Part Four-Our Mini Michigan Vacation-Tahquamenon Falls

 
Our long weekend came to an end, and it was time to go home.  We had breakfast and were on our way.  We headed through some more beautiful scenery and over the Mackinac Bridge.  Then we traveled toward the Lake Superior side of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  We had heard of the beautiful colors at Tahquamenon Falls.  We stopped for lunch in the little town of Paradise and made our way to to falls.   The falls are divided into two separate areas.  There are the Lower Falls and the Upper Falls.  We started with the Lower Falls.  It was a beautiful day.  We were very lucky because the park ranger said they had three inches of snow a couple days earlier.  The colors were not as brilliant as they had been before the snow, but it was still nice.

The Lower Falls was pretty, but it was quite small.  We enjoyed the walk along the trail, and being able to stretch our legs and breath fresh crisp air.

After reading some information about the falls, we walked back to the car and drove four miles down the road to the Upper Falls.  It was much more impressive.  After walking about a half mile into the park, we saw there were several vantage points to view the falls.  Two of them required climbing down several steps to get to the lower level.  We started with the flight of 116 steps which turned into 190 steps by the time we walked up and down levels along the lower boardwalk.  Then it was up the steps which proved to be harder than going down.  People were very friendly and we chatted with some people who were also discussing all the steps.  We viewed the falls from all the viewing areas and ended up climbing another set of 94 steps.  By the time we got back to the car, my fitbit said I climbed 31 flights of stairs qualifying me for the Redwood Forest Badge.  Whoopee!  My husband on the other hand only had 11 flights doing the same steps.  Maybe holding on to both railings affected the number of steps recorded.  I can vouch for him.  He walked the same number as I did.

It was late afternoon before we started home.  It was a long drive in the dark, and we considered staying in a motel, but we kept plugging away.  We arrived home about 10:30 pm.  It was nice to be home, and it seemed we had been gone for much more than five days.  A wonderful fall trip for sure, and considering my last four days of blogging, I want to assure people these are our experiences and I'm NOT an employee of the Pure Michigan Department of Tourism.  My home state of Wisconsin has equally beautiful sights which I also hope to visit.