Amnicon State Park, Pattison State Park August 27, 2015

A friend and I visited Amnicon State Park yesterday. Fortunately we picked the only good day this week, as far as the weather went, to visit. Patti had a waterfalls guide book with her and once we were at Amnicon and were looking in the book we realized that Pattison State Park was nearby so we added that to our day trip, and I'm glad we did. Both parks are very nice but the waterfalls in Pattison State Park are much more spectacular to see.

Amnicon State Park is an 825 acre park located in South Range, Wisconsin, not too far from Superior. The Amnicon River flows through the park, it has several falls and rapids within the park. You can read about the park here: Amnicon      Pattison State Park is a 1,436 acre park located south of Superior. The Black River flows through it. It is home to Big Manitou Falls, the tallest waterfall in Wisconsin. You can read about this park here: Pattison

Apparently part of the money saving policies instituted by Governor Walker includes no garbage cans at state parks, or at least at the parks we visited today. This isn't a bad idea, you just need to know to have a garbage bag with you when you visit state parks. It was nice not to see overflowing garbage containers, and there was no litter at all. There are no hand washing facilities either and while there is a Purell dispenser in the bathrooms I recommend carrying a bottle of water with you to be used for hand washing. This was true also at Pattison State Park.

We weren't looking to swim but if you are traveling with young children there is a nice beach at Pattison State Park. Kids can get pretty bored looking at waterfalls so giving them a few hours to play and swim can make like more bearable for the adults.  

Beach at Pattison State Park

Big Manitou Falls, Pattison State Park

Little Manitou Falls, Pattison State Park

Amnicon State Park

Now and Then Falls, Amnicon State Park

Just in case you were thinking of jumping or diving

Snake Pit Falls

Upper Falls, Amnicon State Park

Black River Harbor, Upper Peninsula, Michigan

On August 1st I took a day road trip to Black River Harbor in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was a gorgeous day and it was exactly 98 miles from my driveway to Black River Harbor. I stopped at the information booth in Wakefield, MI and picked up a map.  The best part of visiting Black River Harbor was actually stopping at the several waterfalls located along the route between Bessemer and Black River Harbor. The falls are located along County Road 513, also known as the Black River Scenic Byway. None of the falls involve a very long walk from the parking lot to the falls. A few did involve a long walk down to the falls however, which always means a long walk back up. But if I could handle it at 70 you know it isn't too much of a walk. The water level is down this summer so there wasn't a lot of water flowing over any of the falls. I plan to revisit in the spring. I met a very nice couple at the first falls I stopped at, Potawatami Falls, and we ended up following each other the rest of the day and have stayed in touch. I was wearing one of my ocular melanoma awareness tee shirts which is how they started a conversation with me as he is a melanoma survivor.

Here is a link to a friend's photos taken in the spring, showing more water. She advised me to be aware that when you visit in the spring it is black fly season.  Black River in spring

If you go down you must of course come back up, and this is only part of the stairs!

As you can see the river bed is largely dried up. I can only imagine what it looks like in the spring.

Thimbleberries

Black River on its way to Lake Superior

The beach at Black River Harbor