Point Arcadia And Frankfort, MI.

                     Monday 9/23/2013

After five days of sitting around, Joe was getting pretty antsy. The owners of the Kampvilla RV Park told Joe we should take a drive north to Point Arcadia. Even though I still had stuff to do at the Nest, I gave in, and said, "OK lets go for a day drive"! Joe was happy.

We drove west to the Michigan Lakeshore/Hwy. 22, than turned north. This picture is of Lake Arcadia as we headed into the town of Arcadia. If you are a birder, this looked like a good place to see ducks.

We drove through the very small township of 621 people and found the public beach. The beach has a playground in the back of the beach, and swinging benches close to the water.

Someone was sailing and enjoying the beautiful day.

When I got down to the beach I saw another swinging bench on the beach. What a wonderful beach for such a small town.

As we headed back to M-22, we saw the Arcadia Historic Museum.

Being that we are not big museum people, I just took a picture of the neat old home that houses the museum.

Just a little north of Arcadia on M-22 we came to Arcadia Overlook. Joe told me he had read there were 120 stairs to the top. We started up. By the way, the stairs are metal with holes, so if you have a little dog with little feet, you will have to carry it up to the top. I was glad I left Mallery home. There was a man who had a little dog like Mallery, and he was trying to get it to climb the stairs on it's own. The dog was hesitating, and I said, "You better carry it up, or it might break a leg". Joe and I continued up.

I am so glad I have been faithful at doing exercises 3 days a week, because it has helped me tremendously with all the climbs we have done lately. (Plus it being cool out really helps also). The views were well worth the climb.

Looking down from the top.

Close up of previous picture, I like all the colors there were in the lake water's edge.

As we got ready to go back down, the man who had made his little dog struggle up half the stairs, finally picked it up and carried it the rest of the way. I was so glad the little dog had not hurt itself, and wish more people had sense when it comes to their pets

Looking southeast from the top, shows a start of the fall colors.

I am sure there are beautiful sunsets from this overlook.

We left Arcadia, and I told Joe I wanted to drive north to Frankfort, MI. I had wanted to drive to Frankfort when we were in Empire, but we ran out of time, so I figured we had time for the drive that day.

On the way north, we stopped to see Lower Herring Lake. This lake is 450 acres with a maximum depth of 40 feet and clarity of 8 feet. We also stopped at Upper Herring Lake which has 640 acres, with a 26 maximum depth and 7 feet of clarity, but the water had a brown color to it. We really want to live on a lake that is at least 2,000 acres.

We came to the village of Elberta with 372 people, which is  located on the south side of Betsie Lake. The town of Frankfort is located on the north side of Betsie Lake. Even though Betsie Lake is called a lake, it really is just an enlarged area of the river before it enters Lake Michigan.

Looking west to the channel from Betsie Lake to Lake Michigan.

We continued west along the lake to the point in Elberta. If you want to walk the beach on this side of the channel, there is a road that takes you to a parking lot below. Dogs are allowed on this beach, just don't forget to pick up after them per sign.

We drove back though Elberta to M-22, then drove to the north side of Betsie Lake through Frankfort, which is a little larger with a population of 1,286. We found our way to their point and beach.

Nice big beach with lots of benches scattered everywhere.

After eating our lunch, we walked down to the jetty to walk out to the lighthouse.

We found this sign as we headed for the jetty.

We walked out to the Frankfort North Breakwater Lighthouse. The first original one was lit in 1873, but the current lighthouse was lit in 1932.

The tower is 67 feet tall, and is in need of a new coat of paint.

Time to head back to land.

There are homes on the edge of the bluff along the lake shore. I would hate to have a home where the trees have fallen, and left only sand that will eventually erode in time.

The water along the jetty was so clear we saw this fish. It was a very strange looking fish.

We walked a little further and saw another fish.

This is yet another one that we could see when it was turned a certain direction, and it would flash with a reflection.

Back on the beach, I noticed all the benches had been donated by people. Some had sayings. I like this one the best!

As we headed back through Frankfort, we stopped at the marina, and Joe took this picture of this old wood boat. Before we left town, Joe found another fish shop and bought some more smoked fish.

As we left Frankfort, we saw our welcome return by the town.

We drove east going past Crystal Lake on Hwy 115 to hook back into Hwy. 31 to finish our loop drive back to our campground.