Day 22: Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park

 

What a day we’ve had exploring Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park.  We took in the three “must see” scenic areas of the park and enjoyed another day of lovely weather.  Our first stop was Lake of the Clouds,  the most-photographed area of the park.  We walked up a steep trail to the spectacular viewing area atop a 300-foot precipice that overlooks Lake of the Clouds and the heart of the Porcupine Mountains.  As an alternative to the steep walk, there’s an accessible boardwalk to the viewing area which is fairly new and opens the area to more people.   

Our next stop was Summit Peak, the highest point in the park.  It’s reached via a half- mile trail which rises 300 ft. under a dense canopy of hardwoods.  Stairs and  boardwalks protect ancient lava flows and lead out onto a large viewing deck overlooking the Little Carp River.  At the top, a lookout tower provides a panorama of the park’s rugged wilderness with Lake Superior visible in the distance.  It was a steep half-mile but well worth it – and there were well-designed benches with comfortably slanted backs along the way.  We stopped and ate our lunch at one of the benches at the end of the trail.

Presque Isle River provided quite a view with its waterfalls and rapids as the river flowed toward Lake Superior.  We first crossed the river on a small suspension bridge and then walked along it to the lake.  The shore was covered with smooth oval stones.  We followed the river upstream seeing the rapids and were surprised by the large circles smoothly carved in the stone by the force of rocks and grains of sand in the river.  Then we reached the largest – and very dramatic – falls named Manabezho after a powerful spirit-god of the native Ojibwa people.  The boardwalk – with many flights of steps – provides observation platforms to view the Presque Isle River, one of Michigan’s wildest rivers. 

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On the way back to the coach, we stopped again at the Wilderness Visitor Center to see the video which we missed the day before (because we were now in the Eastern time zone but didn’t realize it and the center was closing).  It gave an excellent history of the area and told about the geological features and scenic areas of the park.  We were not surprised to learn that there was consideration of the area as a national park before Michigan set aside funds to purchase the land which became a Michigan state park in 1945.  Yes, the Michigan state park fees are high, but based on what we’ve seen in this park, it is well worth it.