I was looking through some of my old travel photos and found these “gems” from our Road Trip to Agawa Bay and Lake Superior Provincial Park a few summers ago.
Agawa Bay is located about 2 hours North of Sault Ste Marie Ontario. ( See map below)
These first few photos are of Bathtub Island located near Katherine Cove before you get to the Agawa Pictographs ... It is kind of Secret place. There are no signs. Bathtub Island is a very unusual smooth Granite outcrop about 100 yards from shore. You can easily walk from the beautiful white sand dunes out to the island without getting too wet. The water might reach your waste ....
The Island is called Bathtub Island since there is a low centre that fills with the water from the waves and gets very warm from the heat of the sun.... it is like a giant hot tub that stays fresh and clean from the constant water spilling in over the edge .... the water is sparking clear.
This is our walk from the highway to the sand dune beach before you get to the Island.
There is the small island off in the distance.
This is the view to the a north. Looking back towards Katherine Cove.
Here we are at the top of the island looking back towards the beach.
This is the smooth granite that forms the pool.
Here is a Map that shows the 2 hour drive from Sault Ste Marie Ontario
or Michigan to Agawa Bay, Pictographs and Bathtub Island.
After swimming in the warm pools of Bathtub Island and a picnic on the beach we drove a few minutes North to see the a famous Agawa Pictographs.... there are lots of signs on Highway 17 to find this very Ancient Sacred Site of the Algonquin.
Here are just a few of the very mysterious Agawa Pictographs. You have to walk out on a ledge to view them and be careful you don’t slip into the mouth of the Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior)
This Main Character With horns is called Mishipeshu.
You can read all about the Agawa Pictographs here:
https://www.algomacountry.com/agawa-rock-pictographs/
Agawa Rock, is one of the most famous pictograph sites in Canada, found within Lake Superior Provincial Park. The area is also one of the most visited indigenous archaeological sites in Canada. The majority of paintings from the Agawa site are said to date from the 17th and 18th centuries.
I think they are much older than that..... This is a sacred site where generations of Ojibwe have come to record dreams, visions and events. The Ojibwe have been in Canada for at least 22,000 years.
That’s me pretty far down the ledge looking for Mishipeshu the Ancient Sea Panther.
More on Mishipeshu (Source) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_panther
An underwater panther, called Mishipeshu or Mishibijiw in Ojibwe, is one of the most important of several mythological water beings among many indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands and Great Lakes region, particularly among the Anishinaabe.
Mishipeshu translates into "the Great Lynx". It has the head and paws of a giant cat but is covered in scales and has dagger-like spikes running along its back and tail. Mishipeshu calls Michipicoten Island in Lake Superior his home and is a powerful creature in the mythological traditions of some Native American tribes, particularly Anishinaabe tribes, the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi, of the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. In addition to the Anishinaabeg, Innu also have Mishibizhiw stories.
To the Algonquins, the underwater panther was the most powerful underworld being. The Ojibwe traditionally held them to be masters of all water creatures, including snakes. Some versions of the Nanabozho creation legend refers to whole communities of water lynx.