July 28, 2019
Vanlog, Tahquamenom Falls SP
This morning, I woke early at my Cracker Barrel campsite and drove 2-plus hours to Mackinaw City, where I caught the 9 AM ferry to Mackinac Island in the Straits of Michigan. Mackinac Island is a quaint tourist island 3 x mi wide where there are no vehicles allowed. The only modes of transportation ont he island allowed are by foot, bicycle, or horse drawn carriage. The island has a fort named Fort Mackinac, the Grand Hotel, many Victorian homes, s famous landmark known as Arch Rock, and literally a fudge store on every corner. You have to sample the fudge if you go to Mackinac Island. I did! (No surprise there). I took the ferry that takes you under the five-mile long Mackinac Bridge that connects lower Michigan to the UP (or Upper Peninsula).
After my fudge sugar rush, I strolled the Victorian streets in the opposite direction until it was time to board the 12:30 ferry back to the mainland. I then crossed over the Mackinac Bridge in my van and continued onward for several hours to Tahquamenom Falls SP, where I booked a last-minute campsite.
Tahquamenom Falls used to be the land of the Ojibwe Indians. It is here where Hiawatha built his famed canoe from Longfellow's poem. There is an Upper Falls, also known as the Root Beer Falls because of the brown color due to tannins in the water. Four miles downstream there are a series of five cascades collectively known as the Lower Falls.
I would have to say that the Upper Peninsula certainly lived Up to its name!
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