Our very rainy 1.5 mile trek to the Au Sable Light Station began where Hurricane River empties into Lake Superior. These nice ladies pointed us in the right direction to find the trail and suggested a beach walk for a while.
Since the sand was quite wet, it did make for easy walking. But by this time it was nearly 11 am and was still quite foggy! I would expect that on a clear day it would have been quite scenic!
So, we opted to head back to the trail in the forest to see what we could find there. There was green everywhere but every once in a while I would find a tiny spot of color like this delicate Twinflower of the Honeysuckle family!
I spotted quite a bit of Canadian Dogwood all through the very shady trail, which actually helped to shade us from a great deal of the raindrops!
Occasionally, there would be a break in the
treeline and you could peer out onto Lake Superior, I paused to check the conditions, yep, still foggy!
Found a large patch of one of my favorites, Prickly Rose!
About every 1/4 mile we came across a natural drain where water from above was flowing, rather quickly, downhill. No one had thought to bring boots, including me, so navigating across these little rivers proved to be a little tricky in order to keep everyone's feet dry!
Our first glimpse of the Au Sable Light!
Completed August 19, 1984, the 87 foot tall lighthouse was considered to be one of the most remote light stations in mainland America. I know what your thinking, if it took me 1.5 miles to walk it, why is it considered remote?? Well, a century ago there were no roads in this part of Michigan. The closest town was Grand Marais, 12 miles to the east. Provisions and transportation was only by means of Lake Superior. It was quite a lonely life up here, having little contact with the outside world except from visits from the Coast Guard resupply boat, rare trips to Grand Marais, and of course, rescuing crew of floundering ships.
After climbing the 98 steps to the top I was pretty disappointed that I could only see about 40 feet out into the lake. The guide however did point out an interesting feature in the water below! Looking down onto the sandstone of the lake bed, you could see the dark lines where eons ago glaciers had scoured the bottom of the lakebed!
The view from the top of the light looking northeast out into Lake Superior in the direction of Grand Marais. I suppose on a clear day, it may actually be visible. At the end of the point, the fog horn station. No, it didn't go off when we were there.
On the hike back to Hurricane River we found some remains of the 272 foot Sitka, a shipwreck from October 4, 1904! Over a century ago!
Scattered all over the beach were thousands of pretty rocks! Oh how I longed to pick these up and take them home, especially the round speckled red one! But...NPS frowns upon that and I really didn't want to go to jail, or worse yet, be banned from national parks! I would have to pick up rocks later from a public beach somewhere.
Back into the forest, near the end, I
spotted something pick a few feet
back into the forest! A Pink Lady's
Slipper! A friend of mine recently
found some in Wisconsin and sent a
photo, I knew immediately what it
was! I was definitely excited to find
this rare orchid on my rainy hike!
Nearby, I also found some Indian Pipe
beginning to sprout up!
Yes, everyone was a bit damp, but as you can see by the smiles, everyone was still having fun despite the rain!
As we neared the parking lot, I spotted
this trail marker, I was unaware that
we had been hiking on the North Country Scenic Trail!
I spotted quite a bit of Canadian Dogwood all through the very shady trail, which actually helped to shade us from a great deal of the raindrops!
treeline and you could peer out onto Lake Superior, I paused to check the conditions, yep, still foggy!
spotted something pick a few feet 
beginning to sprout up!
Yes, everyone was a bit damp, but as you can see by the smiles, everyone was still having fun despite the rain!
we had been hiking on the North Country Scenic Trail! 
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