Copper Harbor, Lake Medora and Lake Superior

I mentioned a few blogposts back that I visited my brother's cabin at Lake Medora by Copper Harbor.

If you look at a map of Michigan, the Upper Peninsula is a little strip of land above the "mitten shaped" part of Michigan, and its north shore is Lake Superior. When you look at the map there is a little "finger" part of the peninsula that points out north toward Canada. At the tip of the "finger" lays Copper Harbor.

As you can imagine, it is beautiful and full of views of the jagged rocky coastline of Lake Superior.

Here is a map of the area: http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Copper+Harbor&state=MI#a/maps/m::3:47.47326:-87.910154:0:::::1:1:1::/e

Sorry I couldn't link it directly using the link tool on blogpost for some reason, but if you click on the website listed above, you will get to the maps.

We will probably go there again sometime this month to catch the wonderful color season of autumn leaves there.

Here is a photo of the drive up to the end of the "finger" of land.

See how the trees hang over the road?

It is beautiful!

I took it out of our car's windshield so you could see

what it is like driving up there:

Oh, and if you go?

You are going to want to go in the spring, summer or fall. Because it gets the most snow of almost anywhere in Michigan.

Look at this road sign:

THAT is how much snow they got last year in that exact spot.

240.9 inches!

Of course it snows and melts some and snows some more, so the snow isn't that high on the road that is in the picture....but they got that much snow in one season!

Anway, on with my photo show.

Lake Medora is on the way to Copper Harbor and is only about 7 miles from there.

I took this photo from my brother's boat sitting on Lake Medora.

Looming straight ahead is Brockway Mountain.

You can drive your car up there and it has fantastic views.

When the color season comes I will return there and take photos from the top of the mountain.

Across from town was a little point of land that you could hike on that had some really nice places to see the rocky shores of Lake Superior:

Here is another view from the hike:

You can look back over at the tiny town of Copper Harbor.

Next time I go, I will go downtown and take some photos of the cute craft stores and little restaurants along the waterfront.

Before I close this post, I wanted to share some photos that I was lucky to get at my brother's cabin on Lake Medora of the female mallard ducks. Isn't she gorgeous?:

This rock sits right next to my brother's cabin's dock and they are so tame they come and sit here frequently:

She obviously was prissing up for her pictures:

And then her partner said:

"For the LOVE of GOD...are you FINISHED with the photos, yet?"I told her to quit complaining.

Gheesh, it is not every duck that gets to be featured in my blog. She should feel lucky!

Looks like a Duck, Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck....Must be a duck!

We have seen a lot of ducks on our lake over the last few weeks.

Some are shy and I have a hard time, even using my zoom lens to capture them before they fly away.

I don't know what kind of ducks this mother duck and babies are, because I couldn't get close enough to see their markings. But the mom's head has fuzzy feathers.

If your screen is wide enough, you will see the mom in the next two shots...as I used landscape on the camera for a wider photo.

Look at this beautiful family of ducks:

She has seven babies...which is great..usually I only see them with five survivors:

This female mama mallard comes by our dock and bay almost every day:

She often brings her frisky babies with her and swims right up to the dock, begging for food.

Look at the drop of water dripping from her beak!:




Here is a closeup of one of her babies....this one still has the fuzzy, downy feathers on it!:
Look at the water droplets on his back...(they are pretty waterproof. Thus the saying: Like water running off a duck's back!):





This is the Mama Mallard again...she had an itch that just needed to be scratched.
Ahhhhh....a little to the right...............

On the lookout, protecting her babies:

(See her beautiful blue side feather?):

One of her downy babies, splashing about by the dock:

"What?", she's saying. "Aren't you done taking my picture YET?"

"The LEAST you can do is give me food for my work, then! Have YOU tried to take care of seven baby ducks on this huge lake? It's hard you know!:

We have a routine now, on the nice evenings.

We have dinner and go down and sit on the pontoon, overlooking the lake and take in the lovely summer breezes.

It isn't long before she spots us, and here they all come, swimming up fast and making little quacking noises for food.

Sometimes we bring bread crumbs down and reward them. Other times, I keep apologizing to them saying that we have none, and she gives me that LOOK (like the last photo). You know, the look that makes me feel reallllllll guilty for not bringing them food everytime.

But she forgives me, and comes back again and again.

They then swim in the grass right beside the dock and eat in there for 15 minutes and then swim away. At least we always have the "salad" bar there for them.