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MUNISING
POINTS
OF
INTEREST
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Sandstone bluffs up to 300 feet high have been shaped by wind, waves, and ice into dramatic columns and caves, and stained red, blue and green by seeping minerals to form colored "pictures" ...
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Hiawatha National Forest/ Pictured Rocks Visitor Center. This is a recommended first stop for every new visitor---for maps, handouts, scheduled talks and walks on nature and history, and customized, impartial advice from a knowledgeable staff of adults who live here and know the area well. Also a nature bookstore ...
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Pictured Rocks Cruises. This cruise is the way to see the Pictured Rocks, preferably in the late-afternoon light, unless you have your own boat or take a kayak tour, ...
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Glass Bottom Boat Shipwreck Tour. This tour combines perspective about shipwrecks with the chance to peer down through a large boat's viewing wells at three shipwrecks south of Grand Island. ...
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Lake Superior. Of all the U.P.'s features, none rival the largest freshwater lake in the world. ...
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Central Munising. A wonderful picnic spot, with grills, bandshell, and farmers' market on Munising Bay; a popular coffeehouse-bookstore, some specialty stores; and a kids' castle playground ...
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Alger County Heritage Center. Here you'll see an authentically furnished 1830s fur trader's cabin from Grand Island, and vintage Munising Woodenware products (clothespins, hand-painted bowls, and lots more), once marketed nationally ...
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Northern Waters Sea Kayaking. An adventurous way to see the cliffs, caves, and shipwrecks by Grand Island and the fabled Pictured Rocks ...
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Grand Island Scenic Overlook. A breathtaking vista out beyond Munising Bay of Grand Island ...
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Munising-area Waterfalls. Avoid crowds and visit four delightful, secluded falls in and near Munising: Horseshoe Falls, a quaint private attraction; the Twin Waterfall Plant Preserve; and Wagner Falls off M-94 ...
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Valley Spur Cross-Country Ski and Mountain Bike Trails. Artfully laid out, meticulously groomed, this 38-mile trail system is a favorite destination of dedicated cross-country skiers from far and wide ...
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McQuisten Recreation Area. The views from boardwalks on this beautiful pond are hidden gems for birders and naturalists, within walking distance of the Super 8 and Comfort Inn motels. There's an elaborate playground, too ...
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Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
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The "Pictured Rocks" are 300-foot sandstone bluffs, famous among Indians and early Europeans traveling the Lake Superior shore. Beginning eight miles east of Munising, they extend for some seven miles along Lake Superior from Miners Castle to the Grand Portal. They form the centerpiece of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, administered by the National Park Service. It was the first national lakeshore designated by Congress in 1966. The Lakeshore has also many other points of interest, from sandy beaches to waterfalls, the Grand Sable Dunes, and a shoreline trail.
 | | One of Michigan's most splendid views, Miner's Castle is best seen in late afternoon on a sunny day. Looking down into the clear aqua waters of Superior, you can sometimes see large fish. | The bluffs have been sculpted by erosion and stained by seepage into fanciful shapes and pictures. The Pictured Rocks meet clear Lake Superior in a series of memorable views. Ojibwa myths attach great importance to these rocks and sea caves, which canoes had to traverse, close to them, in danger of being blown up against the rocks by sudden storms. As early as the 1870s Pictured Rocks were a romantic tourism destination of early Lake Superior steamship cruises into the wild north country.
 | | Postcard of Pictured Rocks from early in the 1900s. | Mostly the Pictured Rocks are only visible from the water, though the artful trails at Miners Castle give a good sense of the sandstone formations up close. The red and yellow sandstone bluffs, up to 200 feet high, have been shaped by wind, waves, and ice into dramatic columns and watery caves, then variously stained into colored "pictures" by mineral-rich water seeping between sandstone layers. The colors of the sandstone cliffs are subtle. Blues and greens are created by copper, the reddish hues by iron. (In midday on a glary day, however, the colors can look washed out.) Five waterfalls are formed when short streams (characteristic of the Upper Peninsula) tumble down the escarpment near the lakeshore.
Typically visitors see the rocks on the Pictured Rocks Boat Cruise. (See Point of Interest.) Northern Waters Adventures' kayak instructional excursions provide more intimate view of the awesome bluffs to fit people without previous kayak experience. Great care is advised to any people without experience on Lake Superio who are considering an excursion in their own boat. Lake conditions are famous for changing quickly.
