September 2012                Page 2

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Monday, September 3 - Porcupine Mtn. East State Park

Eastern Time Zone in Michigan.  We bought a yearly out-of-state entrance pass ($29 instead of $8 each time).

The State parks in Michigan have these interesting fire rings made of corrugated pipe.  Wonder if I could make one at home?

No, that last picture was not one of mine. Actually  in the museum.  Note how well the grouse is camouflaged.

Caught this merganser swimming by himself...

Lake of the Clouds a few miles to the west

Treated to a good ranger-led talk about Nonesuch - a few miles south of  the park and where copper mining had one of its first starts in the region.  Muchof the ghost town was reconstructed with the help of  hand-drawn maps by a 11-yr old of the time.

Tuesday, Sept 4 - Agate Beach

Who could resist a beach called agate Beach?  We had these directions, and the map was weak, but we guessed that Misery Bay was where Misery river met the lake, and there was this road from Toivola, and we found it.  There WERE agates on the beach...

Wednesday, Sept 05 - Houghton Mineral Museum

Up the Keweenaw Peninsula to Houghton/Hancock, 203 towards PJMcLain State Park and Calumet....

What a treasure at this museum, actually now THE Mineral Museum of Michigan.  We could now identify the rocks we brought back from Wisconsin and Michigan. 

Did I mention that we brought back 2+ big Wal-Mart boxes full of rocks?

gypsum crystals on a shovel handle?

How to get a shine without a rock tumbler:

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