Soo Locks: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

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We visited Sault Ste. Marie and the Soo Locks on a Fourth of July weekend in 2007. The bonus was the annual Fourth of July parade. Actually this spur of the moment surprise happened to us again over Labor Day weekend. While driving back from Traverse City, Michigan we were detoured off the main road in a small town due to a parade. Rather than continue, we took advantage, removed our chairs, and enjoyed an impromptu, at least for us, parade. What fun!

Well, back to the Soo Locks. The Soo Locks tours depart from two docks that are very close to each other. There are multiple departure times that easily accommodate everyone’s schedule. Since it was July, we dressed for summer. Upon arriving, however, everyone had jackets and seemed dressed for fall. Somehow we had missed the dress code memo. The reason soon became apparent. With the breeze on the river, the cruise out was a bit chilly. However, we were not too uncomfortable, but you might want to carry a light jacket even in summer.

This was our first tour through locks, and we enjoyed the experience. I won’t go into how the entire system works, but the engineering behind raising and/or lowering a boat through the lock system is intriguing, yet simple. After being raised we sailed a little further upstream to the area of the steel mill on the Canadian side before turning around. We returned through a smaller set of locks on our way back.

The narrated tour keeps you informed of the buildings along the shoreline, the history of the area, and, of course, how the locks work. The tours operate 7 days a week and last approximately two hours. The boats have restrooms, and are, of course, handicapped accessible. Ticket prices were reasonable. Of course, you can check their web site for current prices.

After our tour we drove into town and stopped at a park that has an observation platform for viewing ships traversing the locks. Timing is everything. Lucky for us, a ship was nearing the locks as we were there. Regardless, it is a pleasant stop.

Soo Locks down. Panama Canal next.

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