caracolina

After breakfast at Jeffrey’s we left Marquette. Our first major destination was Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising. In Summer, tourists can take all kinds of boat rides to see the beautiful rocks, but today, with low clouds, fog, and drizzly rain that didn’t sound too enticing or worthwhile. We stopped to look at Scott Falls and Munising Falls on the way, but for some reason passed on Miners Falls, which is on the way to Miners Castle, a distinct lakeshore rock formation. As we were walking on the boardwalk perched high upon the cliffs to the Castle rock, we paid homage to the folks that built this and so many other trail in our National Parks and Monuments, and so many natural areas, enabling us “mere mortals” to visit and enjoy nature so easily.

Unfortunately, our drive through the Pictured Rocks area was cut short by road construction that closed down our intended route. Instead of detouring and adding lots of miles to our day to visit Grand Marais east of Pictured Rocks we decided to abandon that plan and aimed more or less straight for Tahquamenon Falls State Park. At the State Park we checked out both Upper and Lower Falls, but found the Upper Falls more accessible with better trails and viewpoints than the Lower Falls. Of course being bigger also helps. On the way east out of the park we sumbled upon the Village Fabrics & Crafts Store in the tiny town of Paradise. While I browsed the wares and bought another small needlepoint kit John chatted with the owner. Her dinner recommendation, a restaurant further down the road, sadly, turned out to be closed today. At this point it was dark and we simply headed for Sault Ste. Marie to have dinner on Portage Road right across from the famous locks and a few doors down from the very reasonable room Long Ships Motel. Before calling it a night, we went for a walk along the locks and took a look into the visitor center.