The Porkies!

Our maiden voyage took us to the Porcupine Mountains in the UP of Michigan.  Our hopes were to get to know our adventure-mobile, dicover any problems and figureout a plan to solve them before we hit the road for a longer trip.  We successfully accomplished that , with epic views to entertain us!  The bugs were awful, everywhere except at the lake.  This only made our love for Lake Superior grow, as well as our love for our new RV.  

We hiked a few miles along the escarpment trail for epic views like this and scoped out the camping sites (this is #1, right on the trail, but this view!  #2 is a little more private, off the trail in the woods, but based on the biting bug count I wouldn't camp there in the summer!)

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Lake Superior was stunning.  The campsite was right on the beach and the bugs avoided the lake, so we were really able to relax and explore this lake we love!

One of the largest copper mines ever is right here.  We hiked to the remains of the mine, near Nonesuch Falls.  In the 1860's word got out and the copper boom in the Porkies began, gaining the attention of the rest of the country.  The mines could rarely make a profit and shut down in the early 1900's.  mining silver was attempted next, then logging.  The Porcupine Mountains were at the top of the list to become a national park, but WW2 delayed that process.  The war also called for an increase in logging, so the state of Michigan stepped in to protect these forests by declaring the area a state park in 1945.  70,000 visitors came that first year, so we are not alone in our admiration of these mountains.  It looks so peaceful, but we were playing a game called "see how long you can stay under water and avoid the biting horse flies".  

We drove to the far west side of the park (the park is 60,000 acres guys!) to view the Presque River and a few more of the many waterfalls (no other Michigan state park has more waterfalls!).  This one is Manido with Nawadaha in the distance.

This hike along the Presque River reminded me so much of the Pacific Northwest, lush with ferns, moss and mushrooms.