Porcupine Mountains - Day 1

To kick off 'summer' over Memorial Day weekend, we headed to Porcupine Mountains State Park in the UP for a backpacking trip. On the first day, we hiked 4.5 miles along the Cross Trail to the mouth of Landlooker's Creek near the west end of the park.

Sara & her pack at the mouth of the river. We always wonder how we end up carrying so much stuff for overnight trips!

After walking past several occupied sites, we finally found a vacant site adjacent to the beach. This driftwood tree was infront of our site.

Although sand beaches take the cake, the rocky beach was still beautiful.

A room with a view!

Our campsite came complete with a firepit.

The trees around our campsite.

Enjoying the sunshine.

We kept seeing these tiny flowers everywhere, so we had to break out the lens baby & get a photo.

We kept hearing some rustling infront of our campsite, and finally figured out that a groundhog had made his home at the beach. We caught him nibbling on some leaves.

This photo makes the beach look warmer than it was thanks to an orange filter.

It was real rough to have a campsite with this view.

Perfect sunset for the end of the day.

A 'window' view of the sunset.

As the sun continued to set, we still had enough light for a few more photos.

Others also enjoyed the view from the west side of Memengwa Creek.

Finally caught a pic of Pat.

Even after the sun set, the colors continued to be bright.

Pat thought it would be fun to try some photos of the fire, as shown in this and the next few photos. The lingering sunset in the background added to the scenery.

Good Night!