Day three of our family adventure continued a water theme as we began the day with a short drive to Potato River Falls near Gurney, Wisconsin.  This was another bonus stop as we discovered there were two falls — an Upper Potato River Falls and a Lower Potato River Falls!  As the trail neared the top of the upper falls, there were a great number of stairs leading to the base so Susan and I stayed at the top while MJ went down to photograph and then I went down when she was done.

From there we drove a short distance to Copper Falls State Park near Mellen, Wisconsin.  This was an incredible park with about half of the loop trail handicap accessible . . . though we managed the entire loop with Susan’s wheelchair even though the trail was indeed rugged with many stone and wooden stairs.  The loop contained The Cascades, Brownstone Falls, Copper Falls and what I called “The Chute” — a steep, narrow gorge with water cascading down its entire length.

For our next stop we headed north to Houghton Falls State Natural Area, where my information indicated a waterfall flowing into Lake Superior.  Well, I suppose in wet or rainy seasons there may well be, but for us it was a beautiful walk along a mostly dry creek bed with a nice view of the lake at the end.

Our final stop for day three, before heading back to the farmhouse for the night was in Bayfield, Wisconsin where we boarded a boat for an evening “Grand Tour” of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.  This was an incredible time for all of us as there was much to see during our “3 hour cruise”.  🙂

Nope, not quite the boat we were on but I really liked it.  😀  Now for eagles, lighthouses, “sea caves”, water, and sunset that were a part of the real cruise. 🙂  This last section probably could have been “Day Three, Part Two” but it isn’t, so enjoy the blast of photos. 🙂

Day two of our summer family adventure began with a sunrise over Little Bay de Noc that looked much like the previous night’s sunset.  The haze in the sky made for a bright red ball of light for a long time before it finally diffused into more natural looking sunlight.

After the sunrise and breakfast, we were on our way across the western UP as we made our way back and forth along the Michigan and Wisconsin border.  This section of the trip began a waterfall focus as we eventually found some twenty to twenty-five named waterfalls to photograph during our entire trip (I guess I’ll figure that number out as I work through the days. 🙂 ).  Our first stop was a Long Slide Falls County Park in Wisconsin where we not only found Long Slide Falls but a bonus of Smalley Falls!

Our next destination was LaSalle Falls near Florence, Wisconsin.  In the process, we ended up exploring (accidentally) Spread Eagle Barrens State Natural Area — a well named region, by the way. 🙂  We eventually found a map posted that gave better directions to the falls, and also listed another falls nearby.  While they were better directions than what I started with, they were still rather vague and we ended up on some ATV trails that served as roads whether they were supposed to or not.  In the process we ended up at Washburn Falls first and from there was able to easily find LaSalle Falls.

From there it was time to finish our drive to Hurley, Wisconsin where we would stay for four nights as we explored the western UP and northern Wisconsin.  Our lodging was in a restored farmhouse situated on eighty acres of beautiful rolling pasture and woodlands.  We arrived in time to walk the property before calling it a day.

We took a mid-August trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, covering 2,887.3 miles in nine days time!  Over the course of the trip I took about 2700 photos which I discovered are too many to try to deal with all at once. 🙂  So, for starters, I will work on a blog post for each day of our trip to both describe and show some of the incredible beauty of God’s creation that we were able to experience.

Day one began at home with a lot of road time before our first stop at JW Wells State Park near Stephenson, Michigan on the west shore of Lake Michigan.  This was a quick stop to stretch our legs and take a few photos before continuing our journey.

Our next stop for the day was at Portage Point south of Escanaba, Michigan.  This was another chance to stretch our legs as we walked a trail between Portage Bay and Lake Michigan.  Frogs were plentiful as were butterflies and a great view of the lake at the end of the trail.

From there we headed just up the road to the Sand Point Lighthouse in Escanaba, Michigan.

After a quick stop to drop our luggage off at the hotel we would stay at in Gladstone, we were on our way to Peninsula Point Lighthouse across the bay from Escanaba.  It was a beautiful drive down the peninsula and the lighthouse was open to climb to the top.  All that remains of the original lighthouse buildings is the tower itself, but being a somewhat shorter tower than many of them, we all climbed the stairs to the top.

While at Peninsula Point, we were told about Fayette Historic State Park that was across the bay to the east.  There was still daylight so we made our way back up the peninsula and down the next one to visit the park.  It was a great combination of historic buildings and rock-faced cliffs that were extra beautiful in the evening sun.  As we were leaving, a deer came out to enjoy an evening snack from an apple tree.

From there, we made our way back to the shoreline of Peninsula Point where we found a boat ramp to photograph the sunset from.  Along our drive we drove passed a field of sunflowers so we stopped to take a few photos of them as well.  The sun was a brilliant red ball because of smoke in the atmosphere from wildfires to the north and west.

And thus ended day one of our family adventure as we headed back to the hotel for a night of sleep along the lakefront.