Summer is coming to end soon and kids are headed back to school.I decided to pack up the family and sneak in a cheap last minute get away. I love being able to do things on a budget and still feel like we did something fun. We decided to escape the heat and we headed north to Upper Michicgan to one of the Great Lakes…Lake Superior. This was the perfect oppotunity to take my youngest tent camping for the first time as well. Ok don’t judge… I like space. The tent is like 15ft by 15ft haha. With that in mind let me tell you about how we were Rocking the “Great” adventure for Yooperlite!!!
The boys and us had plenty of room to stretch out and relax. I was excited about this trip. It was the 2nd of the Great Lakes that the family has dipped their feet into. We live really close to Lake Michigan but what I like to call the smelly side lol. Michigan definitely has the cleaner and prettier side of Lake Michigan in my opinion. So needless to say I was very pleased with how clean and beautiful Lake Superior is.
We stayed at Agate Beach State Park and if you asked my kids it was on the edge of the world and to their dismay no phone service so no internet. I giggled at this until I wanted to look up food places haha. I think the best thing we did was unplug for the weekend. My kids put the phone and switch down and put their feet in the water. they dug their fingers in the sand. But best of all they dug for rocks!
Yup the whole point of this trip was to find a certain type of rock...
We enjoyed the beach, combing the area for agates during the day knowing just beyond the horizon was Canada. At night we set out with our special 365 UV lights to find the saut after Yooperlite. Yooperlites are fluorescent, sodalite-rich syenite rocks found mainly in the upper Great Lakes. It got its name for mainly being found in Upper Michigan also known as Yooper Country. These rocks look like every day normal stones during the day. I don’t think I could find one without the special light. However when you put the UV light up on them they glow orange like hot lava. It is the most magical thing to find in a sea of stones.
We each set out with our own flash light walking our paces slowly up and down the beaches. Raking through the millions of smooth lake rocks. Celebrating with every find. As the kids and their dad stayed mainly on the beaches staying dry , I got right up in there in the water looking for the newly fresh over turned stones that the waves were just pushing in. It paid off for sure!!!
I would say we had a great summer with a handful of adventures. We will definitely be visiting more beaches in the future. I think one of my favorite things about this trip was talking to all the other people walking up and down the beaches. We met people from all over looking for the same thing and we all celebrated each other’s finds. It was so fun. And I am pretty sure I have become a rockhound. I have already purchased books. Now to buy a rock tumbler to make all my pretties shiny and pretty.
You can also check out a couple of my Tik Toks about the rocks.
@smalltowndreamz a quick glance at our yooperlite finds last weekend #wisconsinmom #rockhoundsoftictok #rockhounds #yooperliterocks #yooperlites #uppermichigan #puremichigan #nature #michigan #yooperlite
