Tuesday 8/4: Day 3

Tuesday 8/4

Beneath the tourism in st. Ignace is a town that’s probably seen better days. A lot of the houses are nice enough, but it just has that feeling of being economically depressed.

Ran downtown and headed to the state park which is at the strait. It’s tiny, really no hiking, but there was a campground and a nice overlook of the bridge. The north country trail rolls right through town and I saw it again in the park. Made me wonder how they cross the bridge, as I don’t think there’s a pedestrian span on it. We also ran into a lady that was biking through Michigan and it again made me wonder how they get across. I’ll have to research when we get Internet again. 

Set off around 11 again, bound for whitefish point. It was a little over an hour over up there, through sandy pine forests, which seems to be pretty much all the UP on this side of it. Whitefish point is a pretty sweet view and quite a history. I loved seeing the hills/mountains of canada off In the distance. The museum was open and I paid for admission (Kate opted not to), but while everyone was required to wear masks, they didn’t regulate volume at all, so i didn’t end up spending a ton of time in there. Honestly, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the main thing that I was fascinated with and there wasn’t a ton of stuff on it. It was kind of cool walking through the old lighthouse quarters, but again, not a must see. Honestly, the view was the high point here, and worth the trek.

Kept moving west with an intended stop at teauamanon falls (probably misspelled). The lower falls had a line to the road. No thanks. The upper did not, but we were greeted with a jam packed parking lot as we paid. I chatted with the park ranger and she said this was unprecedented. “Labor Day crowds, maybe”, she said. And it had been like this all summer. Again, a little crowded for our liking, but outdoors and fairly spread out. We took the short walk to the falls and they were actually pretty dang cool. I’d like to come back here and spend more time with 1/4 of the people.

They had a brewery on site, and we’ve got a map to fill, so we pony upped and got a couple beers. Better than mackinac by a long shot, but still just average. They had a live band and a good truck on site too. Might was well make a buck for the state parks if they can.

2 hearted mouth campground was down a ~15 mile gravel road near the park. We were a little worried about sites after seeing the volume at the park, and increasingly worried seeing a decent number of cars heading out the road.

Our fears were confirmed upon arrival. All 35 sites take. I’d imagine that both of these have to be COVID related. Like us, people turned inward to travel this summer and these are evidently well known enough locales for midwesterners.

We hauled back out the 15 miles, and rerouted for grand Marais, hoping to get a night at the hotel that mom and dad suggested (we planned on staying there tomorrow anyway). Maybe 20 miles south of town, we past a sign for the fox river campground and decided to give it a rip. “2 minutes” of gravel, we said, and if no progress, then we’ll turn around. It was less than that before we were greeted with a nice looking campground and only 30% full. It’s a sandy pine forest and along a nice looking river/creek. Had a nice dinner of brats and left over veggies plus s’mores, of course.

Whippoorwills again too! Which makes sense as the topography looks a lot like the namekagan. Maybe not the most amazing day ever, but I’m not going complain about a day with sunny skies, two Great Lakes, and s’mores.