The island is the least used American National Park,
and only 12 miles from Canada. What a beautiful place, home to foot traffic
only, wolves, moose, and a select few other special animals. I’d been there twice before, but Jim had
never been there, so we needed to make a trip for him to experience it.
We left home in Northern
Indiana, drove through Chicago, and north
through Wisconsin. We spent the first night in a motel and
arrived in late afternoon the second day at Porcupine Mountains State Park, at
the Southwestern tip of Lake Superior, to camp the night. It was wonderful to drive along the shore of
that beautiful lake. The shore
alternates between old worn lava flow benches and white sandy beach.
It’s so amazing, how the
people use the park areas. In our part
of the country, on the great Lake Michigan, all beaches are privately owned and blocked off to the public,
or special access areas are set aside as parks, and jealously regulated for
use. I do understand, with our
population, overuse would quickly make the beaches unusable and overcrowded, but
there, the population is so low, that for mile after mile, there are simple
turnouts, with picnic tables, and people
park, walk a few feet to the water and enjoy. 
This water is so clean that
you can see the bottom a dozen feet down, and cold enough that even on a hot
day in August, you don’t spend long in the water. But there were hundreds of blue-lipped
people, enjoying the beautiful water, all along the way. 
We found our camping spot, and drove to the end of the Porcupine Mountains
Park to see the
waterfalls. 
So beautiful. This is old worn lava flow area, with clean
water splashing down the mountainside. 
It’s
dry enough at this time of year, that there were big areas of dry lava benches
available for people to wander around on.
Just
gorgeous, and well worth the tall stairstep access points to hike to get
there. 
Lots
of trails wind through here, including the North Country
trail, marked on the path we took to the waterfalls.
After a good wander there, we returned to the
campground, and followed a short trail down to the water, just about 40 feet
away from our camper, to soak our feet in the water. 
Jim laughed, said the line
from the song kept running through his head, so he had to stretch out on the
rock and act the part. “The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead when the
skies of November turn gloomy.” 
It was
hard to be too gloomy with the beautiful weather we had, and the wildflowers
and lichen on the rocks made it a photographer’s joy.
It was
hard to be too gloomy with the beautiful weather we had, and the wildflowers
and lichen on the rocks made it a photographer’s joy.
I caught sight of my wet
footprint on the hot rock, and thought about the ecology saying to “take only
pictures, leave only footprints” so I
did.
I'll add more pictures when I get the time and energy. We took along three cameras on this trip, so there's lots of good stuff to share.
