Tahquamenon Falls State Park encompasses close to 50,000 acres stretching over 13 miles. Most of this is undeveloped woodland without roads, buildings or power lines. The centerpiece of the park, and the very reason for its existence, is the Tahquamenon River with its waterfalls. The Upper Falls is one the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. It has a drop of nearly 50 feet and is more than 200 feet across. A maximum flow of more than 50,000 gallons of water per second has been recorded cascading over these falls. We camped here 8/31-9/2.
Above, we couldn't help but take a pic of the hounds about to be released for a hunt. They were all sticking their heads out the dog box. The cruel part about this is that their masters were inside getting burgers & fries at McDonalds and the smell was just torture I'm sure for them. If they were on their way to a hunt, they were not fed much if at all, because a hungry hound hunts better, my Dad always said. Below, a morning sun coming up over Lake Michigan, at the Rivermouth dock.
The upper falls at Tahquamenon...
Above, a local Mennonite congregation was enjoying a picnic at the park, near the visitor center. Below, Nancy glancing over at the picnickers and just ahead are the visitor center and the grill/pub concessionaire.
Above, the grill actually was a microbrewery as well, and served a variety of their specialty brews, along with a good menu of goodies, one of which was the local favorite, fried or grilled Whitefish. Yummy with a dousing of malt vinegar....
We enjoyed the mile or so hike into the river falls. We traversed down two different flights of stairs as well which meant we had a good cardio workout.
The visitor center had a display of UP wildlife for viewing. It is a portable setup I assume, because this area is under a deep blanket of snow in the winter.
The taxidermy was really good on these animals, and I believe the display was provided on behalf of the DNR and I assume they were injured or found dead and were stuffed for events such as this.
There were quite a few folks this day as it was a little cool, about 60 I would guess, but dry and perfect for long hikes. Below, looking downstream from the falls, towards the campground and on down to the Rivermouth.
Nancy caught me snapping off a few pics of the falls. And below, I "horned" the moose. :-)
And that about wraps up our mostly rainy-stay blog at Tahquamenon Falls State Park on the UP of Michigan. So, till the next time, (Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore), RVing Beach Bums signing off. This blog written & published from our home in Virginia Beach, Oct 31, 2014.
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