After a month in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on my own, my lighthouse photography friends joined me for a four-day lighthouse workshop with Lerro Productions. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you know I do these trips about once a year. They’re intense and exhausting, logging unimaginable miles on little sleep to get some amazing photos.

I do my best work on these workshops because we get access to locations when the average person cannot—like all night from sunset to sunrise. Many lighthouse locations are not safe for me to be at alone after dark—I know my limits. We also charter boats, which are only affordable when done as a group. Pete Lerro plans everything, getting permits and boat charters. We usually work until well past midnight and catch a couple hours sleep in our cars in lighthouse parking lots. If you love photography, check out Pete’s website for workshops on a number of subjects.

We sleep in our cars for a couple hours a night and nap in the middle of the day. I might have the best setup of the group in that I have a huge back seat and an air mattress. Being only 5′-2″, I can actually stretch out door-to-door. I even put screens in my windows so I can sleep with fresh air and no mosquitoes.

I sleep on an air mattress that fills the entire back seat of my truck.

Screens are held to the inside of the door frame with heavy duty magnets.

We each drive our own cars (beds on wheels) and caravan to each location.

I’m bringing up the rear of our 7-car caravan.

Thirty-six hours before the official start of this workshop, a small group of “regulars” met on the Keweenaw Peninsula to shoot Eagle Harbor Lighthouse. This location was too far out of the way for the entire group, but we hardcore folks thought nothing of it. I drove 280 miles from the campground in St. Ignace to our meeting point.

We met for dinner at “The Gay Bar” in Gay, Michigan. Please don’t see this as insensitivity; the bar owners are simply taking a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the name of their town. The menu is full of political incorrectness and sexual innuendos. We had a lot of laughs and it was all good clean fun.

36 HOURS BEFORE TRIP OFFICIALLY STARTS – AUGUST 18, 2019

L-R: Pete, Lindsay, Bob, Nancy, Rick at Gay Bar in Gay, MI.

An example of the sexually explicit food at Gay Bar in Gay, MI.

After dinner, we arrived at Eagle Harbor Lighthouse on the Keweenaw Peninsula for sunset photos.

Getting our feet wet at Eagle Harbor Lighthouse. It was worth it for the following photo. L-R: Pete, Lindsay, Mark, Nancy.

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse at dusk.

From here, we drove 165 miles to Big Bay Lighthouse. Even though it took three hours to get there, there was still some light on the horizon due to being so far north. We slept in the parking lot at this lighthouse then drove 74 miles to Munising for a tour boat to see Pictured Rocks, part of the Niagra Escarpment I talked about in my Ontario blog.

Big Bay Lighthouse.

AUGUST 19, 2019

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse as seen from the tour boat.

We returned to Big Bay Lighthouse for a second night and, once again, slept a few hours in the parking lot.

DAY ONE – AUGUST 20, 2019 – The 4-day workshop officially begins…

This morning was the official start of the workshop and we met up with the rest of our group at Cinder Pond Marina in downtown Marquette at 3:00 a.m. for a 4:00 a.m. chartered boat to two lighthouses out in Lake Superior. Due to high seas, the captain wanted to wait an hour or two to see if conditions improved. Lake Superior needs to be respected and conditions can quickly become dangerous. He ultimately canceled the father of the two and we left the dock at 6:00 a.m. and made it to the closer one, Granite Rock Lighthouse right at sunrise, making for a really special photo.

Granite Rock Lighthouse at the moment the sun broke the horizon.

A drone shot of one of our two boats at Granite Rock, north of Marquette, MI. Photo by Pete Lerro.

We were also able to get shots of Marquette Lighthouse from the water and the Marquette Breakwater Light, which looks like a candlestick on a cell phone.

Marquette Harbor Lighthouse viewed from the water.

Marquette Breakwater Light or candlestick on a cell phone?

Manistique East Breakwater Lighthouse at sunset.

Seul Choix Point Lighthouse with the Milky Way and if you look carefully, there’s a meteor streak in the upper right. We saw a lot of meteors on this trip.

DAY TWO – AUGUST 21, 2019

We shot them both again at sunrise then drove 150 miles to Mackinaw City on the south side of the Mackinac Bridge for a lighthouse cruise from Shepler’s Ferry, stopping for breakfast along the way. This cruise took us east into Lake Huron for seven lighthouses. This location also gave me a chance to stop at the campground and check on my cats.

The “Gang of Eight” stops for a hearty breakfast. These trips require fuel for endurance.

Round Island Lighthouse off Mackinac Island, near where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet.

Round Island Passage Light.

Spectacle Reef Lighthouse.

