It was our third day in
Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and we
were taking a day trip.
When I decided to make the trip to Sault Ste Marie, one of the
main attractions I was interested in was
Tahquamenon State Park, just about an hour
from there.
The park is nearly 50,000 acres and home to wildlife and birds (including
bald eagles, which we did see). It’s second to only
Niagara as the biggest
falls east of the Mississippi River.
Since I have physical limitations, we decided the best way
to enjoy Tahquamenon State Park was to take the
Toonerville Trolley RiverboatTour.
The tour is divided into two parts. The first is on land, on the ‘trolley.”
It runs along a railroad track for five and a half miles.
While there is an opportunity to see many animals, we just saw a few deer and
some birds.
The trolley then stops along the river, where you pick up a boat
for a narrated cruise, 21 miles to the rapids of the Upper Tahquamenon Falls.
The falls themselves were not accessible enough for me to
walk to. I waited on the boat for the hour it was stopped and enjoyed the tranquility
of the river while Jamie and Brittany hiked up there.
Brittany took some great pictures, though they didn’t have
time before the boat left to capture all of the beauty of the park.
The boat ride back to the trolley, and then our cars, was
equally relaxing, but we then had to hustle to make it the half hour to
Michigan's Whitefish Point with enough time to explore.
The
Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is actually a complex dedicated
to the boats passing through Lake Superior since the 19
th century. It
is on the National Registry of Historic Places and definitely a must-see when
in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Among the ships who are paid homage to here are the Samuel
Mather, which went down in Marquette in 1891; the S.R. Kirby, that sank near
Eagle Harbor 1916; and the
Edmond Fitzgerald, lost with the entire crew just 17
miles from Whitefish Point.
While Brittany and Jamie climbed the lighthouse, I went
through the crews’ quarters.
Inside was set up to depict exactly how the family
of a crew member housed at Whitefish Point would live.
The house has been restored by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical
Society with support from the Michigan Department of Transportation and the
Michigan Council for the Arts & Cultural Affairs. You can even stay here
overnight here.
The lighthouse is the oldest on Lake Superior. We didn’t
have long enough before closing time to go through the Museum Store or the
Whitefish Point Bird Observatory. We did walk along the peaceful Lake Superior
beach.
Before we left
Paradise, Michigan, we decided to stop at a local
restaurant for dinner. The Inn Gastropub & Smokehouse was a good choice for
delicious barbecue.
We were back at
Superior Place in Sault Ste Marie in time to crash for the
night. We still had one more day to enjoy some time in the city before heading south
to the lower peninsula of Michigan.
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