4 Day U.P. / Keewanaw Trip (Lots 'O Pics)
Aug 12, 2016 15:22:07 GMT -5
quartz, Jugglerguy, and 2 more like this
Post by ziggy on Aug 12, 2016 15:22:07 GMT -5
I will be posting some pics of what we collected after the trip pics are done.
We officially started our trip in the lower peninsula at Wienerlicious where we enjoyed a hot dog before crossing the bridge.
From there the bridge and the tollgate
We took 123 to 28 and headed west.
We first saw Lake Superior at the city of Munising
but the lack of rock collecting beaches there found us just driving right through to Marquette where a trip to a beach that my husband knew about was in order. We found lots of nice rocks there and maybe even a bit of an agate.
That's me and our Springer Spaniel Max on the beach in Marquette. I took this pic of the old ore dock in Marquette and then we moved down the road towards Negaunee looking for a room for the night. We found what was probably the only room left in town (there was a Shriner's convention in town) in a slightly run down Motel on 41 called the Tall Pines. At least it was clean and the manager was nice enough. We explored around there some and came across this building and other old mining related structures. Then we headed down the road to Ishpeming. We were looking for Jasper Knob. Well, we found it but I honestly didn't know where to park to collect there. The entire hill is surrounded by houses. The only rocks we could see really didn't look like Jaspelite or Jasper. The pic below is a photo of some of the rock outcropping we could actually see. We gave up in disgust and headed back to the beach in Marquette before going back to the motel for the night.
Next morning we got up early and headed for Keewanaw. On the way we stopped at the rock strewn beach by the highway just south of Baraga where hubby found some awesome looking stuff. It looks like it is covered in Hematite on one side and has quartz and colors inside. From there we made our way to the Quincy Mine for some photos.
we took a few more that I'm not posting but you get the idea. Then we finished our drive to Mohawk where we got a room for two night at the White House Motel we got room #8 which is the Moose themed room
In the office we saw this sign which sorta shows what kind of managers these folks are with their motel They were awesome folks and we would stay there again anytime. We decided to go check out Hunter's Point Park next. On the way we saw the famous snow gauge.
The beach there was full of brown rocks, some with agate looking swirls and lines, but they were clearly not agates
There was quite a few spotted rocks there too Our dog Max went and sat in the shade while hubby and I looked around After saving some pretty stuff we moved on down 26 towards Eagle Harbor and found a nice spot for a selfie
Further down on 26 we found a pullover with a huge expanse of beach but a bunch of stairs going down to the beach kept me and the dog in the car while hubby explored it some. He said it was the widest and most rocky beach yet He even took this artsy fartsy photo of some birch bark on the rocks
We decided that on our first day we would check out as many beaches as possible so we next headed towards Gratiot River. The road there sucked pretty bad in our two wheel drive Ford Fusion. This pic shows probably the smoothest and widest part of the whole road
In some spots it narrowed down to a one lane slightly too sandy wagon trail for our tastes but we forged on. When we got there it was CROWDED!!! The black sand near the parking lot was a disgusting mix of sand and firewood ash which got all over our wet feet upon leaving and was a nightmare to get off. We found NOTHING there. It was the biggest waste of time on our whole trip. I took this parting shot of some of the many cars there in the lot
Our last stop was the Calumet Waterworks Park. There was 5 more flights of steps so hubby did this beach himself again. He didn't find anything real memorable there but one really nice touch at that beach is a foot washing station for getting the sand off your feet. The day was pretty much shot by now and we headed back to Mohawk. Before going to bed we checked out some of the mine dumps near our room.
then we retired for the night.
Next day we had our hearts set on going to the Cliff Mine dumps so that's where we went
Hubby found some native copper and some neat calcite and prehnite stuff. He found some prehnite with native copper crystals sticking out too. Here he is looking like sherlock rockhound
We spent the rest of the day going from mine dump to mine dump
We visited the Prospectors Paradise rock shop that afternoon before going to get some pizza for dinner.
Then we took a drive over to Gay Michigan
where we did a selfie of course. Gay was the site of the Mohawk stamp mill
To end the day we toured downtown Calumet and it's historic buildings. We found this rundown railroad station.
Our last day we drove towards home but we planned to stop at Muskallonge State Park too. The beach there was strewn with beautiful rocks of all colors and was a gold mine for beautiful unakite. I found an agate there and hubby found at least one too.
