Tahquamenon Falls
Tahquamenon Falls, October, 2020. Shot on a Ricoh GR-III. Processed and stitched in Lightroom.
I expected to have some new images to post today but since they were shot on film, and the post office took an extraordinarily long time to get the film to the lab, I don’t have the scans back yet. So … an image from the archives.
Back in October, we took a weekend trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, camping at Brimley State Park near Sault Ste. Marie, and took day trips up to Paradise and Whitefish Point. Driving up, we expected things to be like our last trip to the U.P.: Lots of scenic beauty; not a whole lot of people. Boy, were we wrong.
The last time we visited the Whitefish Point Lighthouse and Shipwreck Museum, it was at the height of the summer tourist season and there were maybe five other people wandering around. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. This time — hoo boy. The parking lots were overflowing, cars were parked on both sides of the road leading to the lighthouse, and there were people everywhere. Social distancing? Yeah, no. None of that. Because of the crowds, we skipped all the buildings and just walked the beach for a bit. Finally, we’d had enough and got back in the truck to head for Tahquamenon Falls State Park — and got stuck in traffic for 40 minutes.
Honestly, I thought it was road construction that was causing the backup. What else would cause a traffic jam in the middle of the U.P. in October? Tourists, it turns out, and a mile+ long backup of cars trying to enter the state park. Once we were finally able to see what was causing the holdup (after crawling along for 40 minutes), we were able to bypass that entrance and drove a couple miles west to the other park entrance, to the upper falls, where the traffic situation was much better. Not great but not insane.
Once inside the park, we grabbed a carry-out lunch from the surprisingly good Tahquamenon Falls Brewery & Pub, and then hiked along the paved path to the upper falls shown above. There were still too many people on the path and the viewing platform but the view was worth it.
Later, as it was getting dark, we drove back to the lower falls park entrance and were able to explore that side of the park before driving back to our campground.
Things to know before you visit: Maybe don’t visit during the height of fall color and Covid when everybody wants to get outside, even way up there? While waiting for our carryout, we talked with one of the ladies working at the brewery who told us the entire year had been insane: mobs of people constantly; didn’t matter if was a weekend or weekday; and just no let up. There were such crowds that park staff had problems just getting inside the park to get to work. Not pleasant. But the falls are beautiful and it really is a very nice state park. Highly recommended — after the Covid outdoors craze dies down.