109 - Helpful Area Information
The Fuzzy Boyak Welcome Center (906-387-2138) at the Alger County Chamber of Commerce is now on M-28 entering downtown, across from Subway, with parking in front and rear. In-season hours Mon-Fri 8:30-4, Sat and Sun 10-6. Call for other hours. Visit the excellent Alger County website for chamber and other information. Knowledgeable staff can help get you to major sites and complicated waterfalls alike. Look for the big visitor map of all attraction. . . . The Pictured Rocks/Hiawatha National Forest Visitor Center (906-387-3700) answers questions and supplies printed information about the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Grand Island, and the area's Hiawatha National Forest land. The Visitor Center is also a nature bookstore with books about the area's natural and human history. It's in Munising on H-58 just east of M-28, where the main highway turns west to follow the lakeshore. Look for the brown signs. From Memorial to Labor Day open daily including Sundays and holidays from 9 to 4:30, probable extended hours. Otherwise open Monday through Saturday from 9 to 4:30, closed holidays.
Websites:
Pictured Rocks
Falling Rock Café (906-387-3008) at 104 E. Munising/M-28 in downtown Munising serves as an informal information and networking hub with evening hours and summer and music and special events.
PUBLIC LAND
Overlooked amid the well-known federal recreation areas in this region, the Michigan state forest system has extensive land, pathways, and eight scenic rustic campgrounds on inland lakes and streams south of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Munising. Get a state forest map at the Pictured Rocks/National Forest Visitor Center or Michigan Welcome Centers, or visit michigandnr.com/
GUIDES & CHARTERS
Guided kayak outings to Pictured Rocks and/or Grand Island, depending on weather, are offered by Northern Waters in Munising (886-GO-PADDLE; northernwaters.com). . . . Short guided hikes are part of the regular free programming at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. . . . Lake Superior fishing charters include Mitch Mattson's Shelter Bay Charters (906-892-8230). On Shelter Bay west of Au Train, Kimar's Charters (906-892-8277; chrtccpt@gmail.com), offers local trips and ones to Stannard Rock.
EVENTS
■ July 4/homecoming happens in a big way in Munising's Bayshore Park, with a parade at noon and children's and other activities all day. It's always on the 4th.
■ The National Park Service and Hiawatha National Forest hold summer evening programs on nature and history at various locations, usually campgrounds. Get a schedule at the Visitor Center or visit their websites (above).
■ Summer evening concerts are Tuesdays at 7 from late June thru late August at Munising's downtown Bayshore Park at the foot of Elm, by the Pictured Rocks Boat Cruise dock.
■ Saturdays at 8 p.m. in summer, 7 in winter, there's a concert at Falling Rock Cafe in downtown Munising. fallingrockcafe.com.
■ At the Trenary Outhouse Classic contestants race their comic outhouse-sleds along a snow-packed run. The last Saturday in February, it provides an excuse to banish cabin fever in a festive, beery crowd.
PICNIC PROVISIONS & PLACES
The place to pick up fruit, deli items, and groceries is Glen's Market, the big 24-hour supermarket on M-28 at the east edge of Munising…..Muldoon's Pasties (387-588) on M-28 by the Shipwreck Tour dock is a popular choice for pasties. . . . . For more gourmet fare, consider calling ahead for takeout from the Brownstone Inn (892-8332)….. In "downtown" Au Train, the Au Train Grocery (892-8142) is known for subs and excellent pasties.
■ The Sand Point picnic area and beach, part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, form a wonderful destination, just 5 miles northeast of Munising on Sand Point Road, off H-58. It's at the entrance to Munising Bay and has an up-close view of Grand Island and its East Channel Lighthouse. The barrier-free Sand Point Marsh Trail crosses a wetland.
■ Right in Munising, Bayshore Park at the foot of Elm Street, across from the Boat Cruise dock, has picnic tables, grills, and a beautiful view.
■ Miners Castle, off H-58 13 miles northeast of Munising, is the premiere Pictured Rocks sight. Picnic tables are scattered around the walk to the castle formation, but the picnic area by the beach is even nicer.
■ In the Hiawatha National Forest, Bay Furnace Picnic Area, off M-28 just west of Christmas, is by a sandy Lake Superior beach with a view of Grand Island and the charcoal iron smelter's ruins.
■ On M-28 near Au Train, the M-DOT Roadside Park (with the royal blue sign) affords beach access and a view of "The Face in the Rock." Scott Falls is across the highway.
■ At Au Train, the Michigan Department of Transportation (see royal blue sign) has a roadside park and picnic area by the low Lake Superior sand dunes off M-28, near where the warm, clear Au Train River empties into Au Train Bay.
■ A DNR picnic area and beach are on the southeastern shore of Au Train Lake, accessed off H-03/Forest Lake Road, the main road through Au Train village. It's next to the Au Train Songbird Trail.
■ Another pretty M-DOT roadside park and picnic area off M-28 is at Deer Lake near Shelter Bay, with warmer swimming. It's about 8 miles west of Au Train and 20 miles west of Munising.
A very large, helpful DETAILED MAP of the Hiawatha National Forest's west unit and east unit (by St. Ignace and Sault Ste. Marie), 36" x 45", is sold for $9 ($10 laminated) at HNF ranger district offices or at nationalforeststore.com. It shows hiking and snowmobile trails, rivers, lakes, canoe and boat launches, points of interest, public and private land, section/township/range lines, and more. The detailed, free motor vehicle use maps in atlas form are at ranger offices.
Cautionary note: As beautiful as the lakeshore route here is, in winter this same stretch is notorious for sudden snow squalls and whiteouts. Many winter motorists favor the longer, safer route from Munising to Marquette via M-94 and U.S. 41, passing through Chatham and surrounding farm country. (Even it can have whiteouts, however.
Long before the basins of the Great Lakes themselves had been dug by the lobes of that glacier.) By looking up "Glacial Lake Algonquian" on Wikipedia, you will see the lake—it was today's Lake Michigan merging into Lake Huron— in front of the retreating glacier at about 9,000 years ago. (Maps are from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.) Return to 109
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