Lake Superior Circle Tour Day 3 - Munising to Bayfield

Day 3 was a more relaxing day driving from Munising to Bayfield with no boat to catch. We started off with the impressive Lower Harbor Ore Dock in Marquette, a short drive from Munising.  It's an unusual structure dating from 1857, a relic of the iron ore mining industry, once used to load ore onto Lake freighters in Marquette. 

Lower Harbor Ore Dock

 We checked out three waterfalls, the first of which is Bond Falls in the Ottawa Haight Township in Michigan.  This is a beautiful full waterfall accessible via only a short hike.  

Bond Falls

We crossed the stateline between Michigan and Wisconsin and noticed that Wisconsin is quite neat and green.  The Visitor Centre wasn't open but at least the washrooms were.  We may have missed the second waterfall on the state border, Interstate Falls.  We managed to see what we thought was part of it at least, possibly a lower section.  But we had a nice walk in the forest seeing trilliums and trout lilies by the trail.

Interstate Falls? sure doesn't look like what's online...

Walk through the forest - lots of trilliums

Potato Falls is quite attractive in spite of the name!

  

Our last stop before Bayfield was Ashland with its murals and a well-stocked Co-op.  Delicious scones here!  The murals were quite interesting, including one of the Ore Dock and many others of historical significance that were quite well done.  Even the recycling bins were decorated with stained glass!

The Ore dock mural

Both these murals of houses blended right in!

Stained glass decorated bin

We arrived in Bayfield in time for a nice dinner at the Bayfield Inn - Lake Superior White fish and the best ever clam chowder, chock full of clams!  Our hotel is at the waterfront and provided another opportunity to catch the blue hour after sunset even though we couldn't see the actual sunset.

Whitefish taco

Bayfield at dusk

  

Blue hour at Bayfield - the large island out there is Madeline Island

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.

Eastern Channel Lighthouse

Miners' Castle

One of many painted coves

Lovers' Leap

One of my favourites "Rainbow Cave"

Indian head

Grand Portal

Flower vase

Indian drum

Battleship rocks

The most spectacular formation - Chapel Rock and Chapel Cove, the catamaran actually drove into the cove.

An impressive example of nature at work - see how the roots of the tree span the gap between the rocks!

Spray Falls - this is where we turned around and see the colours have intensed with the golden hour

These rocks have no name but I just love the rainbow colours on them!

Sunset at the hotel

Ambient light from the sun turned the sky pink during blue hour

                   

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