Presque Isle State Park

Perry Monument

Today is another rainy day in Pennsylvania. We had planned to drive up to Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie. Since we don’t have many days here we hated to loose today to rain so decided to go up to the Tom Ridge Environmental Center at the entrance to Presque Isle. We set out early, but when we got there it was closed not opening until 10 AM. Also at the entrance of the park was one of the vintage diners we wanted to see, so we thought we’d wait for Tom Ridge to open drinking coffee. That turned out to be closed as well. Our next thought was to drive into the park. We could look around a little between the rain drops. We got started and couldn’t stop. What a wonderful place.

Presque Isle is a very narrow peninsula approximately 5 miles in length jutting out into Lake Erie at about a 45 degree angle. The road makes a loop along the perimeter with Presque Isle Bay on one side and the Great Lake Erie on the other. Also paralleling the road is a 13-mile long paved path for biking, walking, and jogging in warm weather, and snowshoeing and cross country skiing in the winter. There are also a few miles of woods trails for hiking scattered about the park. There are many inland ponds and small bays which are fabulous for canoeing and fishing. We found one quiet bay area with houses scattered around the bay. They were in a real sense house boats, but they were definitely not boats. We couldn’t decide if they were privately owned or park rental units for visitors. On the lake side were perhaps 12 picnic areas along the sandy beach of Lake Erie.

Presque Isle Bay

North Pier Light

There is a Coast Guard Station on the tip end of the peninsula and about midway on the Lake side is the Presque Isle Lighthouse. We got good views from the beach, but we could not get too close to the light since it is now a private residence. Our guess is that the local Park Ranger lives there or perhaps someone who has volunteered to maintain the structure.

Picnic area on Lake Erie

Presque Isle is the place where Commodore Perry hid out from the British while building his ships. He went from here with his fleet to win the battle against the British in the War of 1812. Naturally, to show our gratitude, a memorial has been erected in his honor at Misery Bay were Perry’s men wintered on their ships following the battle.

Misery Bay

Little house boats on Horseshoe Pond

Presque Isle Lighthouse

Gene had a conference call at noon so we couldn’t stay as long as we would have liked. If we get a chance before we leave here, we’ll go back. Besides, we never did get to visit the Tom Ridge Environmental Center.