Craig Lake Hike

This week I was supposed to celebrate the end of the museum's season by going on a three day backpack in the Pictured Rocks with my friend, Helen Riley.  However, the weather did not cooperate so we had one day to go on a hike.  Neither of us had ever hiked Craig Lake, so we went for it.  This park is one of the most isolated in the state's park system.  It is located a little over an hour west of Marquette and is accessed by a seven mile long dirt road off of US41.

Fall colors on the drive from Marquette as well as in the park were near peak.  Just beautiful!

The previous night we had a tornado watch.  Nothing developed, but the wind did knock trees down.  We had to move the tree shown below off of the access road ourselves.

Getting started....to begin the temperature was only 34 degrees!

Awesome shelf fungi that looks like a carnelian agate!

The forest floor was almost as colorful as the forest canopy!

First rest stop of only a few minutes.

Thankfully there were some fairly new bridges over some of the rivers crossing the trail.

There were boulders of all sizes!

Weird fungi....

 

Lunch spot.....

Lunch included sandwiches made by Helen's husband, Jimmy, as well as Fritos and cookies.

Craig Lake views....

End of the trail....