June weddings and our Northwoods vacation, part 1: Michigan

We just arrived back in Monticello after two weeks of adventures in the North...  Our first stop on this year's summer vacation trip was Big Bone Lick State Park (http://parks.ky.gov/parks/recreationparks/big-bone-lick/default.aspx) in Kentucky (just south of Cincinnati, Ohio).  The picture above encapsulates the reason for the existence of this state park--it was the discovery of fossilized bones of Ice Age mammals at this site very early in American history (circa 1740) helped spur on the new science of paleontology.  We planned this year's trip around a couple weddings and some camping, so we decided to camp this first night at Big Bone Lick State Park, which also had a small (if dated) miniature golf course:

The most intriguing thing about this course was that it was immediately adjacent to a small family cemetery that dated from the 1800s:

We arrived the next day at Hope's parents' house near Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the next day went into the Detroit area to help her cousin Bill Pruden celebrate his marriage to Michelle Culp:

Here is the happy couple posing with his sister (bridesmaid on the left), his parents, and his grandparents:

Our kids really seemed to enjoy the wedding, particularly the dancing they did at the reception.  Below, Stephen dances with his cousin Isabel Pruden:

The following Monday we got packed back into our truck, hooked the camper back up, and convoyed up to the eastern end of the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan with Hope's parents.  Our original destination was Muskallonge Lake State Park (http://www.michigandnr.com/parksandtrails/details.aspx?id=424&type=SPRK).  This state park is located between Muskallonge Lake and the south shore of Lake Superior.  Below, Bragg Family South looks for neat rocks between fly swats (more on this later):

Below is a picture of the myriads of neat rocks found on the Lake Superior beaches in this area, rounded in many instances to near perfect examples of eggs:

In addition to some beach-combing, we managed to get in some fishing on some local lakes.  The lake pictured below, while pretty, had few fish in it, but plenty of chances for a grandfather to interact with his youngest grandson:

One of our primary areas to explore on this camping trip was Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (http://www.nps.gov/piro/index.htm).  If you have never visited this spectacular national park, shame on you!!  It is full of scenic overlooks of Lake Superior, interesting rock formations, old-growth timber, and a number of stunning waterfalls, including Sable Falls, pictured below:

Below, Kenny poses at an overlook with Lake Superior on the left and Grand Sable Dunes on the right:

We were chased around by rain showers all day, but every now and then the sun came out, like when we visited Munising Falls on the western edge of the park:

Pictured Rocks is named for the unique and beautiful rock formations and blue waters along this shore of Lake Superior, including a formation named "Miner's Castle":

There are a lot of well-maintained trails to hike, such as the one we took the kids along to Miners Falls:

As remote as the area is, it did not escape the impacts of man--below is pictured a stump field in an area next to Pictured Rocks called the "Kingston Plains":

This area is flat and sandy, and in the 1800s supported an extensive forest of old-growth eastern white pine up to 4 feet in diameter.  Lumberjacks arrived around the turn of the 20th century and quickly logged much of the region, which then burned frequently.  The sites lost much of their fertile topsoil in the process, leaving only fairly sterile sand, which has yet to reforest--the image above shows the few scrubby hardwoods and pines typical of this stand, and those stumps are the original white pine stumps from over a century ago!  The area still has a wild feel about it, even though there are plenty of tourists around--we spotted this bear while driving back to our campsite:

Yes, that's Hope's arm hanging out the window of our truck.  This young (probably 2-year-old) bear watched us watch him for a few minutes before he scampered back into the woods.  After one rainy night camping at the state park, we departed early the next morning for a more isolated camping experience along a lake in the nearby Lake Superior State Forest.  Below, Kenny performs a "magic" trick by levitating his fishing pole (courtesy of a tree just out of site):

We really enjoyed our stay in the area, but unfortunately in addition to the rain, we had a different challenge to deal with--stable flies!  These pesky bugs look just like regular house flies, except they swarm on you--and bite!  Below is a mild covering of my leg--there were times we had scores of these flies on our clothes:

Fortunately, the stable flies were far less common a little ways inland from Lake Superior.  That meant we were able to enjoy our day's visit to Tahquamenon Falls State Park (http://www.michigandnr.com/parksandtrails/Details.aspx?type=SPRK&id=428), which has one of the largest waterfalls in the eastern US:

Even though it was really warm (well, 93 degrees is warm for the UP!) and muggy this day, I was able to hike several miles in the old-growth forest of Tahquamenon Falls State Park, and took a picture of the following giant eastern white pine:

This picture hardly does this tree justice--it is almost 5 feet in diameter, and almost 130 feet tall!  It has survived centuries of storms, lumbering, and wildfire, which is more than I can say about the stand of red pine pictured below:

These trees were killed by a recent wildfire (May of 2012) that covered over 20,000 acres near where we were camping.  They are salvaging the fire-killed timber as quickly as they can...I'm not sure on the progress of rebuilding the 100+ structures that burned in this fire.  Fires are a natural part of the ecosystem in this area, but they are always hard to see with a forester's eyes and accept...

We departed that evening for Rhinelander, and the next part of our Northwoods adventure, which will have to wait for a future blogging date...