St. Ignace, MI to Paradise, MI to Sault Ste. Marie, MI to St. Ignace, MI

Today was a very long, but beautiful day. We got up early to see everything we wanted to see, so we got to see the sunrise as we left the camp ground. It was very pretty reflecting off Lake Huron.
First we drove an hour and a half north through Paradise, MI to Tahquamenon Falls State Park (rhymes with “phenomenon”). The upper falls are second only to Niagara Falls east of the Mississippi in their flow. The falls are red because of all the tannin from trees in the swamps and rivers that drain into the falls.
Next we went to the Whitefish Point Light Station and Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. It seems that everywhere we go on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we find another lighthouse. This is still a working lighthouse and has the distinction of being the oldest working lighthouse on the great lakes. Grant and Kristy took a tour of this light house too, but instead of taking them into the Lantern room they got to walk around the platform outside the top of the lighthouse. It was a great view. They managed to see windmills on the coast of Canada. The museum talked about many of the shipwrecks that have occurred around Whitefish Point over the last 200 years. Whitefish Point has seen the most shipwrecks of any area on the Great Lakes!!! The known number of shipwrecks in that area alone is in the hundreds.

Next, Sandy just had to pet a black bear, so we went to Oswald’s Bear Ranch in Newberry, MI (oswaldsbearranch.com). He rescues bear cubs from all over the U.S. and keeps them for their natural lifetime because they cannot be released to the public. We had our picture taken with the bear cub Sam. Sandy got to pet and feed the bear while they took our picture.

After this we drove east as quickly as possible to Sault St. Marie (over an hour away) so we could go to the Soo Locks. We decided to take a sunset dinner cruise through the locks because it fit the time we would get to Sault Ste. Marie. The 4 locks are run by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. There is no charge for any crafts to go through the lock. It is the similar for the one Canadian lock. We had a wonderful thanksgiving style dinner, complete with turkey, ham, yams, stuffing, green beans, and mashed potatoes and gravy. During dinner we cruised up and down the Mary’s river for a bit. Then it was time to go through the lock. As we were waiting for our turn, a very small motor boat came through from the other direction. It was funny to see such a small boat come through the lock. After entering and mooring in the first lock, they closed the doors and we had to wait for the water level to rise about 35 feet or so before they opened the doors on the other side for us to go through. Then we cruised down the river for a bit before turning around and going through the Canadian lock in the other direction. Here we entered the lock and had to wait for the water level to lower before going through. It was a wonderful two and a half hour cruise, nice and relaxing. However, we arrived back at the trailer and went immediately to bed.