Let's Just Go Somewhere: Sugarloaf Mountain & Presque Isle

On Tuesday afternoon, we drove a short distance up the road to Sugarloaf Mountain. Chuck got a call from his brother Jerry as we got out of the car. He had not talked to him in awhile so he found a nice rock to sit on...

...while I took some pictures of the nearby wildflowers.

The bumblebees really liked these pink flowers. They were buzzing all around them.

As we began the hike, we had two choices of trails to take: Difficult or Easy. We chose the Difficult trail on the way up.

Except for some roots and some rocks, it really was not that difficult.

When we reached the top, we had a beautiful view of Lake Superior.

We could even see the start of Pictured Rocks way off to the east.

Several miles offshore, we could see Granite Island Lighthouse.

We could also see Presque Isle Park which was where we were going next today.

There was a tall monument at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain dedicated to A. Bartlett King.

After doing a little research, I found out that A. Bartlett King was a member of the first Boy Scout Troop in Marquette, Troop No. 1, which was also one of the first Boy Scout Troops formed in the United States. The troop hiked, explored, and cut trails along the Marquette area. Bart, and all the members of his Boy Scout Troop later served in World War I but Bart was the only one of the troop to not make it back. The members of his troop erected this monument in the summer of 1921 at the place Bart liked best: Sugarloaf.

We walked out to some of the of the other overlooks...

...and then began heading back down the trail.

Next, we drove to Presque Isle which was just a couple of miles from the campground. We got a better look at the Upper Ore Harbor dock which is still in use today.

Rail cars on top of the dock.

Freighter docked for loading iron ore or unloading coal.

We drove around the park and parked at the far end near the cliffs.

We could see Sugarloaf Mountain off to the north where we had just left.

Overlooks at the top of Sugarloaf

The water of Lake Superior is so clear.

We walked down to the edge of the water where there were thousands of beautifully colored pebbles and rocks.

I had seen on Pinterest that one of the attractions of Presque Isle is the cliff jumping. We walked around the edge of the shore...

...and found were several people were doing just that: jumping off the cliffs into the clear waters of Lake Superior.

We had fun watching several young people and kids jumping off the cliffs. While the young women jumped off a little more cautiously...

...the boys jumped off any which way and didn't seem to be afraid at all.

Below is a closeup of two of my favorites:

They looked like they were having so much fun and they said the water felt good, Below is a video of the girls we were watching jump off. You could tell they got a little braver the more they jumped.