Last Sunset At Frankfort, Michigan

We have been busy here on Michigan's sunset coast. We extended our four-day stay at Kampvilla Campground near Bear Lake to seven days. Then we considered extending it another week because we found so many good hikes, kayak floats, and bike rides in the area. We are very comfortable here with our 50-amp full-hook-up camp site, that became a real bargain when it became half-price on September 1. We are glad that the crowded summer season is officially over! The weather has been beautiful, and the trees seem to be gaining more red and orange colors every day. We are camped in the middle of the maples, and several of them in our campground are already lovely.

But our camping spot is already reserved for someone else, so we will make the most of our last day in the area. We took another hike among the tall trees of the Green Point Dunes Nature Preserve.

Most hikes have blazes on the trees to keep hikers going the right direction. In all our hiking, we had never seen this lovely color of purple used. It just so happened that Denisa decided to dress to match the blazes today.

The trail took us up and up, to a look-out to see one of the many shipwrecks that this tricky coast has caused. That dark spot in the water in front of Denisa is the wreckage of the steamship "City of Boston," sunk on a stormy November night in 1873.

It's close to the shore, and so it is easy for divers to visit. But we found it was very difficult to photograph. If you see the dark outline of the sunken ship in the picture below, we salute you.

Just as the trail took us way up to the overlook, it also took us way down to the beach.

We would visit a couple more of our favorite beaches on our last day in this area. We might be addicted to hunting for Petoskey stones. These fossilized coral stones look like plain gray rocks until they are wet. Then they show the octagonal lines that are the dividing points between the coral stems of long ago. We took a picture of some of our favorite finds, including the tiny Charlevoix stones on the bottom row. There is a process to sand and polish these treasures that we will have to learn.

We are still amazed at the color of the water in Lake Michigan.

Denisa also loves a good lighthouse, so we made the half-mile walk out on the pier at Frankfort to visit this town's lighthouse. With the sun getting low in the sky, it was hard to get a good picture from this side. But Denisa is huddled at the base of the lighthouse, while the waves are splashing higher than her head.

We tried to get a picture from the sun-lit side, but it was impossible to get far enough from the lighthouse to get it all in the picture frame.

Mark tried to get as far away as possible, standing on the very edge of the pier. That's when he got this picture of Denisa's surprised expression.

She wished she had a camera, because a very big wave (like the one pictured below) hit the edge of the pier, drenching Mark as he was taking the picture.

The big waves were pounding the pier walkway as we headed back to the beach. They were crashing all the way up the rocks and over the walkway.

The wind was whipping up a gale, and it was a little scary walking back to the beach. We would have been more scared if we would have known that a fisherman was swept off here and drowned a couple weeks ago.

We were surprised to see a couple surfers in wet suits taking advantage of the high surf on this windy evening.

We are finding that all the little beach towns along this stretch of Lake Michigan have nice community beaches. It feels and looks like an ocean beach, but without the salt or the sharks. Lake Michigan is advertised as the "All-American Lake" because it is entirely within the United States. The other four great lakes share a border with Canada. This beach even had swings, and Denisa loves a good swing with a lighthouse view.

We've had a great stay in this area, but after a week it's time to get back on the road. So we're heading another hour's drive south to explore more of God's wonders along this coast!