If you look at a map, you will see that we are not traveling far from campsite to campsite, less than 120 miles. For the next week, Aune Osborne Campground would be our home. The campground is along St. Marys River. No, I didn't leave out an apostrophe, that is the way it is spelled. The river connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron. The locks at Sault Ste. Marie enable the freighters and other boats to safely navigate between the two lakes.
Once again, we are parked next to Larry and Connie. Here we are in the open and would have had excellent solar, but, there were 50 amp hookups with water!
After taking a rest, we all drove back to town to see the locks. No boats were going through, but we could see the way the locks operated.
After that, we walked around downtown before heading back to the campground to play Pegs 'n' Jokers. As you can see from the score on the right, Connie and I aren't doing so well.
The following day it was time for a sightseeing road trip. We took the scenic drive from Sault Ste. Marie to visit Iroquois Point Lighthouse, Whitefish Point Shipwreck Museum, and Tahquamenom Falls.
Our first stop was the lighthouse.
We climbed to the top for an excellent view of Lake Superior.
Then Bob and I walked the boardwalk to the beach. Many people were scouring the shoreline for agates. The water was a bit cold for me to go rock hunting!
Then it was back to the car and on to Whitefish Point Shipwreck Museum. Yes, there have been many shipwrecks in this area. The most famous was in November, 1975, 'Edmund Fitzgerald.' The freighter went down during a storm. No survivors were ever found, nor were any bodies. The ship was found split in half, 535 feet below the surface the following summer. When you enter the shipwreck museum, the first item on display is the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald. This is not one of our pictures as Bob and I both failed to take one of the bell.
The bell serves as closure for the families and friends of the crew. It tolls 30 times each year...once for each of the 29 crew members and once for all others lost in Lake Superior. Another bell, engraved with names of all who were lost, was placed on the freighter.
Since the freighter was so deep, a special suit was developed to retrieve the original bell...
...the newtsuit. It protected the diver from the pressure at that depth and it had special hands to enable the diver to connect cables to the bell so it could be returned to the surface.
Not only is 'Edmund Fitzgerald' memorialized in the museum, but many of the other ships that went down have their stories displayed. Also, there is a replica of the Coast Guard Life Saving Station, with stories of survival.
From Whitefish Point we traveled to Tahquamenom Falls. The upper falls is one of the largest east of the Mississippi. The span of over 200 feet drops 50 feet to continue the flow of Tahquamenom River.
Our first view was of the lower falls. There is an island between the lower falls; people rent rowboats to further explore the island and the falls.
We walked to an upper overlook of the falls before heading back to the car. The upper falls is four miles from the lower falls.
Once we arrived at the upper falls, we walked to view the falls from different perspectives. The first picture is from an overlook about 200 yards from the falls.
We continued walking to get near the top of the falls, then we descended about 95 steps to get a view of the falls from the side.
The falls were impressive. The water below the falls was clear even though tannin makes it look brownish/yellow as it flows over the rocks.
We enjoyed our day of sightseeing, but it was time to return to Aune Osborne. We looked forward to more adventures the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment