Sanilac Petroglyphs and Port Crescent State Park

Not in chronological order or anything, but whatevs.  The day before my Mom came into town, Eric and I decided that we were Going Out. I found a state park that had a short hiking trail and some petroglyphs and then we were culminating by driving to the tip of the thumb of Michigan to another state park to go to the beach with Kaylee. It wasn't going to be a particularly hot day, but Kaylee loves digging in the sand so I figured it would work out either way.

Kaylee was a Threenager to the fullest that day, it was awful, but we persevered and did have some fun.

Lots of pictures to follow!

The Sanilac Petroglyphs are the only known prehistoric rock carvings attributed to Native Americans in the state of Michigan. So lots of history!

Those line of dots are aligned with the north pole. Pretty neat!

Nightwalker. Pretty damn spooky name.

Walking to the site

They keep the rock carvings covered and gated off to protect the images. This has created its own problems in that bat guano is destroying the stone, as is the algae you see. That green cast is true to color, you see it in person. The stone is just so soft that it's eaten away very easily by the elements.

Another nightwalker. The docent made it quite clear that this was to be referred to as a nightwalker, not a man or a person.  It was mildly creepy.

The firebird

Kaylee discovered the joys of the dirt.  She was REALLY good while we listened to the stories. There was only a chain keeping us off the stone and she respected it and our warning to not walk on the pictures. Otherwise the significance was completely lost on her.

 We went on a hike afterwards. It should have been a loop hike but one of the bridges was out so it became an out and back.

Wind turbines on the way north

Then beach! This is Lake Huron, more specifically right along the border of the lake and Saginaw Bay.

 We walked further than we needed to, I completely missed the closer path to the beach. But we had a nice walk along the shore and through the dunes.

Looks practically tropical and ocean-like. But no salt! And itty bitty waves

Kaylee had a blast playing in the sand. She did not get wet.