7/16 - Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

Today's adventure was to see the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, affectionately known as the Porkies. The weather couldn't have been better.


The local Ojibwa Indians thought the outline of the mountains looked like crouched porcupines so that's how the name came about. The highest mountains in the mid-west, they're the remains of a huge volcanic eruption many eons ago. Later the glaciers came and scoured them down so it's amazing there's anything left of them. They rise right out of Lake Superior, reaching 1,958 feet in height.

Lake of the Clouds with glacier-carved escarpment to the left

The 60,000 acre wilderness park is the biggest in Michigan. Naturally, most access is by hiking which makes it generally inaccessible for us. One road goes around the southern border and the other goes up to the Lake of the Clouds. There's an overlook with a glorious view of the lake which is a mile long and only 15 feet deep (the lake, not the overlook). Lake Superior is barely visible over the mountains at the far end of the lake but it doesn't show up in pictures.

A glimpse of Lake Superior through the trees between it and Lake of the Clouds

Lake of the Clouds is around 1,400 feet elevation and Lake Superior is around 600 feet. The extra 800 feet makes for a great view.

Lake in the Clouds used to be called Carp Lake which certainly isn't a picturesque name. There aren't any carp here so it wasn't named after the fish. The French name for the lake was Lac du Escarpement (Lake of the Escarpment) which was shortened to Carp Lake in English. Fortunately, the lake was renamed in the 1930's.

After seeing Lake of the Clouds, we drove around the southern border road and stopped for a short hike to see the Overlooked Falls. I think this is Little Carp River but the park map is so small I'm not sure.

Overlooked Falls

This looks so much like home we'd never guess it was Michigan from the picture. The trees here are fantastic. We even lucked out with the bugs.....they didn't find us. This is our 4th trip to the U.P. and we've yet to be bothered by the infamous biting insects.

We didn't make it all the way to the end of the southern border road. I wanted to see the scenic Presque Isle River but it was too late in the day. We headed for home after seeing the waterfalls.

Not many pictures today. We did more driving through woods than taking pictures of them.  Don't know what we're doing tomorrow.....it will be a surprise.