Travels with rarecat: Lake Superior

Friday, 27 May 2022

Lake Superior Circle Tour - Day 1

We embarked on our 9 day Lake Superior Great Circle Tour driving from Toronto to Michigan via the Sarnia border crossing. The plan was to drive along the Lake Superior shores of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota before returning to northern Ontario via Thunder Bay. There were lots of clouds along the way and even what looked like thunder clouds, but fortunately by the time we crossed the border, it was sunny and we were able to make several stops before we got to our destination for the night, Bay City.

We stopped at Stepping Stone Falls, which turned out to be a man-made structure but still quite impressive. No surprise, one of our first encounters was with a Canada geese family with goslings. But you can see thunder clouds in the picture, so it was a short visit.

Stepping Stone Falls, Flint, Michigan

Hurry up, kids, it's going to pour!

We drove through Flint, Michigan's Vehicle City - the downtown area was smaller than we expected and we almost missed it. Our aim was to get to Tobiko Marsh and spend a couple of hours there, hoping to see some migrating birds.

It turned out there were not a lot of birds at Tobiko Marsh although we did see a few yellow warblers and some red-winged black birds. We ended up hiking through the marsh to stretch our legs after the long six hour drive.

Tobiko Marsh

The staff at dinner suggested the Friendship Shell at Wenonah Park by the waterfront for sunset and we've found that it is nearly always wise to listen to the locals. The Friendship Ring was very photogenic and made for great photo ops with the sunset and the beautiful clouds that day.

The walls of the Delta College Planetarium caught the sunset

Friendship Ring

Friendship Shell at Wenonah Park

An American sunset, a fitting end to our first day in the United States

Sunday, 29 May 2022

Lake Superior Circle Tour Day 2 - Munising

The highlight of our trip was the Pictured Rocks Cruise - this is what's in store for us!

The second day was one of the longest days on the trip. We started out at 8 am and managed to get back to our overnight hotel just before sunset. We left Bay City and headed north to Mackinaw City, reaching the Mackinac Bridge in 3 hours. The bridge reminded me very much of the Golden Gate even though it's not the same colour. It spans the channel that divides Lake Michigan from Lake Huron.

We continued north to Grand Marais, Michigan, visiting Sable Falls and the Grand Sable Dunes which gave us our first view of Lake Superior. It was a beautiful blue.

Sable Falls

Grand Sable Dunes

We had booked the 5 pm Pictured Rocks Cruise at Munising so we drove non-stop from the Dunes to Munising, allowing us time to check into the hotel before grabbing a quick bite before the cruise. It was a sunny day but windy and cold. I was wrapped up in 6 layers as we had planned to stay on the open upper deck so we could take photos of the rocks. The sea was also choppy, so I was glad I had my sea-bands with me. When the captain offered a full refund to anyone with sea-sickness, I know I needed my sea-bands!

TIPS: 1. Choose the late afternoon cruises to get the most colour out of the rocks.

2. Be prepared for the weather to change so best to wear layers.

3. The word on the street is to sit on the right side of the boat but according to the captain, it doesn't make any difference as he would turn the boat around on the return trip and people on the left side of the boat would have their turn to be closer to the shore. This turned out to be true although on our cruise, there were many empty seats to choose from, especially on the upper deck!

4. Try to book a lake front hotel. Sunset on the lake is quite special.

What follows are photos of the highlights on the cruise. As you can see, it is not called Pictured Rocks for no reason. It was a spectacular display of multi-coloured rocks and the late afternoon soon brought it all out. The later photos were taken on the return trip and you may notice that the colours are more intense in these photos - we hit the golden hour (2 hours before sunset) on the way back. To top it all off, we had a brilliant sunset and the ambient light after sunset turned the lake in front of our hotel a lovely pink during the blue hour.