The entire National Lakeshore extends 43 miles east from Munising Falls just outside Munising to Grand Marais. Its 70,000 acres encompass two sizable lakes, waterfalls, several stream mouths, Twelvemile Beach, and the spectacular Grand Sable Dunes. The North Country Trail (formerly Lakeshore Trail; see below), goes the entire length of the National Lakeshore. The Altran shuttle bus from Munising gives hikers a ride back or allows them to hike parts of the trail without making a round trip.
The National Lakeshore is a four-season destination. Its highlights attract considerable crowds in summer and fall color season, while its diverse charms are subtle enough to bring back nature-lovers, waterfall enthusiasts, and backpackers again and again all around the year. Lon Emerick gives Pictured Rocks an entire chapter of The Superior Peninsula: Seasons in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan , ...continued below...
his book of appreciative nature essays. He hikes the North Country Trail here each spring for its wildflowers. From after Labor Day through March hunting is permitted in season. Snowmobiling is only permitted on roads open to the public in summer; the road to Miners Castle is the main Pictured Rocks destination for snowmobilers.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore consists of shoreline and an inland buffer to protect its watershed. The National Lakeshore itself seldom extends inland over five miles. Often it's quite narrow. No road directly connects destinations within the National Lakeshore. That creates difficult logistics.
Access to popular destinations like Miners Castle and Chapel Falls is via entrance drives extending north off County Road H-58. H-58 twists and turns for about 50 miles from Munising to Grand Marais. It goes through back country, often well south of the lakeshore. H-58 is now paved for over 23 miles, with five miles recently paved east of Melstrand, up to just past Little Beaver Lake Road.
H-58 is likely to be completely paved to Grand Marais by 2010 or 2011. Meanwhile, part will be closed — from just east of Little Beaver to Kingston Lake in 2008. Motorists will have to go to Seney and along M-28 to get from Grand Marais or Twelvemile Beach and campground to Munising.
Pictured Rocks and Michigan's other National Lakeshore, Sleeping Bear Dunes west of Traverse City, are the lasting legacy of Phil Hart, Michigan's beloved U.S. senator from 1959 to his death in 1976. Hart was widely respected across party lines as the "conscience of the Senate" despite his liberal activism in civil rights and consumer affairs. The Senate's third office building is named after him. Hart is remembered as reserved, quite indecisive, dull in public speaking, but dogged in pursuit of his goals, once formed, according to Theodore J. Karamanski in his surprisingly interesting free online book, A Nationalized Lakeshore: the Creation and Administration of Sleeping Bear Dunes (www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/slbe/adhi). "Once he made up his mind," Karamanski reports a supporter recalling, "nothing could get him to stop."
As a summer resident of Mackinac Island, Hart was familiar with the issues of living near — in his case, within — a publicly administered park. At Pictured Rocks, Hart appeased the local timber products industry by reducing the acreage from 100,000 to 70,000. Creating the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was a much more complex and difficult political feat.
 | | The dramatic sandstone horseshoe formation framing Munising Falls is as much a spectacle as the falling waters itself. | Here's a summary of SIGHTS OF GREATEST INTEREST along the shore, arranged from Munising to Grand Marais. In summer these points of interest may also be the busiest, so you may want to include other spots accessible only by foot. Historical note: H-58 passes just north of the rural neighborhood of Thomasville, better known as Indiantown. Many residents are descended from the original Grand Island Band of Ojibwa. Thomas was the Christian name of a chief's son who became a Methodist minister.
MUNISING FALLS. This slender, exceptionally attractive waterfall has a dramatic 50-foot drop into a small, rocky canyon. In winter the sight is equally spectacular when the column of water is frozen. A pleasant, 800-foot path (handicap accessible) leads to the falls. The excellent interpretive center at the parking lot gives historical perspective on the region's geology and logging history. It's next to the site of an 1868 blast furnace , which made 16 tons of pig iron a day. On H-58 about 2 miles east of downtown Munising and the intersection of M-28 and H-58. The center is open June thru Labor Day, daily 8:30-4:30. Handicap accessible.
 | | Sand Point extends west to within 7/10ths of a mile of Grand Island. That's the Pictured Rocks cruise boat heading out. | SAND POINT and BEACH. This point of land jutting out toward Grand Island offers a good view of the island and the city of Munising. In the evening there is a distant view of the Pictured Rocks. (They're shaded in the morning.) The beach just south of the point is one of the warmer swimming spots in Lake Superior. Local swimmers point out that once you get acclimated to the chilly water, you don't feel the cold. It's next to the Sand Point flashed across the newswires of America in 2007 when it showed up on that year's list of the Weather Channel's "ten best swimming beaches," as compiled by a psychologist with a flair for self-promotion.
