La Salle Falls

September 28, 2012

Pine River

Still chasing waterfalls, I'm afraid!  Today we decided to try to see La Salle Falls in Wisconsin.  We had been to the trail once before but it was raining and I did not want to slog through mud for a mile or more to see more water.  We chose a nice, sunny day about a week after the rain had stopped, in order to insure a dryer hike.

Leaves are falling already!

  La Salle Falls is located on the Pine River, near Florence, Wisconsin.  It is regarded as the longest/highest falls in the area, being 20 feet long.  Again, not a waterfall in the sense that it falls from a height, but one that flows along descending rocks.  Really beautiful.  I'm sure the springtime flow would be a sight to see.  This time of year, it cascaded gracefully down the rocks.  Watching the flow of water is mesmerizing and very hard for me to look away. Soothing.

The falls

The hike to the falls wound through a canopy of trees, mostly maples, some oaks and pines.  The experience of walking through this forest was as enjoyable as seeing the falls.

The trail into the falls

The trail was steep at times, but not too bad.  We never saw another soul until we were on our way out.  The forest was quiet except for the scampering of small animals.  We caught glimpses of a few chipmunks and some birds, not much else.

Blurry water-love this effect

Close up

 I am going to miss being around access to all these water places.  The lakes, rivers, creeks....I have really enjoyed living in a place that has so much in the way of outdoor living.  We have enjoyed picnics in some of the nicest places Jim has ever taken me for a meal!

Self portrait

Senior Citizen Fall Color Ride

September 27, 2012

Our camp host, Pat, told us about this color tour that she read about in the newspaper, sponsored by Mi-TRALE, (Michigan Trails and Recreation Alliance of Land and the Environment).  This is the organization that develops and maintains all of those ORV (Off Road Vehicles) trails that I spoke about in a previous post.  She and her husband, Doug, and Jim and I signed up to go on this "Senior Tour".

We had to drive for 2 hours to a retirement village in Ontonagon to catch the chartered bus that took us to Twin Lakes State Park.  We were scheduled on the afternoon ride and arrived at Twin Lakes in time for the free lunch provided by the sponsors.  They were serving....wait for it.....pasties!  Fortunately, these pasties were actually edible. (See previous post "County Fair and the Coast")  We ate our pasties and got ready for the ride.

Lined up and ready to go

There were about 30 ORV's lined up to take us seniors on the tour.  Since most of the ORV's were just 2-seaters, Jim and I rode with separate drivers.  Pat and her husband were also split up for the ride.

My driver, Rich

Jim and Gary

My driver, Rich, was a native with a wonderful knowledge of the region.  He was so informative and helpful to me as I took my photos.  Jim's driver, Gary, was also pretty talkative.  Toward the end of the ride, Jim and he joked about stopping the caravan at a bar on the way home.  Gary was all for it...he stopped at home to get his car while Jim was still in the ORV with him!

Following the leaders

Along the way

Color on the road

The caravan

We rode about 30 miles on the Bill Nicholls Multi-Use Trail, over several train trestles and along several waterways.  The color on the trees was fantastic.  Even though it was the middle of the day I was able to get a few good photos of the colorfest.  Another unusual way to spend a day in the U.P.!

Road we crossed on the ORV trail

View from the trestle

 Thanks to Pat for bringing this activity to our attention.  Jim and I had a great time today.  On the way back to Crystal Falls, we stopped with Pat and Doug for an early dinner near the state park.  The proprietor of the restaurant was a real talker and entertained us all through dinner with stories of his years as a truck driver.  Doug was also a truck driver for 37 years, so they actually had people they knew in common.  Small world!

Who wouldn't want to travel this road?

Waterfalls

September 11-12, 2012

Bond Falls

Waterfalls.  No other description is necessary.  The Upper Peninsula of Michigan has the most water of any place I have ever been.  I started noticing the proliferation of water when we drove through Minnesota, then Wisconsin then into Michigan.  Once we got here,  I noticed that everywhere we went there were signs pointing to water:  rivers, lakes, boat launch areas,  recreation areas, waterfalls, kayak rentals....the list seems neverending.  So, we started exploring the water sights.  Waterfalls are one of our favorites and on several different days we went in search of waterfalls.

September 11th found us on our way to the Porcupine Mountains, west of Crystal Falls on the shore of Lake Superior, based on a recommendation from our friends, Jack and Janet. They visited there last year and their trip yielded some beautiful photos.  Jim and I had to see the sights for ourselves.

Our first stop on the way was near Paulding, Michigan.  There, we found Bond Falls, our first experience with the waterfalls of Michigan.  Wow!  (See above) These falls are on the Ontonagon River and they are 40 feet high.  The falls are easily accessed via nice footpaths built by the State of Michigan.  Jim and I spent about an hour roaming around the area and taking pictures.

We left there with renewed appreciation for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.  They have made quite a few locations more accessible and user-friendly to the public .  There are extensive Off Road Vehicle routes and Snowmobile trails, heavily used in all seasons.  We have been told that people come from all over the world to snowmobile on these trails, that they are "world famous".  These forests are so dense that the fact that these trails are there makes the area a lot more attractive to sports enthusiasts and hunters.  (See Senior Color Tour)


We continued on to several more waterfalls in the Porcupine area that day.  Two falls that we saw were in close proximity to each other, Manido Falls and Manabezho Falls, both on the Presque Isle River.

