Day 5 - Mackinaw City to Grand Rapids

Our $30 motel room turned out to be pretty decent, with a partial lake view and a free breakfast. They had a waffle maker so I decided to celebrate the end of our trip by making two waffles with lots of syrup. Yum!

Unfortunately it was very wet and gloomy. Here's the lake behind the motel in the rain:

The weather report said it was supposed to get warmer and rain less in the south so we were hopeful that it would clear up enough to go hiking in Pigeon River State Park. It's supposedly one of the best places to spot wild elk in Michigan.

Unfortunately that was not to be ... 

After a while we passed a sign for "Tourist Elk Herd Information" near the town of Indian River so we got off the highway and drove around for a few miles -- and back -- without finding the information center. Maybe we missed it because it was raining so hard?

It was still pouring when we passed the turn off for Pigeon River, plus the GPS said it was an hours drive away (for some reason it's been very generous with time during this entire trip) so we decided it was better to keep going.

Several miles later we passed another sign for "Tourist Elk Information." This time we managed to find the imformation center, but the clerk directed us back towards Pigeon River SP. We were about to head back out when she mentioned that there's also a city elk park a few blocks from the information center.

They have a really large enclosure so the woman at the information center said we'd be better off coming back later when it stopped raining. Once they find a dry spot they don't like to get up!

Of course, there'd be no later so we decided to take a chance and head over to their enclosure. It was absolutely pouring, but luckily there were two bulls lying down close to the fence. Here's one of them:

We got completely drenched within seconds so we went back inside the car after taking a few pictures, but we weren't quite ready to leave so we watched them for a while through the window. Surprisingly they actually got up!

















The one who got up first walked over to where the other one was lying down, then stole his dry spot once he got up. Poor baby!

I was drenched to the bone by the time we left, but it was worth it! They are very cute!

After a couple of hours on the road we stopped at a rest area near Appleby. The rain was starting to let up and there was a nice viewing platform so I took a bunch of pictures of the mountains. You can tell everything is still pretty green here compared to the Upper Pensinsula:

We made it to Grand Rapids with a little time to spare so we went over to Vander Veen's. They imported food from Holland and mail it to your house, but they also have an actual store in Grand Rapids.

I was like a kid in a candy store! Plus I got to practice my Dutch after striking up a conversation with one of the store employees.

I left with a huge bag filled with Dutch goodies for less than $50! Fantastic! Unfortunately they did not have any instant kale/"boerenkool." I hope Maggi will start producing it again in a few months. 

Then it was time to get to the airport and return our rental car (nice car btw, but a little bit strange: you'll go 90mph and feel like it's going 60mpg, but at the same time it struggled going up even the littlest of hills). We were a little bit late, but there was just a drop box for the keys so I think we got lucky.

Now I'm cuddled up on the couch with the cats ... no matter how nice your vacation is, it's always nice to come home!

Total miles for today: 271

Total miles for entire trip: 1068

Day 4 - Munising to Mackinaw City

Wow, it's cold out here in the morning. We got up at 7am to get an early start and I could see my breath when I first got outside!

With some additional directions we were finally able to locate Wagner Falls:

As well as the elusive Tannery Falls. The trail starts with a staircase leading into the woods next to the highway ... no wonder we drove right past it last night! It's a nice trail though.

The falls were beautiful too! Just a fine trickle of water dropping 50ft:

After that we headed over to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I fell in love with it after seeing these pictures while planning this trip: Hiking Pictured Rocks. You should check them out -- they're really amazing!

First stop was a short trail to Miners Falls. I love how the early morning light hit the trees and gave them a neon glow.

The falls were incredibly powerful, kicking up spray all the way to the viewing platform. That's why the picture looks a bit foggy.

On the way to Miners Castle I spotted a 0.5mi trail to Miners Lake so I decided to jog down to the lake and take a look. Here's the river:

It wasn't the easiest place to run because of the many exposed roots, mud, and fallen trees to jump over or crawl under, but I finally reached the lake:

I noticed a strange red coloring in the river and the lake. This pictures shows it quite well, although you're probably wondering what you're looking at.

From bottom to top it's: river bank with small plants; river bed; underwater plants; reflection of the trees across the river. 

Miners Castle was still mostly in the shade so we decided to return later in the day.

Instead we drove down to Miners Beach. You can see Miners Castle from the side here:

 

This is where Miners River meets Lake Superior. Can you believe how red the water looks? The water is actually perfectly clear; it's the sediment on the river bed that gives it its orange-red coloring.

One more for good measure:

Both the river and Lake Superior were frigid, but I took off my shoes and went for a walk through the water anyway.

Back to Miners Castle! The shade still hadn't completely left, but it already looked amazing.

Normally you can see the rocks on the bottom, but except for some of the large ones they were hard to see because of the waves. I like how the water here looks almost green.

I love these two little holes at the bottom of the rock. It must go all the way through the rock, because it would spew out water in front after the waves crashed on the back.

Erosion is problem in this area and one of the turrets of Miners Castle collapsed in recent years. I wouldn't be surprised if over time the lake will enlarge this little hole in the rock until it creates an enormous opening ... who knows what will happen them?

Someone alerted us to this bald eagle sitting atop on of the trees. I'd never seen one in the wild before so it was great to finally find one.

