Today was another lighthouse day, surprise, surprise!! We decided to drive to the east coast of Michigan to see lighthouses that were at, or near, Cheboygan. We realized that we probably wouldn't get another opportunity to see these, so off we went. As it was a weekday it meant that we wouldn't be able to go inside any of the lighthouses today. Only one of them is open to the public anyway, and that is only at weekends, but at least we could see them.
Cheboygan River Front Range Light was our first stop. This is the one that is open at weekends. It is on the Cheboygan River.
About 5 minutes from there was our next lighthouse. We parked at Gordon Turner Park and walked along the boardwalk toward the lighthouse.
It was a pretty walk to the lighthouse along the beach. In the picture below I am looking at, and probably talking to a butterfly, that had landed on a bush after flying around.
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| Bryan waiting for me to catch up |
There was a harbor light at the end of the pier. As we are on the east side of Michigan this is Lake Huron. We will see more of this lake when we go to our next campground and then on our travels back down this eastern side of Michigan.
The couple sitting at the end of the pier on the rocks, gave us some interesting information when we passed them on the pier. I'll tell you about it later.
We reached the pier.
Cheboygan Crib Lighthouse was at the beginning of the pier, with the harbor light being at the end.
Bryan got pictures of the lighthouse and light that we had just left further up the river.
The pier was unusual in that it had flowers and plants growing alongside it amongst the rocks. It was really pretty.
The couple who had been at the end of the pier passed us and Bryan said that the guy was muttering to Bryan, that he had seen eight snakes and he had never seen snakes here before. Bryan told me, and we both looked at each other and started to look more closely for snakes. I have to admit we did wonder if he had been smoking, and then hallucinating as he didn't seem very coherent.
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| No snakes here |
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| Loved the colors in the rocks |
Wait a minute, what's that?? Bryan spotted it!!! You know how he loves snakes, NOT!!! We were even more careful of where we were stepping, but thankfully we didn't see any others and this one had disappeared by the time we walked back. Bryan looked it up and it seems to be a Butlers Garter Snake.
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| Harbor Light at end of pier |
From the pier we saw Fourteen Foot Shoal Lighthouse in the distance. This and Poe Reef Lighthouse, which we will try and see next, were put in place to protect shipping from the underwater ridges and banks in these waters.
Looking back along the beach toward the car park. It was so pretty.
We had read that you could see the Poe Reef Lighthouse from an overlook off the road further south, so we drove until we saw the overlook.
There it is, the Poe Reef Lighthouse, out in the water.
We started the long drive home and I saw a sign for Cheboygan Lock & Dam. I asked Bryan to turn around so we could go and look. Were we glad we did.
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| Canadian Geese |
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| Small reservoir behind the dam |
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| Spillway was closed |
We just missed a boat going through but got the gates closing behind it.
We walked around to the other end of the lock.
It looked as though this boat might be waiting to go through in the opposite direction so we hung around for a little while and sure enough it started to head toward the lock. Yippee!!!
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| Entrance to the lock |
We had a grandstand view. 😊
The water is nearly level with the ledge. C'mon ladies, look at the water please!!! He does have a lovely smile though. 😇
I spoke to the lady on the back of the boat and she confirmed that this was quite a busy lock and it always took longer to fill than to empty, which is pretty obvious when you think about it.
Off they go, have a safe trip.
On the opposite side of the road were these old train carriages.
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| Boat going in |
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| Waiting for another boat |
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| Here it comes |
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| Gates Closing |
I took pictures showing the water coming in and raising the boats to the upper level.
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| See the water coming in at the end and over the ledge |
The water is nearly level with the ledge. C'mon ladies, look at the water please!!! He does have a lovely smile though. 😇
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| Nearly there |
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| Gates open and ready to go |
Bryan was having a good chat with the guy who was operating the lock. He was former Air Force as well, and so they had a lot in common.
Our short visit to see the dam had turned into a lengthy one but it was well worth it. We walked back toward the car.
We had one more stop that we wanted to make as we had passed this several times, and I wanted to get some pictures.
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| Jet Skiers |
That was our day out. It was a long day but really enjoyable.
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