Bessermer, Michigan - More Falls

7/3/09

Today started out with some sunshine for a change. About 62 this morning, reaching mid 70's. Left the park at 12:30pm, drove through the town of Bessemer Michigan, not much to see, so continued on to Ironwood Michigan. This is a larger town with an old downtown and a new downtown out along the hwy. We drove in, to check it out and find a restaurant called Joe's Pastys. Pastys are a baked pastry filled with meat, potatoes and onions. Kind of like a pot-pie. Miner's used to take this for lunch. We ate our pasty, not too impressed, too much potato, not enough meat or onion.

All different kind with different stuff inside. People from all over the USA have been here at Joe's Pastys, but no one from Cedar Rapids, Ia. Diane put her pin on the map. Now Cedar Rapids is represented.



Joe didn't want a hat. I asked if he wanted one. We drove around Ironwood, and found the biggest attraction, the big Indian. This is one big guy, his name is Hiawatha and is the tallest Indian in the world. (believe it, or not)





After some pictures but no autographs we moved on to Copper Creek, the largest ski jump in this hemisphere. You can take a 800 ft chair lift to the top of a volcanic outcrop, then take the 18 story elevator to the Observation Deck, from here, if you have the courage, you can walk up eight more stories of open air stairs to the starting gate of the ski jump. Yeah right, no way would Joe even think about this. Diane wanted to do the whole trip and Joe said have at it, but Joe will stay with Mallery at the base. Diane reluctantly gave up the idea. Took some pictures.


Ski Lift to top.
Ski jump at top of hill.
Continued onto Black River Waterfalls in the Ottawa National Forest. We stopped at the first falls location. Hiked 3/4 mile into the woods and then down many steps to the river and the falls.

Lions, & tigers & BEARS, oh my!
Are you coming? What the heck is going on with this tree? Conglomerate Falls - note people walking out in river area - river very low Down stream.
We continued along a very narrow dirt path for 1/2 mile that went up and down and up and down over fallen trees and threw muddy spots till we finally reached the second set of falls. From there it was a long walk to the road, and a long uphill walk to the parking lot,where we left the car over a mile back. Pretty tired at this point. Oh, we also discovered the batteries in our camera died so, no more pictures. What can I say, a little disappointing. Ate our prepacked snacks and then drove on to the next falls. Brochure said 1/4 mile walk to the falls. Walked in the forest about 5 minutes then we came to a steep wooden stairway going down and down and down to the river. How far down? 137 steps. Needless to say we were very tired by the time we returned to our car. Had definitely gotten our exercise for the day. Skipped the last set of falls and returned home for dinner.