2026-06-26 – Sault Ste. Marie
Dinner was so good at Oh Crêpe! last evening that we decided to try it for breakfast. Good choice!
Today, we’ll move to Brimley State Park, a few miles north of the city. But first we wanted to tour the Valley Camp, a retired bulk carrier ship turned museum. It is only about half the length of today’s ships but it is still huge.
You can walk the deck, check out the bridge and living quarters for the crew but the main exhibits are down below in the three massive holds and engine spaces. One of the holds is mostly unchanged. Used as a huge auditorium space, it gives you the best idea of just how much cargo it would take to fill it. The other two have large balconies installed around their perimeters providing more space for exhibits. The displays in the holds covered the history of Great Lakes shipping and presented hundreds of relics of older ships.
In addition to the holds, there are walkways that take you through the boiler and steam engine spaces that powered the ship. They were all impressive, even the massive machinery needed just to turn the rudder.
There have been many shipwrecks on the Lakes and stories of those sinkings and lives lost were also presented. One of those sinkings was especially prominent, that of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It is clear that those remembrances are of particular importance to the people who live in this area.
You could also walk the deck from stem to stern. It’s a long walk. Along the way were displays on how the crew lived and of equipment used on deck.
We set up in our site in Brimley State Park and got down to our first order of business, the Sugar Daddy Bakery. It seems everyone raves about the place and its main location was right there in “downtown” Brimley, population 500. Everyone is right. The place is awesome and they have some gluten free selections. We bought and, that evening, we ate!
From there we headed out to see yet another lighthouse, this one Point Iroquois Lighthouse in Hiawatha National Forest, a bit north of Brimley. This light, too, had a duplex keeper’s house attached directly to the light tower. A cool touch was the decorative river stone wall with flower gardens that surrounded it. We climbed the tower to enjoy the view of the beach.
There was also a wooden boardwalk that wound its way along the beach and into the nearby woods. It was a pretty walk, showing off the beach and how it quickly transitions to lush woodlands. Along the walkway were all kinds of wildflowers that we’re not familiar with. The walkway is yet another example of how impressed we are with the state of Michigan and its dedication to making its parks accessible to all.
On our way back to camp we stopped at Pickles, a lakeside bar/restaurant. It looked a bit rough around the edges but turned out to be pleasant enough. We each had a drink but, sadly, they didn’t have enough gluten free food to convince us to stay for dinner. Instead, we returned to camp and made sautéed shrimp, Brussels sprouts and leftover home fries for dinner.
2026-06-27 – Sault Ste. Marie
It rained most of the night and rain was forecast to continue intermittently during the day. What better kind of weather to visit some waterfalls and a shipwreck museum?
Tahquamenon Falls are located in a state park by the same name. There are actually two falls, lower and upper. They are one of this country’s largest falls west of the Niagara. The lower falls are split by an island and it’s a pleasant walk on an accessible trail to the brink of first side.
The trail continues to a bridge that takes you to the island and access to the other side of the falls. The water is richly colored by tannin.
The upper falls is more impressive in that it is a single stream and higher. The price to get near it is the 97 stairs you descend to get close to the bottom. A new trail that will provide wheelchair access to the brink of the falls is under construction.
Unique, in our experience, was the fact that the visitor center for the upper falls featured a brew pub on site. Now there’s a progressive approach for a state park!
Our next stop was Whitefish Point. The point is a hazard to navigation and has a lighthouse because the point is an important waypoint for ships transiting between Lake Superior and the locks at Sault Ste. Marie. The area is known as Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast because it is the site of more than 200 shipwrecks.
The Lighthouse and keeper’s house are connected but this connection is via an enclosed bridge.
We toured the inside of the keeper’s house.
Gordon Lightfoot’s song begins,
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
His song commemorates the tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald just seventeen miles northwest of Whitefish Point. The tragedy of the sinking is palpable in this area where they are memorialized in the Shipwreck Museum. Many shipwreck stories are documented in this excellent museum along with the lighthouse keeper’s house and a lifesaving station.
A film about the Fitzgerald is especially poignant. The bell from that ship was recovered in 1995 and is on display at the museum.
Dinner was pizza from Superior Pizza & Subs just across the road from the park entrance. They had a gluten free cauliflower crust that seemed, for all the world, like one made with wheat and put together a delicious sausage and mushroom pie. We added our own salad back at the camper.
2026-06-28 – Sault Ste. Marie
There is an international bridge that crosses the St. Marys River and today is their annual bridge walk. Walkers all started together from a Lake Superior State University parking lot. It was a one-way walk and we were bussed back. We needed to have our passports to cross into Canada and to return to the US.
About 1,100 people walked, about two thirds of whom were American, the rest Canadian. It is striking just how common it is for people to move back and forth across the border and to have friends on the other side.
The 3½ mile walk took us across two main spans, one for each of the shipping channels and it gave us our best view of the Soo Locks system. Also of interest were the three railroad drawbridges that served the track that also crossed the river. It may be a unique combination that each draw bridge is of a different type. One is a lift bridge, another a bascule and the third a swing bridge.
The Cozy Inn in Brimley came highly recommended as a place for dinner so we gave it a shot. It certainly was popular, but the whitefish people raved about left us disappointed. Sandy’s was broiled with lemon pepper while Bill’s was breaded and fried. Both versions seemed bland and certainly not special. Too bad.