Fifty-second Lighthouse Expedition

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[edit] August 2 & 5, 2010 -- Gravelly Shoal and Tawas Point

This year our family vacation with our kids and grandson moved across Saginaw Bay from Caseville to Au Gres, Michigan. This gave us the opportunity to visit one lighthouse we had seen before - Tawas Point - but never had the opportunity to climb; and to see another lighthouse we had not seen before - Gravelly Shoal.

[edit] August 2, 2010, Monday

1:15 pm

After lunch, we left the Bay View Lodge, on Lake Huron just north of the little town of Au Gres, and drove north to Tawas State Park. Our son David, our daughter Andrea and our grandson Hayden (age 10) were with us. Our son-in-law Duffy, had returned home Sunday night and wasn’t due back until Thursday night.

1:40 pm

We arrived at the Tawas Point Lighthouse. Although we have visited this lighthouse several times, this was the first time we had the opportunity to climb the tower (85 steps), as it has only been open for the past two years, and when we were here in October of 2009, it wasn’t open that particular day. The keeper’s house has been renovated and the museum on the first floor has been very nicely done. We all enjoyed the view from the lantern room where there is a 4th order Fresnel lens. We took pictures, visited the nice gift shop and left about 2:15.

7:15 pm

We left the Bay View Lodge and drove south a few miles to Point Lookout to see if we could get a better view of the Gravelly Shoal Light. While we could see it from the beach where we were staying, we needed to get closer for photographs. We drove to the end of Point Lookout but it was too hazy for good photographs. One of the homeowners suggested we return later in the week when the conditions might be more favorable. We were back to the Bay View Lodge by 7:45.

[edit] August 5, 2010, Thursday

4:15 pm

This was a much clearer day, so we returned to Point Lookout and were able to get photographs of the Gravelly Shoal Light from the shore. The tower is 65 feet tall on a 50-foot diameter concrete pier and sits 2.7 miles offshore on a shoal extending southeast from Point Lookout into Saginaw Bay. It replaced the deactivated Charity Island Light as a guide for ships traveling between Gravelly Shoal and Big Charity Island. After photographing the light, we returned to the Bay View Lodge.

Trip Totals: 2 Lighthouses (1 new), 2 days.

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Lighthouses: A Photographic Journey

Conceived and Developed by David S. Carter

Photographs by Donald W. Carter

Text by Diana K. Carter, Donald W. Carter & David S. Carter

Copyright © 1995-2011 David S. Carter, Donald W. Carter, & Diana K. Carter. All rights reserved. Reproduction by any means, physical or electronic, in part or in full, without the express permission of the authors, is strictly prohibited.

This article was last modified on 8/14/2010.