Petroglyphs

On our first full day of vacation, we decided to visit the Petroglyphs in Sanilac State Forest. Carved into very soft sandstone by people 300-1000 years ago, they were discovered in the late 1800s after a forest fire uncovered them. Now they are covered by a large shelter. (I can see why this is necessary because as we hiked through the woods later, that same sandstone was in our pathway. There were large divets carved out by drips of rainwater.)





In some ways they were disappointing since there were few of the carvings that were really defined. Also, no one has deciphered the meaning of the carvings (though May said one of the characters looked like a man shooting an arrow). The state park employee stationed there was less than helpful, giving us one word answers to our questions.

But, it was cool to think about how these rock writings were discovered and to wonder what other wonders might be covered by forest elsewhere.

After we looked at the petroglyphs, we went on a little hike. Here's a picture to show how Sariah felt about that:



There was a low part of the pathway that was full of mud. I had just put my hand into stinging nettle when Sariah had her flip-flops (yes, you read that right; we were not prepared for a hike) sucked off by the mud and started wailing. I was less than patient with that. I tried to make up for it on the rest of the hike by saying how beautiful it was and how glad I was that we had come etc. My dad had to carry Brigham's stroller through large parts of the hike. What a sight we must have been!

There were lots of colorful mushrooms in the forest and as we went across the final bridge, my dad spied some crayfish. I think the kids would have stayed there for hours to watch the crayfish!



As a bonus, we drove through Bad Axe, MI on our way back to the cottage. Isn't that a great name?