Tahquamenon Falls State Park

Moving day

Wednesday was a moving day. Check-out at Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground was 11 AM, and check-in at Tahquamenon Falls State Park wasn’t until 3 PM. Since it was a relatively short 83 mile drive that took just under two hours (and I didn’t have to stop for gas!), I decided I would just see if I could check-in a couple hours early since it was the middle of the week in off-peak season. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed (which was kinda ridiculous because there were only about two other campers in this 30-40 site loop), but they at least had a parking lot right by the entrance where I could park to wait until check-in. If I’d known then what I know now, I would have went down to the Lower Falls, since there is RV parking down there as well, but a nap was a pretty good second option.

Since my site was only going to have electric hookups, I had to fill my fresh water tank for the first time (besides about ten gallons I put in for emergency bathroom use if required). I had no real idea how much water to add, wanting to have enough to last me until Saturday when I leave, but not so much that I had to dump some or carry any unnecessary weight with me to my next site. I guessed 30 gallons, and sitting here Thursday night writing this, it looks like I will probably be short. There is a communal potable water hookup semi close to my site, tomorrow I will find out if the 100’ of hose that I have will reach.

By the time I finished setting up, it was getting close to 5 PM, and it had started pouring rain that wasn’t supposed to let up much until the next morning, so I decided I’d just have dinner and call it an early night.

Soo Locks

When I woke up Thursday morning, not only was it still raining, but they pushed back the time it was supposed to stop, so I decided to drive 72 miles over to Sault Sainte Marie to see the Soo Locks. The Soo Locks Visitor Center is pretty cool, it has a three story platform that allows you to get an elevated view of the locks. It was extremely foggy when I arrived, I don’t think I could see much more than about 50 yards. If you zoom in you can just barely see a ship to the right of the crane:

Frustrated that I had drove all that way to not be able to see anything, I was just about to leave when I heard a small boat coming in to the locks. Thankfully the fog was also starting to lift just a bit, so I was able to get some pictures as the boat was being lifted up to the higher level:

By the time this smaller boat got through, the fog was lifting and I could see a much larger ship was coming through, the Federal Beaufort: This ship is just over 650 feet long and just under 78 feet wide, and was headed from Sault Sainte Marie down to Montreal. I took this time lapse video, that is pretty neat, just excuse the shakes because this was over an hour real time process and I didn’t have a tripod with me (shame on me):

Lower Tahquamenon Falls

After I got back from Sault Sainte Marie, it had stopped raining so I went down to the Lower Tahquamenon Falls. The land in the middle is actually an island, and during peak seasons you can rent row boats to go to the island and get a closer view of more of the falls. The trail did get pretty close to one of the falls though without having to rent a boat:

Upper Tahquamenon Falls

On Friday, I got up and drove over to the Upper Falls. At 50 feet high and 200 feet wide, it is quite impressive: The color is from the tannins leached from the cedar, spruce, and hemlock trees in the swamps drained by the river. A major benefit of being here before the peak season is that there were very few people here. I probably spent 15-20 minutes at each of the three main viewing areas, and didn’t see more than 5-6 people at each.

Lower Tahquamenon Falls Part 2

After getting back from the Upper Falls, I decided to check out the Lower Falls again, only this time I hiked the trail down to the falls, following 15-14-13-16-15: I was surprised the trail was in such good shape since the area had so much rain over the last 24 hours, but the pine needles made a nice, soft, and mostly dry path the whole way down: