Tahquamenon Falls, the largest falls (or almost largest) west of Niagra (calulated by--maybe width?). Here are a couple more of them:
What is that guy doing up there?
Here's one I like of Mark, at the falls.
Well, we checked out the falls the day we arrived (July 9), and the next day, we saw a nearby lighthouse (Michigan is bursting with lighthouses):
And a maritime museum, which commemorated the Edmund Fitzgerald and other wrecks along this treacherous stretch of Lake Superior. Here is the bell that was salvaged in 1995:
I'm kinda a fool for Fresnel lenses (they are really pretty up close), so here are a couple. The first one was a second order (big) lens, used at Point Disappointment, near Whitefish Bay, and near where the Edmund went down:
This next one is a 4th order lens (cheaper), now valued at over $1 million (they haven't tried to value the bigger lens, which is probably five feet across, whereas this one is maybe 2 feet across):
Everyone had info on the Edmund Fitzgerald. It is the latest, worst wreck on the lake, and seems to be still in folks' minds. These last pictures come from the Whitefish point lighthouse:
It was free to climb to the top; this lighthouse was simpler than many we've seen in the south:
At the top was a telescope, so folks could see the freighters entering Whitefish Bay on their way to the St. Mary's River (at Sault Ste. Marie, the locks taking the ships to Lake Michigan). We were on our way there too, to see the locks. Here is Mark, spying a freighter:
And helping Katie down the steep stairs from the top:
On the way to Sault (a French word for falls, pronounced "soo") Ste. Marie, we passed through much Indian land, some of which is now reservation. We stopped at a local, attractive cemetary. What I liked was the diversity of the headstones. At first, we didn't realize that it was due to their being Native American. Then I saw this one:
True to stereotype, next we saw a headstone for a 20-something Indian boy, and Mark said, "booze." Outside the cemetary, booze was written in graffiti on a log that once housed a description of the valley below.
We got to the locks, and found out they are the busiest in the world (busier than the Panama Canal even).
The locks were fun to watch. Every hour or so, a huge freighter enters them. Here was one that is 1000 feet long:
The locks take ships 21 feet up from Lake Michigan into Lake Superior. It's amazing to me to see something as big as these ships, and it just floats up as easy as a bar of soap on the rising water.
Like everywhere in Michigan, this town had an abundance of fudge shops. Here is one I almost gave into:
After the locks, we wandered over to an old freighter that is now a museum. It was probably 99 degrees outside, hotter inside the ship, but it was compelling to see inside this big thing.
Here it is, as a model.
It had its boiler room, above quarters, etc. to tour, and in its hold it had relics such as the Edmund Fitzgerald's recovered lifeboats (no one as aboard them, as you might assume from this pic)
There wasn't much about Sault Ste. Marie to keep us there, other than the ships, so we had some ice cream and left, leaving behind the assaulting heat and driving back into the woods where we were camping, near the falls. From here, we go northwest to Lake Superior's edge, in Munesing.