Last Day

On Thursday we left Munising to drive back to Mackinaw City. We planned to take a scenic route back. It was really interesting to drive it because there were no other cars, no houses...just a road out in the middle of hills and forests!
We stopped near the Au Sable Lighthouse to tour it. The sign said it was a 1.5 mile walk to the lighthouse, so we started out. After we had walked about 5 minutes we came to another sign that said it was 1.6 miles to the lighthouse. We kept walking and then found another sign that said - 1.5 miles to go. Pretty funny!

This is the path we were walking to the lighthouse.


After we had been walking, we came to another sign that said "shipwreck", and pointed to the beach. After a little walk down the beach we found it.

This is the remains of the Gale Staples which went down in a storm in 1918. The entire crew was saved and this is the remains that have washed up on shore.
On another note - look at those waves! There were people surfing Lake Superior on this day.

While we were on the beach, we saw this rainbow. It's not real bright - hope you can see it!

I love the stones on the shore.

After more walking we finally sighted the lighthouse through the trees.


When we got to the lighthouse, we found it was the last day that they would be taking people on tours for the season. The keepers area was restored beautifully to the early 1900's era. After touring that area, we were allowed to climb the tower.

This little window was about 1/2 way up. What a pretty sight!

Here's the stairs we climbed - 99 of them in all!

Isn't this a pretty lighthouse?


We then started the hike back. There was one more shipwreck sign that we had missed on the way out, so we went back to the beach.

This is all that remains of the Mary Jarecki. She sank on July 4, 1888.

Here's the only critter I captured with my camera during the week. We also saw 3 bald eagles, 7 deer, several herons and one dead porcupine.

This is the remains of an old log cabin.

Heading back across the Mackinac Bridge.


We stayed in the same hotel we had been in a few days earlier, and again had a room overlooking Lake Huron.

This was the scene we were greeted with when we got up in the morning. It was beautiful weather after all the wind and rain during the week. And of course - we had to leave!

Excuse this blurry picture. I took it through the windshield as we drove.
We drove home via the Tunnel of Trees, which is a scenic route from Good Hart to Harbor Springs. This road goes along the lake shore and really does look like a tunnel of trees for most of the drive. It was a beautiful way to end our week away.
That's the end of all the pictures - vacation shots at least! Thanks for following along!