From there we stopped at Straits State Park to grab another selfie of us and the bridge
and after crossing back to the lower peninsula we stopped one more time at Wienerlicious to end the trip where it began.
We officially started our trip in the lower peninsula at Wienerlicious where we enjoyed a hot dog before crossing the bridge.
From there the bridge and the tollgate
We took 123 to 28 and headed west.
We first saw Lake Superior at the city of Munising
but the lack of rock collecting beaches there found us just driving right through to Marquette where a trip to a beach that my husband knew about was in order. We found lots of nice rocks there and maybe even a bit of an agate.
That's me and our Springer Spaniel Max on the beach in Marquette. I took this pic of the old ore dock in Marquette and then we moved down the road towards Negaunee looking for a room for the night. We found what was probably the only room left in town (there was a Shriner's convention in town) in a slightly run down Motel on 41 called the Tall Pines. At least it was clean and the manager was nice enough. We explored around there some and came across this building and other old mining related structures. Then we headed down the road to Ishpeming. We were looking for Jasper Knob. Well, we found it but I honestly didn't know where to park to collect there. The entire hill is surrounded by houses. The only rocks we could see really didn't look like Jaspelite or Jasper. The pic below is a photo of some of the rock outcropping we could actually see. We gave up in disgust and headed back to the beach in Marquette before going back to the motel for the night.
Next morning we got up early and headed for Keewanaw. On the way we stopped at the rock strewn beach by the highway just south of Baraga where hubby found some awesome looking stuff. It looks like it is covered in Hematite on one side and has quartz and colors inside. From there we made our way to the Quincy Mine for some photos.
we took a few more that I'm not posting but you get the idea. Then we finished our drive to Mohawk where we got a room for two night at the White House Motel we got room #8 which is the Moose themed room
In the office we saw this sign which sorta shows what kind of managers these folks are with their motel They were awesome folks and we would stay there again anytime. We decided to go check out Hunter's Point Park next. On the way we saw the famous snow gauge.
The beach there was full of brown rocks, some with agate looking swirls and lines, but they were clearly not agates
There was quite a few spotted rocks there too Our dog Max went and sat in the shade while hubby and I looked around After saving some pretty stuff we moved on down 26 towards Eagle Harbor and found a nice spot for a selfie
Further down on 26 we found a pullover with a huge expanse of beach but a bunch of stairs going down to the beach kept me and the dog in the car while hubby explored it some. He said it was the widest and most rocky beach yet He even took this artsy fartsy photo of some birch bark on the rocks
We decided that on our first day we would check out as many beaches as possible so we next headed towards Gratiot River. The road there sucked pretty bad in our two wheel drive Ford Fusion. This pic shows probably the smoothest and widest part of the whole road
In some spots it narrowed down to a one lane slightly too sandy wagon trail for our tastes but we forged on. When we got there it was CROWDED!!! The black sand near the parking lot was a disgusting mix of sand and firewood ash which got all over our wet feet upon leaving and was a nightmare to get off. We found NOTHING there. It was the biggest waste of time on our whole trip. I took this parting shot of some of the many cars there in the lot
Our last stop was the Calumet Waterworks Park. There was 5 more flights of steps so hubby did this beach himself again. He didn't find anything real memorable there but one really nice touch at that beach is a foot washing station for getting the sand off your feet. The day was pretty much shot by now and we headed back to Mohawk. Before going to bed we checked out some of the mine dumps near our room.
then we retired for the night.
Next day we had our hearts set on going to the Cliff Mine dumps so that's where we went
Hubby found some native copper and some neat calcite and prehnite stuff. He found some prehnite with native copper crystals sticking out too. Here he is looking like sherlock rockhound
We spent the rest of the day going from mine dump to mine dump
We visited the Prospectors Paradise rock shop that afternoon before going to get some pizza for dinner.
Then we took a drive over to Gay Michigan
where we did a selfie of course. Gay was the site of the Mohawk stamp mill
To end the day we toured downtown Calumet and it's historic buildings. We found this rundown railroad station.
Our last day we drove towards home but we planned to stop at Muskallonge State Park too. The beach there was strewn with beautiful rocks of all colors and was a gold mine for beautiful unakite. I found an agate there and hubby found at least one too.
From there we stopped at Straits State Park to grab another selfie of us and the bridge
and after crossing back to the lower peninsula we stopped one more time at Wienerlicious to end the trip where it began.