Monday morning, we woke up and broke camp. A little frog was hopping around the campsite as we were packing up.
Chris and Mel had driven down to the beach for sunrise, so while they were packing up, we took Alex for a hike down to the Lake Michigan beach at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The lake was beautiful in the morning light.
Alex didn't want to go in the water, but Sandy and I did. By the time we made it back, Chris and Mel were finishing up and we took off. We made a quick stop at the Platte River on the way out.
The water was extremely clear and looked ideal for a lazy paddle, but we needed to continue on.
From here, we drove northwest towards Mackinac City and parked at Michilmackinac State Park. Here at the Straights of Mackinac, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet.
There was a great view of the bridge here as well. We walked around the grounds to see the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse from outside.
We couldn't take the tour with the dogs, but it was cool to see this beautiful lighthouse.
After some pictures, we headed north to the Upper Peninsula and to Tahquamenon Falls State Park. Unfortunately, it was very crowded. We first stopped at the Lower Falls access. From the parking lot, a trail led down to the river with distant views of the Lower Falls, a series of cascades around an island in the river.
Cascades on the river-right side of the island could be seen from here or by taking a boat to the island. We didn't have time for that today unfortunately.
Staying on land, we followed the River Trail to an overlook near the largest of the cascades that also split around a very small island.
Just upstream was another very scenic drop. As a waterfall, it wasn't super impressive, but looks like it would be a lot of fun to canoe over to the island and play around in the cascades.
After some pictures, we started heading back. I spotted some orange jewelweed flowering along the trail.
We then drove to the Upper Falls, which may have been even more crowded. The Upper Falls was really impressive.
There were several overlooks and they all provided nice views of the falls.
A welcome sight since so many waterfall overlooks have poor views.
The overlook right at the top of falls was the most crowded so I just went down for a couple pictures and then back up.
Further down, another staircase led into the gorge for a view from river level.
Before leaving, we had barbecue for dinner in the park and then left.
Our next stop was at Crisp Point Lighthouse on the Lake Superior shore. From the paved M-123, it was almost 20 miles on gravel roads to Crisp Point. It was very cloudy for our first stop of the trip on Lake Superior.
The restored lighthouse was very pretty, but was closed due to the pandemic.
The dogs played on the beach while we got some pictures.
Then we headed back to the cars for the long drive back to paved roads.
It was starting to get late now so we finished the drive to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and set up camp at site 4 just before dark. Our campsite had a path leading down to Little Beaver Lake and we watched sunset from here.
A beaver swam across the lake.
The view of the lake here was really nice and we all agreed this was a great campsite.
We hung out and talked with Chris and Mel for a while and then went to bed. It was a dry night so left the window in our tent open and watched shooting stars over the very dark night sky.
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