Porcupine Mountains, MI

Wednesday, July 2

We decided to travel to Porcupine Mountains State Park and spend the day.  

On our way, we were driving right along the shore of Lake Superior and saw a sign for Big Iron River park.  These geese were in the water just before the river flowed into Lake Superior.

Here the Big Iron River is flowing into Lake Superior.

The road to Porcupine Mtns was so beautiful and so many hills so close to the lake.

This is how close to the lake we were at times.  It was such a beautiful drive.  It was still about 60 degrees at this time of the morning.

We arrived at the visitor's center about 9:40 am.  The informative people behind the info desk helped point out the highlights of this huge 60,000 acre park.

At the gift shop in the visitor's center, I found this fur hat.  I liked it, but hope not be in weather where I could use it.  Sooooo, just had Tic take a picture.

This is a map of Porcupine Mtn Park.  See how large the park is?

Our first stop was the Lake of the Clouds.  This was the path up to the overlook.

Wow, look what we saw at the top.

This is the rest of the lake missing in the picture above and the river flowing into the lake.  There are many many hiking trails.  See the walking bridge over the river?

This is the view looking up the river valley.  There is another overlook with a boardwalk leading to it.

We walked to the other overlook and this was the view.  AWESOME!!!

As we were traveling to our next sight, we were headed down a hill and could see Lake Superior thru the trees.  

We saw a sign for Nonesuch mine and waterfall. 

We found this "building".  It did not have any information around it.  We figured it must have been the entrance to the mine. We found the waterfall, but could not see it well nor find a safe path to view it.  So we went back to the car.

These pretty wild flowers were along the path.  The mosquitoes were so bad that on the way to the mine and waterfall we decided not to stop.  However, we did stop for a picture on the way back. To our amazement we were not carried off by the mosquitoes.  I did my best to keep them away while Tic took the picture.

Our next stop was the Summit Peak Scenic Area.

This is part of the trail to the tower.

We finally made it to the tower.

The peak's elevation was 1958' which is the highest in Michigan.  We are so far north it feels like we are at a high elevation when we actually are not.

This was the view looking out one direction.  Yes, that is Lake Superior.

This map showed us what we were looking at in the different directions.

This smoke stack is from an old smelting foundry.

Down the road a little further we saw a sign for the "Overlooked Waterfall".  We found this pretty little falls.  It actually had 2 levels of falls.

Here are both levels of the falls.  It was a great find.  Now on to Presque Isle where there are 3 more waterfalls.

This map of Presque Isle River shows the 3 waterfalls.  We drove to the end of the line and walked down to the river

This is the route down to the river.

This walkway paralleled the river.

This warning was posted several places along the path.

At the top of this picture is where this river flows into Lake Superior.  All the pictures from here down are going up river to the various falls.

The above 2 pictures are on the way to the Manabezho Falls.

Tic thought this was interesting how the swirling water carved this into the rock wall.

This information sign looks just like the falls.  See below.

Isn't it beautiful?

Here is about the next waterfall up river.

Each waterfall has its own beauty.

Just look at the power of the water in the 3 pictures above.  Awesome!

These could be postcard pictures.  This Manido Falls is gorgeous!  I know I keep saying the same thing.  We have been awed at the beauty up here.

This is the upper most falls on this walk.

It is amazing how fast the water was running.  The river before the falls does not look like the water is running so fast.

It was quite a hike from the bottom to the top.  We were at the far end of the park and it was about 4:30pm so we decided to head home.  We stopped in Bergland (a very small town) and ate at Antonio's.  The locals were a riot to listen to.  We got home about 7 pm.