Michigan to New York

September 19, 2023

We made our first family stop on the trip staying 3 nights at Holland State Park on Lake Michigan. We had a very nice time visiting Laurie’s family, friends and old haunts and found lots of local produce to enjoy - the local farmers market had very nice tomatoes, cucumbers and fresh sweet corn. Yum! With Laurie's sister Jackie we went to Fennville and picked apples and peaches and of course had to stop at the orchards cafe to get a piece of homemade pie. We rode our bikes about 15 miles along the Lake Michigan shoreline and stopped at a blueberry farm market and all had blueberry custard. We also walked around the beach cottages and on the beach near the park. It was a nice visit. 

Mark, Laurie and Jackie biking

Holland Lighthouse

Holland Farmers Market

Picking apples

Laurie and Jackie eating Blueberry Custard

Rough Lake Michigan

We spent one night visiting Mark’s cousin Roseanne and her husband Tom - remember from last winters trip when we ran into them in Arizona after a 20-year absence. We spent a night nice with them in Castalia, Ohio near Mark’s hometown of Sandusky and had drinks at Tom’s beer garden - it was nice visiting with them again. After we left them, we took a nice walk at Sheldon Marsh Natural Preserve and walked out to see Lake Erie.

Then it was on to Cleveland where we spent 4 days visiting with Mark’s brother John and his wife Linda. This time we were lucky to see their three kids, six grandchildren, and helped celebrate 2 of the grandchildren’s birthdays. We spent some time at Cuyahoga Valley National Park and took some walks that we had not done before; one to the Ledges and one to Brandywine Falls. Another day, we drove into Cleveland and down to the waterfront and through some very nice neighborhoods. Linda and I drove to a local farm markets for fresh corn and had a great time looking at all the gourds and pumpkins.  We spent our last night there going out for dinner and ordering just appetizers! That was fun! We followed that with a big campfire in their back yard!

Birthday party

Brandywine Falls

The Ledges

The Ledges

Cleveland Skyline

Weird Gourds

Farmers Market Pumpkins

Leaving Cleveland we headed east through Pennsylvania to New York and Niagara Falls. We spent 3 nights at 4 Mile Creek State Park on Lake Ontario, a little north of Niagara Falls. We had a lakefront site and could see across Lake Ontario to the Toronto skyline. We spent a very nice day at Niagara Falls State Park on the American side of the Niagara River. We walked all over the park seeing - Goat Island and Luna Island, The Three Sisters Islands, and the falls and rapids from all the different viewpoints. It is quite awesome - such a huge amount of water going over the falls. We took a ride on the Maid of the Mist boat to see the falls from a totally different viewpoint. They give you raincoats for the trip, but this was no mist! … it was more like a downpour and our hats, sleeves, shoes and pants bottoms were totally soaked. It was a very fun experience!  We also stopped at Whirlpool State Park, located on the Niagara river below the falls, where the river narrows and has created an impressive whirlpool.

Toronto Skyline across Lake Ontario

Campsite at Four Mile Creek Campground

They say "Mist" but it poured!

Niagara River Rapids

American and Canadian Falls

Whirlpool State Park

American Falls

Canadian Horseshoe Falls

The next day we visited Lockport, New York located on the Erie Canal.  The Erie Canal was finished in 1825 and was 360 miles long, 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep connecting Lake Erie at Buffalo to the Hudson River at Albany.  It was enlarged over the years, but the advancement of steam power and railroads kind of did it in. It is still in use from May to October, mostly by private boats. They drain part of the canal in the winter to prevent ice from breaking the dikes. We took a boat ride on the Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Cruises and went through two locks and down the canal a ways. It was very nice and kind of gave you a feeling of a much slower time. We took a roundabout way back to our campground and stopped to see Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse on Lake Ontario. It was a nice day.

Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse

Our next destination was Letchworth State Park which is dubbed the “grand canyon of the east” with a gorge 590-600 feet deep and three very nice waterfalls. We hiked to all  three waterfalls. They were very beautiful. The highest is 107 feet tall. 

Lower Falls

Upper Falls

Letchworth Gorge

Middle Falls

The neatest thing that we saw was the ascension of 3 hot air balloons. It was so unexpected and such a special treat so we pulled out our lawn chairs from the back of the truck and sat down and watched the whole process from beginning to end. The balloons went up and then over one of the falls before heading off into the distance.

Yesterday, we arrived at Watkins Glen State Park in the Finger Lakes. 

More to come ...

Lake Superior

 September 6, 2023

We have never been to the north side Lake Superior so on August 25 we started east from Duluth staying 4 nights at Gooseberry Falls State Park on Minnesota’s “North Shore”. Lake Superior is very beautiful and rugged. I keep on thinking of it as the ocean because it seems that big!

