September 2, Paradise, Michigan to Munising, Michigan

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.

 

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)

Crew's Quarters From Above

Viewing Deck From Above

A Freighter in the Distance

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….

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.

The Upper Falls

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Castle Rock

Painted Coves

Indian Head

Vase of Flowers

Chapel Rock

(the roots of the tree extend to the shore. The connecting soil and rock have fallen away)

Grand Portal

Boating into a Cove

Coming out of the Cove

The Cove

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.

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.