Trip #4f Tahquamenon Falls State Park, MI (31Aug - 5Sep 17)

 Tahquamenon Falls State Park, MI

Traveling from Warren Dunes to Tahquamenon Falls SP involved crossing the iconic Mackinac Bridge. We left on Thursday, before Labor Day, a little worried about the crossing as I seem to worry about everything possible when pulling a trailer. We are always looking for ways to travel as stress free as possible. One way has been to stop as rest stops or town parks for lunch. The photos below are of one such rest stop along the highway before crossing into the UP.

Crossing into the UP

 

Tahquamenon SP has two RV campsite options. We choose Rivermouth, on the river, with direct access to Lake Superior and pretty close to the town of Paradise. Most of the campsites were filled with a lot more turnover than I expected. I am liking the much longer stays (5+nights). More recovery time from the drive and setup and not being rushed to catch in all the sights is really nice.

Park overview: Tahquamenon Fall State Park has more than 40 miles of hiking trails, 13 inland lakes, 24 miles of the Tahquamenon River and approximately 20,000 acres of natural area. One of the largest waterfalls, east of the Mississippi, the Upper Falls has a drop of nearly 50 feet and is more than 200 feet across. Four miles downstream is the Lower Falls; a series of five smaller falls cascading around an island. Winter offers opportunities for snowmobiling, cross country skiing and snowshoeing with miles of marked trails. it was a first for me seeing cross-country ski trail integrated into the trail system. The park closes mid-Oct where many roads close to traffic except for snowmobiles.

 
Lower falls



Upper falls

Our 22mile round trip bike ride followed Whitefish Point Road to Whitefish Point Light House and Shipwreck Museum. We parked and started the ride at a small county park just north of Paradise.

Spent a day in Sault Ste. Marie exploring a bit of the town and their famous Soo Locks;  shopping, laundry, and a game of disc golf at Lake Superior State University

 


Below, we had a view of the bridge connecting the US and Canada as we played Lake Superior's disc golf course with a little help finding each hole from a student.

Hiking Clark Lake Loop (5.2miles). Great hike in Tahquamenon Falls SP

Trip #4 Summary

Trip #4e Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore (30-31 Aug 17)

From Warren Dunes SP, we travel north alone eastern shore of Lake Michigan for a travel day of around 225miles. A really cool thing on about our route was that our son-in-law Josh grow-up in Muskegon a great lakes city which remained me so much of Erie my childhood home. A really cool looking neighborhood to hang around a bit.

On your travels, there are always places you would like to stay longer. Sleeping Bear was one of those. We tried to get a longer reservation that would keep us there through the weekend. However, we could only get Thursday night. We booked much of the trip in advance. You really have to do that if you want to have a long stay. The locals come out for the weekends at these prime locations.

We arrived and set-up our camper pretty early in the days as we wanted to do the epic hike just Know as the Dunes. The hike as a series of steep climbs as you hike west to Lake Michigan. 

Trip #4d Warren Dunes State Park, MI (27-30 Aug 2017)

A bit about travel

Warren Dunes State Park is about a 280mile drive from Alum Cave, a manageable distance but getting closer to my person limit. You learn as you go what your limits are in the RV(ing) world. Everything is different than your normal driving experiences. During some of our pervious trips, I was pushing to drive longer distances more in the 400+ mile range and driving pretty close to 70mph when possible. It’s just a hold-over from driving without a trailer. You start to come to grips with a significant increase in stress during driving. Then after a long driving you’re backing a trailer into a camp site. I now drive closer to 60mph max, and limit driving time to 6-7 hours. Therefore, as part of planning process we try to ensure no-back-to-back long driving days as well.

We pick Warren Dunes to get on the western side of Michigan along the Lake. The park had some nice reviews about their hiking trails, and a dog friendly beach section. We found the park to be incredible with lots of wonderful white sand dunes. Great beach and lovely weather with a refreshing 71deg water temp. It was a great start to an amazingly beautiful state.

The Beach Trail started from campground with a steep climb up to the top of a dune.

 

Looking down from the top of the dune. Really hard and sleep ramble to the top.

 

 

More views along as we hiked to Lake Michigan 

Pippy, a day on the beach

Trip #4c Alum Creek State Park, OH (25-27 Aug 2017)

After departing Jackson Center, we decided to spend a couple days camping and exploring a state park just north of Columbus. We our Airstream back around 3pm that Friday paid the bill and drove the 70miles to Alum Creek. Alum Creek offered a top notch mountain biking track of about 6miles, DISC golf course, and some nice trails. Our campsite was very nice and close to the creek/reservoir.

Very challenging Mtn Biking trail we rode on Saturday. As a whole maybe not a must revisit park or location, but help us create a great starting point for the journey to explore Michigan. We got an early start Sunday for the 280mile drive to Warren Dunes State Park located in the SW corner on Lake Michigan.