“The lake connects place to place, people to places and people to people.”
Quote by local Anishinabeg woman interviewed by National Park Service in 1999
According to University of Minnesota, about 10,000 years ago retreating glacial ice sheet created Lake Superior; the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and third largest by volume. This inland sea contains 3 quadrillion gallons of water (that would be 3,000,000,000,000,000 gallons, yikes) and if the shoreline were unraveled into a road, it would extend from Duluth to Miami (1,826 miles). As Billy Fuccillo would say, “It’s huge Caroline, it’s huge!
Here I sit near West Lakeshore Drive on the shoreline of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the warm air rolling across the cold water of Lake Superior and engines roaring in the distance. As I watch the fog rolling out, the roar gives way to ships entering the narrow channel of the St. Mary’s River on their way to the St. Mary’s Canal, the most heavily used commercial shipping canal in the world, and the gateway to the lower Great Lakes.
A walk along this same shoreline gives vision to some of Lake Superior’s finest treasures
Continuing on to the Point Iroquois Light Station, a wood structure built in 1855, replaced with a brick building in 1870, and then retired in 1962 to an automatic light in the channel off Gros Cap, Ontario.
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| Point Iroquois Light Station added to Historic Register in 1975 |
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| 16' diametet at the base, 51' to the lantern deck, and 72 steps to the top of the tower |
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| View of Venzaliner atop Point Iroquois Light Station |
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| Replica of Point Iroquois Light Station lense |
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| One of several rock flower beds |
Back in the Venzaliner, a little farther down the shore to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. First stop, Grand Marias Ranger Station to get the lay of the land and stamp the National Park Passport book. Then, off for a short drive along the Grand Sable Dunes to the Log Slide Overlook. Devil’s Slide was originally used to transport logs to Lake Superior and now is a sand dune slide 300’ above sea level; my view from the top of Devil’s Slide…
The walk down is about 500’ and takes about 5 minutes (so the sign says)… Yes, I had to do it; left the shoes at the top and ventured down the sand dune slide; tried to stay on my feet but…okay, maybe butt!
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| View northeast halfway down Devil's Slide |
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| Looking downhill half-way down |
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| This is why you leave your shoes at the top! |
At the bottom, a walk along the seashore in the crisp cool water was a delight to the feet; and the rocks, sand and driftwood were pleasing to the eyes!
And then the thought occurred, what goes up must come down; or in this case what goes down must go up!
What took 5 minutes to go down takes about 45 to go up! Part way up I had the pleasure of meeting Ben, a Boy Scout from Duluth, who was struggling to get past the sandstone cliff so we worked together and chatted our way to the top…45 minutes later, “Yo Adrian, we did it!” as Rocky Balboa would say!
Next stop, Au Sable Point to view the Au Sable Light Station; however, this stop was thwarted by the attack of the black flies. After getting out of the Venza and walking 30 feet down the Au Sable Point trail, I realized the sequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds was in the making and I decided not to play Melanie Daniels; I retreated and settled for a drive along Twelve Mile Beach!
Original plan was to stay at the Twelve Mile Beach Campground and hike in to see the pictured rocks the next day; however, the black flies won and I headed inland…stock photo will have to do!
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