Poe Reef Lighthouse in Lake Huron.

Fourteen Foot Shoal Lighthouse near Cheboygan, MI.

After the cruise, we drove 80 miles north to Whitefish Point Lighthouse. We were here after hours so didn’t get the chance to tour the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on the lighthouse grounds. I think it would have been interesting since there are thousands of shipwrecks in the lakes. We shot the lighthouse throughout sunset and into the night when we were treated to another view of the Milky Way and meteors. We slept here and shot the sunrise, as well.

Whitefish Point Lighthouse with the Milky Way and a meteor.

DAY THREE – AUGUST 22, 2019

Whitefish Point Lighthouse at sunrise.

On our way to our next location, we stopped for breakfast in a cute little café in the town of Paradise. We liked the Fresh Coast Café so much we came back the next day.

Breakfast at Fresh Coast Café in Paradise, MI.

We drove 100 miles to Au Sable Point Lighthouse in Grand Marais, MI. This lighthouse required a 1-1/2 mile walk from the parking lot.

The ten of us at Au Sable Point Lighthouse.

Now for the rough part… we drove 100 miles to Crisp Point Lighthouse, the last 18 miles—YES, 18 MILES— was unpaved dirt and sand. This was the worst driving conditions I’ve ever experienced! I was choking even with the windows closed and the AC on. The truck was almost unrecognizable from the coating of dirt and I don’t even want to tell you what the engine compartment looked like. I got all my filters changed right after this trip. Even the parking lot was a challenge. It was mostly packed sand but it was nearly full when we arrived. I can’t believe so many people are willing to make that horrible drive. Most of our group was able to find spots but the two of us with four wheel drive chose to park in the deep, lofty sand. Walking through it, I was up to my ankles.

Bringing up the rear in a cloud of dust on the 18 mile-long dirt road to Crisp Point Lighthouse.

It’s hard to tell I have a black truck after that drive.

I parked “Big Ass Truck” out of the way and in deep sand because I was the only one who would be able to get out of it. It also gave me some privacy for sleeping that night. The privacy is mostly for getting up to pee in the bushes.

Our reward was a beautiful setting for photos from sunset to nighttime to sunrise.

The gang setting up for sunset shots.

Nighttime shot with Pete dressed in an old time keeper’s uniform.

DAY FOUR – AUGUST 23, 2019

We had to drive that horrible dirt road again in the morning as he headed back to Mackinaw City for another lighthouse cruise; this time into Lake Michigan. On our 100 mile drive, we stopped back at Fresh Coast Café in Paradise for breakfast but first, we stopped to photograph a waterfall as we passed through Tahquamenon Falls State Park. This is a location I wanted to visit when I was here on my own but never got to it. Unfortunately, the water was tinted yellow because, as luck would have it, the river was being treated with chemicals to kill sea lampreys the day we were there. A sea lamprey is an eel-like parasite that kills lake trout. I was wishing I’d made the trip sooner.

Tahquamenon Falls tinted yellow with chemicals to kill sea lampreys.

We arrived in Mackinaw City around Noon on our last day and had time to visit Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, located at the southern end of the Mackinac Bridge before boarding the Shepler’s Lighthouse cruise into Lake Michigan.

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse with the Mackinac “Mighty Mac” Bridge in the background.

St. Helena Island Lighthouse.

White Shoal Lighthouse. There were people staying here doing rehab work.

I like this shot with the flag on the stern of the boat.

Gray’s Reef Lighthouse.

Skillagalee Lighthouse.

What’s left of Waugoshance Lighthouse.

When we returned to the dock, we said our goodbyes until next time and I drove back over the bridge to my campground where I spent a day recuperating before heading to my next adventure: an RV rally in Indiana.

We saw several additional lighthouses that were not worthy of inclusion in this blog but were included in the total of 27 photographed on this trip. All tolled, I drove 1,400 miles. I’m tired just typing that!

My 1,400-mile route around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with a lighthouse photography group.

If you enjoyed my lighthouse
photos, you’ll love my
2020 LIGHTHOUSE CALENDAR,
now available for purchase online!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next post:
Indiana, Illinois and a Visit to Florida.

My name is Lindsay Reed and I’m a photographer and retired graphic artist with a passion for both lighthouses and road trips. I am living as a full-time solo RVer in my 33 foot Grand Design Reflection Fifth Wheel trailer ( I spent my first two years in a 31 foot 2005 Coachmen Mirada motohome) and plan to spend the next few years traveling the U.S. and Canada photographing not only lighthouses, but everything else there is to see in this wonderful land. I hope you enjoy my blog and will follow my adventures in the months and years ahead.