Manido Falls

Manido Falls from the top

Downriver from Manabezho Falls

Manabezho Fal

Again, easy access made possible by the DNR (that's really what they call themselves!).  Manido was really easy to get to, the Manabezho Falls, quite a few more "steps".  Both equally beautiful.  We got our hiking in as well as photo opportunities this day.

Lake of the Clouds

Toward the late afternoon, we made our way to the Lake of the Clouds, located within Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.  It is a pretty little lake, but I have to scoff at the name:  it is at 1,076 feet altitude!  Living in New Mexico for the past 20 years at 5,000 feet, I have trouble believing clouds ever touch this lake.  But it is nicely nestled in a valley between two "peaks".

Sand Lake Lighthouse (courtesy of Jim)

  Somewhere in here, on the 16th, we went to Florence, Wisconsin for Jim's birthday dinner.  There is a restaurant there called Maxsell's, and it's right on the lake.  Jim had prime rib and I had pork loin....very good!



The week following our Porcupine trip was very rainy so we didn't get out and about much.  We did take a drive to the coast of Lake Michigan and visited the town of Escanaba. Jim took some photos.  I was too cold to get out of the car!  Their harbor area was very picturesque and nicely laid out, and included the Sand Point Lighthouse.










After the weather cleared up, we went waterfall hunting again on Friday, the 21st.  This time, we ventured to Wisconsin, which is really close to our location in the U.P.  We visited several falls in Florence County, Little Bull Falls and Meyers Falls.  Both were located many miles down dirt roads, Little Bull Falls on the Popple River, Meyers Falls on the Pine River.

Little Bull Falls

Jim at Little Bull Falls

Moss grows everywhere here!

The road in

Color along the road

Meyers Falls

Abandoned house

More color on the road

Forest road to the falls

We followed a "waterfall" map to get there and at times were sure we were lost.  The trees are so thick that you can't see daylight in some areas of the forests.  Both waterfalls were more like rapids to us as they don't fall from great heights, just over descending rocks.  But beautiful nonetheless.



























On Saturday, September 22nd, we again went on a ride to another water scene, this time a place called Horse Race Rapids, south of Crystal Falls, on the Paint River.The hike down to the falls was steep, as most are.  The color on the trees was fully peaking.  The scene was fantastic.

Horse Race Rapids

Color on the ground

When we were hiking south of the falls, we came upon a gentleman painting the forest scene on canvas, trying to stay dry (it had started raining while we were there). He was painting a path through the trees next to the river.  Not a bad artist.

 Sunday we took a ride to see the color.  The tree colors were glorious.  We ended up at Camp Lake, a rather smallish lake.  Not sure where we were in relation to Crystal Falls.   We were just driving and roaming around so I lost track of where we were.  Nice little fishing lake, beautiful color.  Jim was really impressed with the house across from us that had a pontoon plane in the front yard!  He thought that was great.   Nice ride.

Camp Lake

Color at Camp Lake

Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge them!

Museum and Riverwalk

October 8, 2012

It has been an entire month since I published my last blog.  I'd like to say I have been too busy to write, but the fact is, I've been too lazy!  Jim and I have had adventures and seen many things in the past month, but in our "down" time, I have actually been relaxing.  I think I have finally accepted the "retired" aspect to my life. 

To catch up on all the stuff we've seen and done, I'll start in early September.  I left off on our trip to the Pictured Rock National Lakeshore on the 6th of September.  On Saturday, the 8th, we went to a local museum, the Iron County Historical Museum, in Caspian, Michigan.  What a great museum!  Jim and I agree that this is one of the best museums we've been to.

Home of composer Carrie Jacobs-Bond

Schoolhouse

The displays are built around the history of this area, concentrating on the mining boom in the late 1800's, early 1900's, as well as small town living in that era.  The entire museum encompasses several acres and contains buildings that were brought from other locations in order to be restored and saved for posterity.

Chairs and a Phonograph

We were treated to displays of high school memorabilia, from graduating class photos to band uniforms from the 1930's, mine paraphenalia, from hard hats to lanterns to the actual mine shaft itself.

Miner's hard hats

The shaft housing

There is an old schoolhouse, tavern, printing shop and home on the premises in addition to all of the other types of displays you might find in other museums:  rock collections, old furniture, clothing, home appliances.

The print shop

The best part for us was that none of this stuff is under glass.  It is within arm's reach.  This museum had the largest collections of stereopticons I have ever seen!   I picked one up and looked through it (don't tell anyone please!) to see what the attraction was....great 3-D.  Wonder how they did that?  When we moved to tour the outside buildings, we were interrupted by a rain storm, so never did get to finish seeing all of the out buildings.  But the time we did spend there was a wonderful trip back in time.

On the following day, we again stayed local.  For the month or so since we'd been here, we kept passing this area on our way to and from other destinations, so we finally drove over to the bridge and Riverwalk on the Paint River, just down river from our RV park.

Hwy 69 Bridge over the Paint River

View up river

 The township of Crystal Falls, where we are staying, has a beautiful city park right on the Paint River, where they also built a short river walk, just north of the Highway 69 bridge.  Jim and I wandered down there on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon and took the short walk.  The views of the bridge and the river were well worth the trip.







 Jim also stopped to play on the swings....silly Jim!