If you combine the
area of all five great lakes they are equal in size to France.
Whitefish Point Light
Station doesn’t open to the public until 10 AM, so we enjoy the solitude and
take advantage of exploring on our own before the general populace arrives.
The Crew’s Quarters
holds 5 guest rooms, a common great room and a roomy kitchen. The kitchen is
stocked with snacks and breakfast foods. Hot and cold cereals, breakfast
burritos, fresh fruit, yogurt, bagels, cream cheese, peanut butter, a variety
of breads and juices and granola bars. It’s like poking around in somebody else’s
kitchen. Open a cupboard and there’s the cereal. A drawer to find the silverware.
Hmmm, what’s in the frig?? Help yourself.
The site is owned
and managed by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society and
they aim to please. Everything is quite ship-shape, (sorry!)
Guests who spend the
night are given free admission to The Shipwreck Museum on the grounds which
chronicles the history of the 80-mile stretch of coastline between Whitefish
Point and Munising; known ominously as “the graveyard of the Great Lakes”.
Here there is a 200-mile sweep of open water
that allows storms to build to epic proportions. Heavy traffic and poor
visibility were key contributors, (with the advent of radar big ships no longer
struggle with these). There are 300-recorded shipwrecks along this coast and
320 sailors have lost their lives.
One particular
incident, in 1919, is filled with irony. As his steamer founders in a gale the
captain of the Myron orders his crew into lifeboats. He stays with the ship. He
is found alive the next day 20 miles away clinging to a piece of wreckage.
Months later the bodies of his 8 crew are recovered encased in ice.
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| Timbers from the Lake Bottom |
Gordon Lightfoot
resonates in the background as we read about one of the most famous: the wreck
of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975 with the entire crew of 29 lost. She was
loaded with 26,000 tons of taconite pellets. She sailed into a gale and 10 foot
waves with winds at 52 knots. They lost radar and huge waves washed over their
decks. They lose contact and vanish, sinking into the lake. No bodies were ever
recovered. She is the largest ship to sink here.
“The
legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of
the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The
lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When
the skies of November turn gloomy
With
a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than
the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That
good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When
the gales of November came early.”
Gordon Lightfoot
Before we depart we climb the
lighthouse tower and get the bird’s-eye-view of the complex. (tweet tweet)
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| Crew's Quarters From Above |
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| Viewing Deck From Above |
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| A Freighter in the Distance |
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| Whitefish Point Complex |
Tahquamenon Falls:
Another boardwalk, another waterfall. The lower falls fall several times around
an island. Rowboats are for rent. On the island are hiking trails only
accessible from these little boats. Wish we had more time….
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| A section of the Lower Falls |
The upper falls are
four miles upriver, (we drive). An extensive boardwalk wends through the gorgeous park to a
staircase of 94 steps down to the viewing platform. The falls extend 200 feet
and have a drop of 50 feet. The platform puts us on the brink. A dramatic
sight.
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| The Upper Falls |
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| Tahquamenon Rhymes With Phenomenon |
Tahquamenon Falls
Brewery and Pub in the park is a great place for lunch. Didn’t taste their
actual beer, but their beer battered prawns were one of my favorite meals on
this trip.
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| Brewery in the Park |
We see many Tiger (Detroit) t-shirts today, and a couple of Michigan Staters, but there's only one Zag...
Fall comes early on the Upper Peninsula
We stop to view
Grand Sable Dunes but are disappointed when a posted notice warns us the dunes
are unstable due to erosion and the trail is closed.
Another incredible
rainstorm (buckets!) to drive through. We are learning these squalls arrive
suddenly and move quickly, but there are long moments of uncertainty and
limited visibility in between for the driver.
Onward to Munising
where we check into the Sunset Motel on the Bay which is exactly as its name
describes. We check in and zoom off to our last doings of the day.
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| View from Our Room |
We are next to last
in line to board the sunset cruise to Pictured Rocks. Unlucky to be tardy, but
lucky because they decide to take two boats. So latecomers are rewarded with
lots of elbowroom on boat #2 while boat #1 is jam-packed.
This will be a 2-½
hour ride along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It’s about 20 minutes
until we reach the rocks; time to soak in the late afternoon sunshine and the
blue, blue water of the unruffled lake. Superior!!
We pass Grand Island,
a National Recreational Area managed by the Forest Service. Ferry service
transports bikers, hikers and campers over and back.
The East Channel
Light guarded the harbor entrance beginning in 1877 until it was decommissioned
in 1913. Preservationists keep it from decay.
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| East Channel Light on Grand Island |
The Pictured Rocks
are formed from Precambrian sandstone (bottom layer) and dolomite (top layer).
The heavy stone atop the soft stone causes the intricate formations.
Ground water seepage
draws minerals to the surface and gives the rock its color. Copper tints it
blue and green, iron ore provides the reds and oranges and limestone and
calcium dye it white. Tannic acid from the tree roots adds the black.
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| Castle Rock |
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| Painted Coves |
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| Indian Head |
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| Vase of Flowers |
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| Chapel Rock |
(the roots of the tree extend to the shore. The connecting soil and rock have fallen away)
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| Grand Portal |
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| Boating into a Cove |
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| Coming out of the Cove |
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| The Cove |
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| Sunset Shining Through |
The Munising
Hospital and their High School are both situated on the bay with beautiful
views. Our guide tells us that every bed in the hospital is turned to face the
water and that the high school is known as the Alger County Jail because it
incarcerates 400 young people from September to June.
He tells us too that
the blue water bay we’re cruising on in today’s sunshine holds 50-60 ice shacks
in the wintertime constructed by fishermen on the frozen lake.
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| Sunset Behind Grand Island |
An enterprising woman has set up a
table near the pier where she’s selling homemade treats. The brownies are sold
out, but the soft gingerbread cookies will suffice.