Some of the roads were closed due to construction, so we either had to take a 2 hour detour or do another dirt road. Oh well, at least it was packed gravel and the trees were all shades of reds, yellows and oranges.

We also drove through fields of tree stumps? Not sure what happened there ...

We finally made it to Grand Marais and after filling up on gas we headed east on route 58 to get to the Hurricane River campground. Here the Hurricane River runs into Lake Superior.

I tried to jump from one side to the other to take a better picture, but I twisted my ankle on take off and landed right in the middle instead. My foot was fine, just very very wet!

This stretch of the coast is particularly rocky and the cause of quite a few shipwrecks. You can see several of them on the Au Sable Light Station trail.

There's a mix of (large) boulders and sheets of rock. The water is perfectly clear, but ships would run aground during storms or in the fog.

Here's one of the other wrecks, partially submerged.

We'd walked down a set of stairs to get down to the beach to see the shipwrecks, but we couldn't find another way up until we walked up to the lighthouse. I think this is every little kids dream:

A rope ladder all the way to the top of the hill. Fun, fun, fun! :D

Worth the climb:

We walked back through the woods when suddenly I heard a tell tale sound:

Yes, another snake! That makes 4 for our trip so far ... and you know what, they're really kind of cute.


We stopped at Log Slide Overlook on the way back. At only 0.4mi long this trail has a lot to offer:

















Grand Sable Dunes, once the site of a log slide that helped transport trees to boats waiting on the lake. It's 500ft down to the water of which 300ft vertically.

This view in the other direction was nice too with Au Sable lighthouse in the distance:

Cute little guy on the way back to the car:

We ended the day the way we started it; with another waterfall, Sable Falls. Only a short walk from the parking lot, but many many steps to get down to the viewing platform.

Definitely one of the best we've seen!

I love unusual road signs so when we spotted this one we backed around to get a picture:

Caution: cross country-skier crossing ahead!

There was an apple tree right on the edge of the park so we stopped to get an apple:

Once we got to the tree we saw that they all had spots on them. Probably still good for apple sauce and pies, but not for a quick snack. Too bad!

On the way to our next hotel we did see some more fantastic fall foilage:

There are the most brilliant shades of red here. I hope we get those at home, but usually it's more of a yellow-orange color pallette. Here's one more:

We stopped for dinner in the small rundown town of Newberry, also known as the moose capitol of Michigan (not that we saw any). We drove around for a while and just as we were about to have dinner at Pizza Hut we found a local place that looked nice so that's where we ate.

After dinner we crossed back into the Lower Penninsula over the Mackinaw Bridge. Just one more day left :-(

Today's miles: 225

Day 3: Part II - Mackinac Island to Munising

Note: I had to split today into two parts. Please read part I first.

So the ferry back wasn't anywhere near as choppy as we'd feared. The waves were perpendicular to the boat so that helped a lot.

Finally we made our way across the Mackinaw Bridge -- the second longest suspension bridge!

Our first stop was right on the other side of the bridge in St. Ignace.

No, not him ... but how cute is that?

Bridge View Park is one of the best places to see the bridge. Can you believe how dark those skies are compared to the ones from the first picture? Lucky for us, we'd leave those storm clouds behind ...

They say the Upper Peninsula is a couple of weeks ahead when it comes to fall foilage. We'd have to agree!

Lake Anne Louise ... a random lake next to the highway. Beautiful colors no?

Right on down to another unplanned stop. It's almost a three hour drive so it's nice to break it up every once in a while.

Seney National Wildlife Refuge. I like how they recycle their old signs! The visitor center was closed so we just walked around and took a few pictures.

It's mostly wetlands apparently.

Some kind of squirrel. It's smaller and the coat is more of a reddish brown ... cute little guy!

Munising is known for it's many waterfalls. We decided to try and see some of them before the light ran out. Here's Alger Falls:

Tried to find Wagner Falls, but no luck tonight. We'll try again tomorrow.

Pedestrians, bicyclists, snowmobiles ... anything else?

Next up Tannery Falls ... except it's not Tannery Falls. This is Tannery Creek going over the MNA Memorial Falls. Maybe we'll find the other one tomorrow. If we have time we might go back to this one to take pictures with better light.

The path to the falls is a little precarious. You have to walk across the top of the falls over a narrow wooden bridge without rails. You can't really tell from the picture but it's a 30 foot drop!

And of course as seen from down below:

Our final stop for tonight is part of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore; Munising Falls.

From a different angle

Then a quick stop across the street ... time to check out Lake Superior! The bank was a bit steep, but definitely worth the view.

Not nearly as cold as I'd feared! I went back up and got the camera for a picture of the sunset over the water.



At this point we were both famished so we stopped at the first restaurant we saw. The sign really says it all:

Strangely enough there was live bat flying around inside the restaurant. Kids were squealing, old ladies ducking out of the way, waiters running around with buckets trying to catch it ... it was quite the scene! To top it all off I overheard one of the waiters say "I don't know why that keeps happening."

Great place though. As the menu states "the grub is sompin' speshul!" ... and so is the menu obviously! A hillbilly dictionary would've come in handy because we couldn't even figure out what some of the dishes were.

Total miles for today: 140