Visiting the Thunder Bay Area of Michigan (Alpena/Presque Isle)

We left St. Ignace on a damp, wet morning, traveling along Michigan’s Eastern coast.  We arrived at Thunder Bay RV Park in Alpena, near the 45^th parallel, halfway between the equator and North Pole.  This is a low frills campground, with water/electric sites and use of a dump station for $35/night.  It has showers and toilets, but no laundry facility.  The site wasn’t long enough for Suite Retreat to stay hitched to Big Boomer, but it was double the width of most sites, lending us lots of privacy.

 

After settling in, we visited Duck Park and Island Park, which has an area designated as a bird sanctuary (though no migrations were occurring while we visited).  We enjoyed a quiet walk along the trails at both parks.

Views from...

 

...Island Park.

Bronze sculpture of herons in flight at Duck Island.  If you look real closely, you can see that spiders were busy weaving webs on the head of the heron in the foreground.

The Parks were showcasing the Red, White, and Blue for Independence Day.

Later, we searched for a clear view of the night sky, attempting to see the comet.  We were unsuccessful in our endeavor, but we did stumble upon some pre-Independence Day fireworks.

 

We spent the next day at Presque Isle.  Its original lighthouse and attached lightkeeper quarters were built in 1840.   The lighthouse marked the entrance to the only safe harbor for 240 miles between Fort Gratiot and the Straits of Mackinaw.  

The 1840 keeper's quarters...

The 1840 Lighthouse.

View of Lake Huron from the top of the lighthouse.

Dad couldn't resist clanging the bell...

As shipping traffic increased, it was determined a lighthouse providing better visibility was needed.  Hence, a taller light tower along with lightkeeper quarters were constructed in 1870.  In 1905, new keeper quarters were built.  Lighthouse keeping was in the bloodline of the Garrity family.  Patrick and his family members served as keepers of the lighthouses from 1861 to 1935, when the Coast Guard took over operations. We paid $6/person so we could climb to the top of both lighthouses and take in the great views of this quaint seafaring town.  

Climbing the spiral staircase of the 1870 lighthouse.

Views from the top of...

...the 1870 lighthouse.

Inside the 1870 keeper's house.  It is now used as a store/gift shop.

Exterior of the 1905 keeper's house.

All the floors inside the 1905 keeper's house are original and made of birds eye maple.

We strolled along the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Trail, stopping at various points that provide the GPS coordinates for area ship wrecks.

Views from our hike.

After a picnic lunch on the grounds, we visited the last piece of lighthouse history:  the range lights.

The statue at the range lights pays homage to Anna Garrity, first female lightkeeper.

As we were leaving Presque Isle, Dad spotted a pickleball court in Homestead Park, but I was more intrigued by the quaint cabin there.  It belonged to John Kauffman and his family.  John built it with hand-hewn logs in 1862, after his application for a 149-acre homestead was approved.  The cabin was originally situated near Grand Lake.  However, the snow drifts off the Lake were brutal, resulting in his decision to move the cabin to this current site in Presque Isle.  He dismantled the cabin, marked each and every log, hauled it to this location by oxen, and reassembled it in 1876.  Now that is the pioneering spirit!

  

On another day we walked along a different section of the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Trail, which led us to the Thunder Bay National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Visitor Center.  We went to watch their film, but learned they stopped showings early that day, claiming they had to prepare for a private evening event.  We took in all the exhibits, including a cool shipwreck simulator.  But with a 4-year-old running all over the deck screwing up all my photos, I was ready to die at sea.    Moving on, I learned I could become a participant in NOAA’s Citizen Weather Observer Program.

 

Alpena has lots of lovely parks.  But it lacks when it comes to having a CLEAN laundromat.   The 2 currently in Alpena both are subpar in this Rambling RV Rat’s opinion.

McRae Park has 6 pickleball courts.  We found them all vacant, so my parents did some drills.

Those pesky Canadian Geese have taken over Washington Street Park.

Our final day in Alpena was spent at Besser Recreation Area and Trust Lands.  The Recreation Area was an old quarry, where we clocked a couple of miles.  Then we went over to the Trust Lands, a wonderful, underutilized area along Lake Huron.  A shipwreck lies here, though the choppy water and rain clouds made it impossible to see it underwater.  I wanted to swim out and dive.  Though permissible by the Trust Lands, it was nixed by Mom, who said the water was too cold.  We continued hiking among the virgin white pine trees, searching for the remnants of Bell, a town from yesteryear that once thrived on these lands.  The only thing we found were a chimney (restored by the Youth Conservancy Corp in 1975) and an old safe (much to my dismay, it was empty).

 

Our time enjoying the Great Lake life had come to an end.  We left Alpena after an early morning downpour and headed to Peddler’s Market in Livonia, Michigan, our Harvest Host location.  Though just a parking lot, it provided us easy access and great proximity to friends Michael and Craig (from our Amazon Camper Force days in 2015/2016), whom we haven’t seen since 2017 while we were all in Quartzsite, Arizona.  We had a fun time catching up, enjoyed a delicious lunch, and were happy to hear they are working toward getting back on the road on a part-time basis.

 

We passed the USS Edson, a retired Navy destroyer, docked in the Saginaw River.

My family watched fireworks that evening from an old shopping mall in Greenville Village.  A salute to our Great Nation was the perfect ending for a fantastic tour of the State of Michigan.