We used Gooseberry Falls as a base and visited many parks in the area. The area has lots of waterfalls. At Gooseberry Falls we visited their Upper, Lower, Middle and Fifth Falls, and at Tettegouche State Park we hiked to Illgen Falls. The state parks and provincial parks are full of very nice trail systems. At Tettegouche State Park we also also took a hike to Shovel Point which went along high cliffs above Lake Superior. There were lots of young people rock climbing off the cliffs above the lake - not something I would want to do! 

Shovel Point Trail

Shovel Point View

Another nice place we visited was Split Rock Lighthouse. There was a very nice visitor Center that explained all about the construction of the lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in1909 and 1910 after a series of shipwrecks in 1905. There were no roads in that area then, so all the building materials had to be hoisted up to the rock from below by cranes and later by a tram system. We toured the lighthouse and the keepers home. The lighthouse was operational until  the late 1960’s.

One day we drove over to Two Harbors, Minnesota to get a few groceries and discovered a very large Yellowstone Steam Locomotive, that was used in the areas iron ore Industry, a steam tug boat and  very nice lighthouse. Luckily about this time, the weather turned much cooler and nicer.

We left Gooseberry Falls on August 29 and continued north along the Lake Superior shoreline. In Grand Portage we visited the Grand Portage National Monument and Heritage Center which is a collaborative effort between the national park service  and the Objibway Indians. The visitor center and the interpreters in the restored  North West Fur Company fort did an excellent job explaining how the native people worked  with the Europeans and fur traders to bring furs to the fort, which voyageurs then took to Montreal and then were sent on ships to Europe because of the great popularity of beaver hats. Afterwards we went the short distance to Grand Portage State Park to see the High Falls. This is the tallest waterfall in Minnesota and the reason that the traders had to portage their goods 8 miles to get to the fort.

High Falls

We crossed into Canada and continued north and east along Lake Superior passing through Thunder Bay, Ontario and made a brief stop to get a few supplies. We continued east to Sleeping Giant Provincial  Park. The park is huge and the campground is 20 miles off the main highway. We did not pass a single car on those 20 miles. We did see two foxes! The campground is located on the shores of Marie Louise Lake and the campsites are spread apart very nicely. The next day we took a nice hike to see the Sea Lion rock formation which really doesn’t look anything like a sea lion! We also took a walk on the Sibley Creek Nature Trail. The forests are very beautiful and green.

We spent 2 nights at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park and then continued east and south, making  a stop at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park taking a hike to see the waterfall. Our stop for the next 2 nights was at Neys Provincial Park. Our campsite there backed up to Lake Superior and we had our own private path to the beach. When we arrived, the lake was as calm as can be, but the next morning it was quite riled up. We took the Lookout trail to a very nice viewpoint. This area is very rocky and parts of the trail was quite steep.  We also took the Dune Trail which went through a lovely green forest. This park was a POW camp during WWII. It is the middle of nowhere and I can’t imagine anyone trying to escape, but I guess some of the prisoners attempted to escape.

Rainbow Falls

After leaving Neys Provincial Park, we spent half a day at the nearby Pukaskwa National Park also situated on the shores of Lake Superior. We hadn’t planned to stop here but so many folks told us it was beautiful so we pulled in and they were right!  We took the Bimose Kinoomagewnan trail which was quite rocky in places, but had several lovely viewpoints. The trail also had placards which explained the 7 “grandfather teachings” from the Anishnaabe 

people - very interesting. We also took the beach trail and the beach boardwalk trail. 

After visiting Pukaskwa, we continued south. This area is very sparsely populated and you need to be sure your gas tank is full enough. This is also when we started noticing some fall colors as there are many more deciduous trees here than farther north. Our final stay in Ontario was at Lake Superior Provincial Park at the Agawa Bay Campground. This park is huge. It stretches for 102 km along route 17. Our campground was situated between the highway and the lake with most spots having a lake view. The campground was huge and the beach was beautiful. We took a nice walk in the area to see several small inland lakes.

We crossed back into The U.S. on Labor Day and then proceeded south across the upper peninsula of Michigan and crossed the Mackinac Bridge into the lower peninsula. We went a short distance to Petoskey Michigan and spent a night at Petoskey State Park on Lake Michigan. We drove to downtown Petoskey and walked the main streets and strolled the docks at the Marina as well as the beach at the state park.

Yesterday, it turned warm again and got into the 90’s. We continued south along the Lake Michigan shoreline to Holland State Park in Holland which is Laurie’s hometown. We visited Laurie’s sister and aunt yesterday evening and are now waiting on a thunderstorm to let up, so we can go out and do some exploring. More next time…