Upper Peninsula - Part 2

Ok - here we go again - there is so much to see in the U.P.!!!

On Wednesday we visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point and hiked the falls at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.  It was a busy day!

This is the grounds of the shipwreck museum.  There were over 500 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, over 60% of them occurred at or near Whitefish Point.  There were many heroic men from the local Coast Guard Station who battled extreme weather to rescue crew members from disabled or sinking ships.  

These were large ships - this is a rudder from a "great lakes" ship... (Carsten for scale):

Tahquamenon Falls State Park was quite lovely - there were two sets of falls, upper and lower.  We saw both.  The park is very user friendly with boardwalks to the main sights.  Very nice!

Glad for our 4-wheel drive car, we then took a tour off the beaten path to see Clark Lake.  This "road" was not as accessible but we had fun getting there!  The lake was nice with blue water and red accents from the iron as usual.

such a cutie!

The Lighthouse at Iroquois Point - this was along the scenic route to Soo St. Marie.

 Next stop was Soo St. Marie.

The main event in the "Soo" is the Soo Locks.  These locks enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great lakes.  They are located on the St. Mary's River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. There is a 21 foot difference in elevation between lake levels.  

This shows the lock at the lower level.  Our boat tour passed through the locks entering here at the lower level.

Here we are inside the lock - at this point the lock is filling, to raise us up 21 feet to the upper lake level.

Now, same picture, we are at the upper lake level ready to proceed out to the upper level of St. Mary's lake (at the level of Lake Superior). Notice in the background the bridge to Canada - no traffic jams there!

This is the hydro-electric building.  They generate a lot of power here from water!

We move on from the Soo to Mackinaw City (spoiler alert - crappy hotel in a cruise ship environment).

Take Care!

Sheri & Carsten