Sand Point has historic significance. The formerr Coast Guard station here is the National Lakeshore headquarters. Interesting maritime artifacts line the walk to the beach, which is served by Porta-Johns and picnic tables.
Just before the point itself is the half-mile, barrier-free SAND POINT MARSH TRAIL (wheelchair-accessible). It crosses a scenic wetland that's alive with waterfowl, herons, and water-loving songbirds. Signs explain what you're looking at. Beaver lodges can be seen. Come near dawn or dusk to glimpse the nocturnal creatures themselves. In fall color season, leaves along the trail don't change color. On the way to Sand Point, it's easy to stop at the interesting Alger County Heritage Center and see Abraham Williams' fur-trader's cabin in back. East of Munising a little over a mile on H-58, then left on Washington St. 1/2 mile to Sand Point Rd. North 2  | | Sand Point Marsh. | miles.
MINERS CASTLE and FALLS. From a single great rock some nine stories tall, a spectacular view looks down at an emerald-green Lake Superior cove. The water's clarity lets you see the rocky bottom even at considerable depths. The Pictured Rocks cliffs can be seen from land here, but the orientation means the light is never right for a good view. Still, if you only have time for one Pictured Rocks excursion, this should be it — the setting is so beautiful and the short trail so artful in the way it reveals the striking landscape.
Another trail well worth taking leads to a gorgeous long beach and picnic area just northeast of Miners Castle. (It's also possible to drive down to Miners Beach.)
Historical note: Miners Castle was in U.P. TV news ad nauseum in 2007 and 2008, covering the trail of a man from Lake City convicted of pushing his wife over the cliff to her death. It took effort — it's not easy to fall off if normal precautions are read and observed.
Farther inland is Miners Falls. It's off Miners Castle Road and accessible from the road and parking area via a steep half-mile trail and stairway (64 steps). There is no trail along the Miners River. At the falls, water drops some 40 feet, with spray bouncing off the rock shelf, and forms interesting shapes in the stone at its base. Towards the end of the trail to it is a panoramic view of Lake Superior in the distance.
The small Miners Castle Visitor Center by the parking area has restrooms, a little shop, and a summer staff person who can provide information about the National Lakeshore and Hiawatha National Forest. Hours depend on funding. Wheelchair accessible. Take H-58 east from Munising. In about 7 miles, turn north on Miners Castle Rd. for 6 miles to Miners Castle. Wheelchair-accessible: overlook platform and trail to Miners Castle, also visitor center.
The 45-mile NORTH COUNTRY TRAIL within the National Lakeshore (previously known as the Lakeshore Trail) is the only route that follows the shoreline. It connects major sights, with side spurs to campgrounds. It's essential to plan and know your hiking capacity; five to eight miles is a lot all but the fittest hikers. No bicycles or dogs are allowed on trail except for Miners Castle.
Several designated backcountry campsites are along the way. For these campsites it's advisable to get an advance reservation permit, available by mail or fax only from the Munising Visitor Center, Box 40, Munising, MI 49862. Fax (906) 387-4457. Reservations are taken starting January 15. They must be made by at least two weeks before the trip. Group campsites are busiest. Individual sites fill up on summer holidays. Reserve at least a couple of months ahead.
Trailheads are at Sand Point or Munising Falls at the Munising end, and at the Grand Marais Visitor Center. (It's possible to hike a mile into Grand Marais on the road or beach.) Typical hiking time: three nights and four days.
Anyone planning on hiking this trail should get Olive Anderson's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore: A Guide available at the Visitor Center. Hikers can now hike the completed off-road sections of the North Country Trail from St. Ignace to Marquette —over 200 miles. Visit its extensive web site, www.northcountrytrail.org, and click on "Explore the trail," then "descriptions by state," and finally click on the Upper Peninsula, for Wes Boyd's trail notes, old but still the
best available.
Alger County's ALTRAN SHUTTLE runs Monday, Thursday, and Saturday with a 10 a.m. pickup at Munising Falls and 11:30 a.m. pickup at Grand Marais. The shuttle will drop off hikers at any point along H-58. It's about $20 a person. Call 906-387-4845 in advance if you're planning to use it. You could time your hike so the Altran bus can take you back. You might even ask if the shuttle could drop you off somewhere else. Shuttle service from Munising to Little Beaver Campground requires a 24-hour notice. No bicycles or dogs are allowed on trail except for Miners Castle. Hikers might well consider hiking part of the trail — say, from the Munising trailhead to Sand Point and Miners Castle (about 6 miles) and an additional mile through the woods to Miners Falls, for a 12-to-14 mile round trip.
