Platte River & Point Betsie Lighthouse, MI.

                       Saturday 9/14/2013

After we set up at Indigo Bluffs Resort, we drove east 4 miles to Empire, than south to the Platte River area of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. The office had told Joe there was a salmon w run there and we should go see it.

We stopped at the National Parks visitor center, and they told us to drive down 708 and turn left at the weir, where the gate was open. We didn't find the turn off road, but stopped along the river where we saw fishermen.

Joe pointed out some fish in the river.

We saw this guy catch this salmon.

We asked someone else, if they knew where the weir was. He told us and we finally found it. Neither one of  us had ever heard of a weir, and didn't know what it was. 

We parked and found this sign posted to a fence blocking the weir. Here is a what a weir is:
A weir /ˈwɪər/ is a barrier across a river designed to alter its flow characteristics. In most cases, weirs take the form of obstructions smaller than most conventional dams, which cause water to pool behind them, while allowing water to flow steadily over their tops. Weirs are commonly used to alter the flow of rivers to prevent flooding, measure discharge, and help render rivers navigable.

We walked up to a fence and look over it and saw this. At first we didn't know what we were looking at, but shortly we realized the black mass in the river were thousand of salmon. Now this was really cool to see, and a first for both of us.

At one point something spooked them and they all went crazy swimming frantically, with some jumping out of the water.

We walked down a trail past the fence to the river, where we could see some children getting into the water edge, and fishermen down the way.

There was a white sign that told where the fishermen could not go past and get any closer to the weir.

View looking up at the weir. There was a man at the gate that was answering peoples questions. He told us there were approximately 6000 salmon in the river at this moment. I asked him how long the salmon run would last and he told us probably until the end of October. The weir stops the salmon, and at some point they will let some go through.

Up stream you can rent kayaks or canoes to go down the Platte River. This is something I wanted to do, but we never found the time.

We left the salmon run on the Platte River and drove further south to the Point Betsie Lighthouse.

Views looking north from the lighthouse grounds.

It was close to 5PM, so the lighthouse was already closed.

The lighthouse has limited hour.

Last tickets are sold before 4:15PM.

We walked around to the cement sea wall in front of the lighthouse to see kite-surfing on Lake Michigan.

Just down the way from the lighthouse was a beach with more kite-surfers and beach goers.

View of Point Betsie Lighthouse from the cement sea wall on the water edge.

Lake Michigan's water sparkled from the sun's angled rays on the water. It was just beautiful, and reminded me how blessed we are to be able to travel and see all of God's beauty!

Two kite-surfers passing each other on the lake.

All of a sudden a big wave came in and hit the sea/lake wall.

I was just far enough away to capture the wave as it hit without getting wet.

It was a beautiful crisp fall day to see salmon runs and Lake Michigan sparkle in the sun. The sun was out, but cool enough for jacket. Joe and I prefers jacket weather over warmer weather any day. Fall is our favorite time of year.

We left Northern Michigan Wednesday, and spent the night at Wal-Mart, in  Fowlerville, a town just east of Lansing, MI. We are in Ohio as I blog, and will arrive in Troy, Ohio (just north of Dayton) at another Wal-Mart tonight. I will continue to blog Michigan adventures as we spend the next few day traveling to Tennessee.