While I am at it, here is a photo of Lake Michigan, from the lower edge of the Upper Peninsula. Lake Michigan is below, and Lake Superior is above. Lake Superior, by the way, is the largest freshwater lake in the world if you determine the largest to be by surface area. Lake Baikal in Russia is the largest if you use volume of water, since it is deeper than Lake Superior.
Several people told us we should visit Tahquamenon Falls while on the Upper Peninsula, so we did some hiking there on Thursday. Tahquamenon Falls rhymes with "phenomenon". The falls are small compared to Niagara, but the park is lovely, and so is the Tahquamenon River. Longfellow mentions the the river and falls in his poem "Hiawatha", and the Hiawatha National Forest is not too far away, to the west. The falls shown below are the upper Tahquamenon Falls, and are the largest. They are 50 feet high. The brown coloring is from the tannin in the water, just like the water in the rivers in the Pine Barrens.
The lower falls I really enjoyed. They aren't as large, but people enjoyed playing in the pools above the succession of small falls:
I wondered what trees grow on the Upper Peninsula, and found out at the falls: white pine, cedar, hemlock, birch, beech, and sugar maple. The area was heavily logged at the turn of the last century, leaving very few old forests, where trees were up to 600 years old. The understory is primarily ferns, really quite beautiful.
