Tuesday 9-25 It's My Birthday

Celebrating my Birthday

Today was an exciting day, I turned 62 and am now eligible for the America The Beautiful Senior Card. I've been looking forward to this for a long time and finally it is time. Last year the card was only $10 but this year it went up to $80, still a bargain. We now can camp at any National Park, Corps of Engineers Park, National Monuments and many more at half price. You also get free entry to all National Parks, National Monuments, Corps of Engineers Parks, National Seashores and other day areas in the National Park and Recreation Program. 

Our next destination was the upper peninsula of Michigan, soon after entering Michigan, Larry passed the Ottawa National Forest Office, he turned around and went back. The lady that was taking care of the front desk sold me my card. She was also very helpful by giving us information about the area. She suggested a beautiful drive through Big Powderhorn Mountain to some hiking trails and waterfalls..

I have my Senior America The Beautiful Card

We took her suggestion and took the drive. Big Powderhorn Mountain is a small snow ski area. It has a big sign with a skier on it to show you the way. It was a beautiful 8.5 miles through the Ottawa National Forest. The trees are turning to their fall colors. In the next week or so we should see a lot more fall colors. We walked to three different falls. The first two were in the same area. The Potawatomi Falls were down a short easy trail. They were very pretty. We took another short trail to see the Gorge Falls, they were more dramatic, taller but not as wide. You got to the next set of falls from the Black River Harbor. The harbor has a very nice park with an old boat called Nancy Jean. There was a sign that explained the history of the boat. The harbor was well protected. You can tie your boat up to the pier and plug into electricity. The falls were down a trail on the other side of the harbor, you walked over a beautiful wooden expansion bridge which was built by the CCC in the 30's. As you walk on the bridge it moves a little. After crossing the bridge you hike 3/4 of a mile through the forest to Rainbow Falls. We climbed 172 stairs, some were wide and others were narrow. Rainbow Falls was the largest of the falls and was gorgeous. When we finished hiking the trail we went to the beach area. The weather was rainy, cloudy and cold enough for a jacket but it didn't stop fishermen from going out on Lake Superior. We had a super hike.

The sign that showed you where to turn

Potawatomi Falls

Gorge Falls

Suspension bridge

Standing on the bridge

Rainbow Falls

After hiking to the falls and having lunch we still had over 30 miles to go to get to our next campground. On the way Larry stopped by a Dairy Queen to celebrate my birthday. We shared a triple chocolate brownie. It was very rich and delicious Thank you honey.

My birthday dessert

  

Our final destination was Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. It is a huge park with multiple sections, some are day use areas and there are two campgrounds. First thing we did was stop at the office and bought a non-resident yearly pass for the Michigan State Parks ($32.00). We then went on a hike to see three waterfalls. The hiking trail was a 2.5 mile loop trail. We had to climb 537 stairs (I counted them). The trail was on both sides of the river. We started on the West River Trail, it had all the stairs and some boardwalks. There were observation platforms at each of the falls. We saw Manabezho Falls, Manido Falls and Nawadaha Falls. The falls were magnificent. The boardwalk stopped after the Manido Falls and to get to the Nawadaha Falls you had to climb a steep hill. Larry and I climbed it but it was very steep, we had to take our time. Most people passed on the climb. Once you got to the top of the hill you took the trail through the forest. We hiked through an old growth forest and it was very nice. After seeing the Nawadaha Falls we hiked to the road and crossed the river via a bridge. We took the East River Trail back. This trail was a lot more challenging. We hiked over a lot of tree roots and at places it was very narrow. The view of the Nawadaha Falls was a lot better from this side. When we got to the end of the trail there was a crossing that was very challenging, you had to climb over logs, over granite rocks and had to be very careful not to slip. Next you crossed over a suspension bridge. Once on the other side we hiked back to the Minnie. During the hike we saw a lot of people hiking and some of them had their dogs with them. We had another great hike.
 

Manabezho Falls

Manido Falls

Nawadaha Falls

The bridge that took us back to the parking lot

By the end of the hike we were tired and we still had 23 miles to get to the campground. The drive was very pretty, we drove through the forest and had trees on both side of the road. When we got to the campground Larry went to the office to see what sites were available. Afterwards we drove around to pick a site. The campground isn't the best one we have stayed at. Some of the power boxes are impossible to reach without a 100' long extension cord, you share it with three sites. The sites weren't too level and they are on grass, it has been raining and many had mud holes. We found a couple of sites that looked good. We drove back to the office and got the second one on our list. It was right next to the bathroom, which made it good for us to go take a shower. We'll be here for a couple of nights.

I had a super birthday. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!