Michigan, Part 8 - Sable Falls / Au Sable Light Station [240616a]

June 16, 2024

Our travels would have us spending a couple of days in and around the Pictured Rocks National Seashore. Our first day there was pretty full, so we'll be dividing it up into two separate blog posts - with this first one covering our time in the Grand Sable area.

(Editor's note: don't forget to check out Special Edition 1 - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like... [241116-21], if you haven't already!)

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It started raining (quite heavily at times) in the wee hours of Sunday morning, so we were happy that we had had the foresight to do our dump/fill on our way back in to the campground the night before so we wouldn't have to do it in the drizzling rain. After getting ready in the morning, we left the Tahquamenon Falls area and drove and hour and half west to the Grand Sable Visitor Center in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. After a quick visit inside to get our bearings and plan or visit, we saw a driver in her older model silver G in the other parking lot and pulled along side for a quick chat. "Lisa" had done 6 months on the road, house sat for a friend for another 6, and is out again for "maybe another 6 months". She said that she's originally from Michigan, but her Travato has Georgia plates.

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We drove a couple of miles up the road to the Sable Falls trailhead, and walked the 168 stairs down to the falls' two viewpoints.

Then we walked a couple dozen more down to Lake Superior to see the pretty stones on the beach.

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After lunch in the parking lot, we headed 10 miles east to the trailhead for the Au Sable Light Station. Labeled as a 1.7 mile trail, Apple clocked it as 1.46 miles and at full walking pace (since we had to catch our 2:30 tour) we completed it in about 25 minutes. One of our first views of the 86 foot tall, 16 feet wide (bottom diameter) lighthouse):

The tour was interesting, and the lighthouse is still in amazingly good condition considering it was built in 1873-74 (largely due to the restoration efforts that were started in the late 1980's, no doubt). We got to explore the Lighthouse Keeper's dwelling (restored to look as it did around 1910), . . .

. . . go up into the tower to see the old third-order Fresnel lens . . .

. . . and walk around the catwalk outside to take in the views - being careful to step around the new solar powered light that replaced the original. (It was far too windy and narrow to even attempt a selfie up there, though 😉.)