Michigan, Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore Sept 18-21

Our next stop in Michigan is Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, south of Empire about 10 miles.  We heard about this place on NBC news report, as being the most beautiful park in America.  We thought it was beautiful here but not sure we'd categorize it as number one.

 Just outside of the campground, is a kayak outfitter, We launched our kayaks on the Platte River from their docks.   We had them pick us up at the take out point, which was where the river ran into Lake Michigan.

 The Platte river was so clear, one could see the bottom no matter how deep it was.

Kay always finds very interesting things to take pictures of. 

The trees are starting to show some color.  We are still about 2 to 3 weeks away from the good stuff.

More of Kay's fascinating pictures

 I have no idea what kind of flower this is, but I thought it looked very good standing up to the sky.

 Once again, Kay got her bee.

The Great Blue Heron always has such a distinguish look.  It's like they pose for the camera.

Part of the way down the Platte River, is a place called the Fish Weir landing.  Here they capture the female salmon to harvest the eggs as the fish come up the river from Lake Michigan.  The eggs are then sent to the fish hatchery to be raised and then released in the river.  Here is a link to one of Michigan's fish weirs.  It is not the one on the Platte River, but will tell you all about them.

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364_52259_19092-51534--,00.html

Kayak Landing at the Fish Weir

You can see the fish weir behind me.  We had to portage around it.

You can see some of the large salmon in the river below the fish weir.  The water was so clear, it was easy to see the fish.  To bad I could not catch one.

 

The large salmon was about 40 inches long.  I had the pleasure watching a young guy in a kayak using a fly fishing rod bring it in.  It took him about 15 min. to land it.  That fish took him all over the river.

Kay and I are starting a tradition.  After a good day kayaking down a river, we have to go get a good pizza.  I am not mad in this picture, just very hungry.

Kay and I took a little road trip to see this Light Station.  It is located on the lake Michigan shore south of the Sleeping Bear Lakeshore

The boardwalk up to the Light Station

Maxwell's foot prints in the sand.

Maxwell and Zoe love walking in the sand along the lake.

Lake Michigan

The waves hitting the seawall were really high the day we were there. The splash sometimes went into the air over 10 feet when it hit the wall.  I shot this picture with my Canon in high speed to capture the drops of water in the air.

Kay walking along the wall.

Kay did not get a picture of a bee, but did get a good shot of a hornets nest in the tree.

As we toured the Sleeping Bear Dunes, we took a side trip called Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.  It has the highest point in the dunes. ( 1024 Ft.)  This is the board walk to the top of the dunes.

Looking south along Lake Michigan from the top of the dunes.

This is the top

Looking east at Glen Lake.

Back down the boardwalk.

Kay and Maxwell waiting for Me and Zoe to catch up with them.  We had a very good tour of Michigan that day.  I would come back to this area again.

Michigan, Gaylord Sept 9 - 18

Our next stop in Michigan, is Beaver Creek Campground.  It is about 6 miles south of Gaylord.  This campground is very nice, and very quiet.  There were many little lakes for me to fish, and I fished three of them.

Gaylord, Michigan

This is the Mackinaw bridge, which connects the upper and lower part of Michigan.  The bridge is 7 miles long.

Our first kayak trip in the lower part of Michigan was on the Au Sable River.  It was out of Grayling, MI about 30 miles south of Gaylord.  Was a very slow and gentle river, so we decided to take Maxwell and Zoe.  Maxwell rode with Kay most of the trip.  and here is Zoe, as far out on the front of the kayak as she could get.

The Au Sable River

Zoe loves to ride on the platform I made for her.

Both with me.

I love my dog Maxwell

Kay's pictures as we traveled down the river

This stopping and eating a good pizza after a day kayaking on the river, is getting to be a very good habit.

The first lake was Manuka Lake.  Here I got about a dozen Redear Sunfish.  I gave all of them to other people fishing on the lake.  They tell me they are very good eating. 

Manuka Lake

As I was fishing on Emerald Lake, Kay was taking more flower pictures

Also more bees

One of the Large Mouth Bass I got that day.  I do love fishing out of my kayak.

Since I could not catch any Salmon, Kay had to buy one.  We had it for supper that night.  GOOOOD

The farmer's market we shopped at in Gaylord.

There was a lot of good stuff here.

This little fox was at the entrance of our campground.

The last lake I got to fish was Big Bradford Lake.  It was south of the campground.  Kay and the dogs stayed home that day.