May, 2008
Here are HIKING TIPS for Pictured Rocks from the National Park Service.
*Always wear sturdy footgear.
* If you plan to be out for an extended time, carry a snack and a water bottle. Save more than half your energy for the return walk.
* Because Lake Superior modifies local weather, dress for cool conditions and carry rain gear.
* If you are hiking in unfamiliar territory, carry a map and compass or GPS and know how to use them.
* Stay away from cliff edges. Rock within the lakeshore is soft, crumbly sandstone and often covered with gravel.
* Tell someone where you are going, perhaps at one of the two Pictured Rocks visitor centers.
CHAPEL FALLS, MOSQUITO FALLS, and SPRAY FALLS. These two waterfalls are on either side of the Grand Portal that's a highlight of the Pictured Rocks. They are reached from the same parking area. Mosquito Falls is the less visited and probably the more charming. "The Mosquito River here slides, then cascades over layers and shelves of black rock, leaving small pools in its wake," write the Penroses in their extremely helpful A Guide to 199 Michigan Waterfalls. "You can wade in the water, and the ledges are a perfect place to sit and soak under the spray." The new, volunteer-built Mosquito Falls Trail makes a 4-mile loop to the three sections of falls, a Lake Superior beach, and back, with several vistas on the way. Follow the general National Lakeshore trail map to see how it all goes together.
The 1 1/3 mile trail to Chapel Falls is so wide, it's almost like a road. The falls are seen from a bluff with a panoramic view down on the falls and forested river canyon. The same trail passes through a good blueberry area and in another 1.8 miles leads to Chapel Rock and a beautiful crescent beach on Lake Superior. It's yet another 1.5 miles via the North Country Trail to delightful, isolated Spray Falls, which makes a dramatic 70-foot drop from the forest directly into Lake Superior.
Some local hiking aficionados mention the WHITE PINE TRAIL area around Beaver Lake as their favorite regular hiking destination. Loons and eagles are sometimes seen along the self-guided nature trail. The 8-unit rustic Little Beaver Campground enables hikers to make this a base camp for hikes in two directions. Inquire at the Visitor Center for details.
AU SABLE POINT LIGHTHOUSE, Hurricane River Campground, Log Slide, GRAND SABLE DUNES, and Sable Falls are all most easily accessible from Grand Marais. Descriptions are in the points of interest after Grand Marais in the "Tahquamenon and Seney, Grand Marais and Whitefish Point" section of this web site.
PLANNING A VISIT TO PICTURED ROCKS NATIONAL
LAKESHORE
Lack of a good road divides the lakeshore into two sections for all practical purposes. One section is best accessed from Grand Marais, the other from Munising. H-58 from Munising to Grand Marais is paved only from Munising to Little Beaver Lake. Most of the road skirts south of the park border. For now, you need to carefully plan visits to the national lakeshore to minimize driving --- or simply camp near the center, at a Pictured Rocks or state forest campground.
Scope out what interests you and plan to stay or camp at the end that suits you best. The isolated Grand Marais area is detailed in the "Tahquamenon & Seney, Grand Marais & Whitefish Point" region of this web site. A good many naturalist-writer-artist-academic types prefer Grand Marais' less developed, less conventionally touristy personality. Munising, however, offers easy access to the pretty Au Train area with its accessible Lake Superior beaches, the Big Island Lake Wilderness Area, and Marquette, just an hour west on scenic M-28.
Plan your visit with the knowledgeable free help of the Hiawatha National Forest/ Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Visitor Information Center in Munising (906-387-3700). Check there for the schedule of free
interpretive programs held from late June through Labor Day. Frequent topics include bears, predators, shipwreck, and Lake Superior, also research about water quality.
Bring a jacket and sweater or fleece; it's cool along the lakeshore. Locals dress in layers even in summer. And be flexible about bugs. Generally Upper Peninsula lakeshores are bug-free by July 4, and breezy. But if it's been humid and the wind is out of the south, stable flies that normally remain inland can be blown onto the beach. This happens in July and August. If stable flies are out, it may be a good idea to visit museums or shop, and stay in town.
Note: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore has gradually become less dog-friendly. Dogs are not allowed on trails except for the trails to Miner's Castle and Miner's Beach. They can be walked on beaches in front of the drive-in campgrounds. Dog-friendly options are Grand Island and almost everywhere in the Hiawatha National Forest. The North Country Trail and state forest campgrounds east of Grand Marais would be another good option.
— May, 2008
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