Today Dad and I went driving around Antrim County again just to see what we could see. We had discussed going up to the Central Lake area and then heading over to see the view from Dead Man's Hill. Instead we got a little turned around and ended up south ofLake Charlevoix. I noticed a sign advertising a ferry up the road. I was completely unaware a ferry still was running in this part of the world. It's called the Ironton Ferry. It costs $3.50 to cross. I had never ridden on a car ferry before. That made the day worthwhile by itself. I think ferries were pretty common up here for a while. There is an old ferry site on Clam Lake right down the street from my Dad's land. Now both points are lake public access sites.

Once we were headed northwest towards Charlevoix I saw a state park that might afford us a nice view of Lake Michigan and hopefully the tip of Leelanau County to the west. The park is called Fisherman's Island State Park. Turns out we didn't have to enter the park in order to get down to the beach. This part of the shoreline was covered with slate and you could see where slate had been carved out for use in construction, maybe? Like I know what the hell you would use slate for. According to Wikipedia it has been used for roofing shingles Sounds good to me. This area was beautiful. The lake was very shallow here. It appeared to me you could walk about a hundred yards out before you would be forced to swim.

Our next stop was a small burg called Norwood which gave us a nice view of the north tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. Further down we stopped at Barnes Park in Eastport which offered a another grand view of the tip of Leelanau County and also the Old Mission Peninsula.

Pictures!!

Lake Charlevoix

From 2011 Michigan

Ironton Ferry

From 2011 Michigan

The view near Fisherman's Island State Park. This is my favorite picture from today You can see the slate under the water near the shore.

From 2011 Michigan

The tip of Leelanau Country from Norwood

From 2011 Michigan