Tahquamenon Falls

In the last couple of weeks, I have visited the biggest waterfalls in Wisconsin and Minnesota. How could I not visit the biggest waterfalls that Michigan has to offer. This would be Tahquamenon Falls – way up in the most north eastern part of the U.P. I had studied up on where to stay – I wanted to stay at the Rivermouth Campground in Tahquamenon Falls State Park. I did not take into account that it is the weekend – all the working people like to go camping leaving no room for those of us who do not plan ahead. Rivermouth was full – no room at the inn – so I went to the 'other' campground in the park which had room for us. I have to say – the camping gods were looking out for me – I got a beautiful site, within walking distance of some great trails. Quiet neighbors, there were people who shared their campfire with me. It is funny how things work out for the best.

Sunday was a cold and rainy day, not really conducive to hiking or waterfalls. There was a museum up the road which looked interesting, so I headed out. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum was fascinating. There have been more than 6000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes so they had plenty of subject matter. The place was set up like a small village with different buildings hosting different aspects of shipwrecks – museum, coast guard rescue, lighthouse keeper quarters, movie theater(film about recovering the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald) and the ever present gift shop. There was also a boardwalk where you could walk out on the point overlooking where many ships had gone down.

A Civil War era lighthouse

I have read several blogs from other RV travelers where the writer is all gaga over lighthouses. I don't see the pull but in the museum they had several Frelsun lenses. These lenses are the lights that go up in the top of the lighthouse. These lenses are absolute works of art. I think I'm beginning to understand the charm. There are seven orders of lenses, with the largest being a First Order.

A Second Order Frelsun lens - it is nine feet across

A Fourth Order Lens

A little story about a shipwreck: There were two ships passing each other, going opposite ways. Turns out that both of these ships were ships from the same company. They got excited at seeing their fellow employees and they both decided to sail closer to wave at each other. All of a sudden, one of the ships veered a little too far and ended up ramming the other ship and sending it to the bottom of the lake. I guess it doesn't pay to be too friendly.

Tahquamenon State Park has two sets of falls – the Lower Falls and then of course, the Upper Falls. We were camped about a mile away from the Lower Falls so we ended up hiking down to them several times while we were here. It was nicely set up so that you could get close enough to the falls to actually feel the their spray.

Lower Falls

The Upper Falls were a little more intimidating. The Upper Falls is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River, with a height of 50 feet, length of 200 feet ad the maximum recorded flow of 52,228 gallons per second. Think about that flow factor for a second.

I guess the lake effect is strong up here