring in some local channels on our TV using our antenna. There is no cable hook up. A dump station is located on the grounds.

The bath house is attached to the back of the pavilion. It had 3 showers on each side, was very clean, and had good water pressure.

The campground office/store was very small with only the bare necessities. However, you could arrange for free shuttles to the Kewadin Casino and the Mackinac Island ferries from the campground. We found the staff to be friendly and helpful.

The campground is located close to all area major attractions and is only minutes from downtown St. Ignace.

We enjoyed our stay at Lakeshore RV Park. Although the sites were quite close to each other, we didn't find that to be a problem. Our site was right next to the pavilion and we had a nice view out over the water, even though we were one row back. Our awning almost touched the side of the pavilion, giving us plenty of shade, and the bath house was only steps away. Normally that could be a problem, but we found that most people used the showers and toilets in their campers, so traffic was minimal with most people waking through the pavilion to get to the bath house, rather than walking through our site.  And we never had to wait for a shower!

Our campsite. Bath house entrance is to the rear just past the truck.

View from our camper window.

The campground was quiet and clean. We enjoyed walking across the street every evening and sitting on a bench by the water looking toward the Mackinac Bridge on our left, and St. Helena Island with its lighthouse in the distance on the right. In addition, we watched beautiful sunsets from the beach. 

Mackinac Bridge view from the campground beach Sunset from the campground beach

St. Helena Island Lighthouse viewed from the campground beach Mackinac Bridge at night.

The only fault we could find was that there really wasn't an easy way to get our kayaks from the campground down to the beach, because you had to go across the street and down a fairly steep path to get to the water. Instead, we drove to a nearby park to launch them.

We would recommend this campground to anyone wanting to stay in the St. Ignace area. However, if you have young children who need all the extra amenities to keep them happy and occupied, you would probably want to stay somewhere else. The older children we saw during our stay seemed content with swimming in the water at the beach, even though it was rocky. I wouldn't recommend the beach for very young children because it was very rocky.

We used Lakeshore RV Park as a base for exploring the eastern end of the UP. Check out future entries in our blog for posts regarding the places we visited and and the fun things we did while staying in St. Ignace.

* All photos and videos are the property of the owners unless otherwise noted. *