Mackinac Island Tour 2001
| We took British Landing Road inland and turned on to State Road, headed for Crack-in-the-Island and Cave of the Woods. These two natural landmarks are so far inland into the wilderness as to be not heavily visited, and so the walk there was practically dead silent aside from the wind, with no other tourists to speak of. Yippee! Though State Road was so wide and still that I almost expected a Geebi to come swooping down out of the trees at me! (See the 1992 tour with Devil's Kitchen for the story of the Geebis. Again, that person in red is my mother.) |
| Cave of the Woods at last! Mind you, State Road is not the only path you have to take to reach this; you have to turn onto rough little sidetrails just to get here. Nothing too difficult, but I got blisters on my ankles by the time we reached it. o_o Unfortunately, I did not take note of the explanatory sign at the cave nor of that at Crack-in-the-Island, so I cannot tell you what they say. It's easy enough to know that Cave of the Woods was also caused by the lake wave action which formed the island's other natural landmarks, and this cave was probably once along a shoreline itself. Meaning, this was once a sea cave like Devil's Kitchen. I may be getting my facts wrong here, so feel free to correct me if I am! ^_^ Maybe, the next time I visit this place, I'll take note of what the signs say?? |
| Inside Cave of the Woods is more impressive than inside Skull Cave, though still not too much to write home about. It goes back further, but gets very narrow so you would have to squeeze your way through to what looks to be the back, if you can squeeze through at all. It's also very rocky and littered with natural debris. If you crawl inside, watch out for the ceiling. |
| Cave of the Woods without the flash, so you can make out its details a little better. A warning about how you come to the cave--if you take the more obvious Crack-in-the-Island Trail, from State Road, then you should end up here first, and then at the Crack. But if you take another route, you might stumble upon the cave by accident--like I did in 2004. I came out literally on top of it! It's very easy to miss if you approach it from the wrong angle...so watch your step, and keep your eyes open. |
| Crack-in-the-Island, just a little bit past Cave of the Woods, is even easier to miss. In fact, this is about all you can see at first. |
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