We went with our friends Jim and Sharon on a whirlwind sightseeing tour. Ishpeming is in Marquette County and there are a dozen waterfalls in the area. There may be a dozen but they sure don't make it easy to find them. The map that we got had horrible directions and there was rarely any road signs to help. To top it off the very first one we tried to find the access road to it was closed. So our tally for the day was 1 closed, 2 we found and 4 we could not find. Of the two we found though the Yellow Dog River 510 Falls was the best. There was a group there in helmets that were riding the falls down. We took our shoes off and walked into the water and it sure was cold.
Luckily we had more to see than waterfalls that day. We climbed to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain which was an adventure in itself. We took the 'moderate' trail and it still involved numerous, too many to count, wooden stairways. Although it is supposed to be about 1/2 mile it seems that it is all uphill. There were benches along the way which helped but this is one of those been there, done that, no desire to repeat it kind of deals. Well we all made it and the view was tremendous from the decks built up there. From the summit looking north and east is Lake Superior, looking south is the city of Marquette with its steeples and the green forests beyond.
It just wouldn't be a sightseeing day in Michigan if you did not see a Lighthouse since Michigan has more Lighthouses than any other state. We drove to Big Bay and saw the Big Bay Lighthouse which is now a B&B with tours only a couple of days a week and of course it was not one of those days. We were still able to walk on the grounds and get some great photos.
Although the difficulty in finding the waterfalls was disappointing all in all it was still a great day in the UP.
Photos have been added to the Ishpeming set on Flickr.com
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Great tour and pictures. It is always a good day of sightseeing if it includes a lighthouse:)
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