Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Our motel, the Sunset Motel on the Bay in Munising, was pretty awesome considering our expectations were pretty low.  The lady that checked us in gave us some tips for where we should hike and which waterfalls to visit today in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  We have to give some credit to Regina and Tommy for a good recommendation there.

While we did wake up on the early side, we eased our way into the day because our bodies were certainly feeling the pain from biking in Mackinac and hiking yesterday at Tahquamenon Falls.  Thus, we took a quick drive downtown Munising for breakfast at the Navigator, which also served as a hotel and radio station apparently.

The day's activity started with shorter hikes in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore out to the Miners Falls and Miners Castle.  Pictured Rocks is a national park just 3 miles wide but stretching 40 miles long from Grand Marais to Munising with sandstone bluffs that rise 200 feet above Lake Superior washed in shades of pink, red, and green from the mineral-rich water from the rocks (Moon Travel Book).  If you want a sneak preview of what's to come, you can check out Kid Rock's video for "Born Free" featured Pictured Rocks here.

At the Miners Falls trailhead, we picked up a self-guided tour pamphlet.  The 1.2 mile round-trip gravel walking path led us through a forest of trees until we came upon a staircase that led us down to view the 50 foot drop of the falls into a sandstone canyon.  Miners Falls  has the greatest volume of water flow of any waterfall in the park.  The water is tea-colored because of tannins - compounds released from roots of wetland plants upstream.  The falls cascade over an inland section of Pictured Rocks cliffs and these cliffs also create the Tahquamenon Falls we saw earlier.

Back on the road, we drove a little farther down to the Miners Castle viewpoint.  Miners Castle, the best-known feature of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, is a turretlike (tower) shape within the sandstone cliffs.  Apparently, in 2006, the northeast turret of Miners Castle collapsed.

We "pressed on" to the main event of the day, which was to hike the Chapel Falls Loop trail.  Unfortunately, for my car, the road leading to this trail was not yet paved.  At this trailhead, we had the option of taking a 6.7 mile loop to the Chapel Basin Area (lake, falls, rock) or a 4.5 mile around Mosquito River/Falls. We opted for the former.  Who wants to hike by Mosquitos?

As our motel gal mentioned, "the trails beginning here lead to one of the most scenic areas of Pictured Rocks.  Beside the glistening white sands of Chapel Beach, you will find picturesque Chapel Rock.  It is one of several wave-eroded sandstone formations in the Chapel area." (from some literature at Pictured Rocks).

Hiking through mostly forests and a few small hills, at 1.3 miles in, we found the Chapel Falls.  The trail continued around the edge of the falls.

The Chapel area was named by early European explorers and is found on early maps as La Chappelle. Chapel Rock is a remnant of Cambrian age sandstone.  The archway between the rock and the mainland collapsed in the 1940's. It and the remaining arch were carved by Lake Nipissing high waters some 3800 years ago.

At about 3.1 miles in the trail, we finally made it to the shoreline where Chapel Rock resided.  It's essentially a large sandstone formation with a lone white point perched on top.  The view looking down is about 20 feet to the Chapel Beach and Lake Superior.  We hiked around the cliffs until we eventually made our way down to the beach.

At the beach, we saw cliffs off to the west where we thought we could hike around for a little while going a little off the trail.  However, it was well worth it as we're about to hit some of the best pictures of the trip, so hopefully you aren't bored yet.

This is Chapel Cove or Chapel Cave and looking back east to Chapel Rock.   It's amazing that a slight change in location, angle, or time of day can cause the water and cliffs to look so much different.  The view looking back east beyond Chapel Rock.  In the far distance, we even spotted Spray Falls, which plunge about 70 feet over the Pictured Rocks cliffs directly into Lake Superior.

More pictures from the hiking...

The emerald waters carved these cones in the sandstone.

We thought this might be Grand Portal Point or Indian Head, but I'm thinking it might not be either.

The above shot was our last stop on our off-trail before we backtracked to complete the Chapel Rock loop. We made it back close to where we started and decided to cut-off to check out the Mosquito Falls while we were out here. .8 miles in, we found the Mosquito Falls, which flow over three drops with the largest being 8 feet.

We didn't spend too much here before completing the 6.7 mile loop plus the 1.6 mile loop to Mosquito Falls plus approximately a 2 mile loop on the Lakeshore Trail (total 10+ miles of hiking) in 4 hours, 16 minutes (stopping several times for photos!).  Our legs were sore and our stomachs were growling!  Thanks to this 50 Hikes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for guiding us!

There was still plenty of daylight left for our adventures, so we decided to knock off some of the many waterfalls in this area before heading on towards Marquette.  First up was one still within Pictured Rocks, Munising Falls. Luckily this trail was only .25 miles. Munising Creek has eroded the Munising Formation sandstone for thousands of years. This horseshoe-shaped valley has been patiently carved by the creek. We were dragging at this point, so we only walked up the stairs to one of the two viewing areas.

Back on H-58, which we took a lot over the last two days, we headed to the "Twin Falls": MNA Memorial Falls and Tannery Falls, part of the Michigan Nature Association (MNA). We basically parked back near our motel and walked over to these secluded falls. We started off on the 10-minute trail out to the MNA Falls. These were kind of wimpy falls. I guess they are seasonal and only really flowing after heavy rains. But there was the ability to walk behind the falls which was unique.  Much more impressive were the Tannery Falls, which used to be privately owned by Rudy M. Olson.  When Mr. Olson passed away, he left the falls to the MNA so they could now be public. These falls are pretty hidden and much more unknown.

Some good timing landed us at the Horseshoe Falls, which seemed as if they were part of somebody's backyard that they are now trying to profit from. There were some nice grounds near the waterfalls including a whole section to learn about the various trees in the region. Since we had to pay an entrance fee of $3.50/person, we tried to milk it.

We managed to pass Alger Falls from the road, and then backtracked through town to find some lighthouses! First, we located Munising Range Lights, which I assumed you would have been able to see from the bay, but these seem to be pretty far inland. Constructed in 1907, this front and rear range lights still operates and assists ships entering the east channel of Munising Bay.

While attempting to find a second lighthouse, we encountered the "Welcome to Christmas" sign, and literally right across the street were the Christmas Range Lights. It was about another hour and half to Marquette. We arrived with enough time to shower up and head off to the Upfront & Company (upon recommendation from Julie) for dinner and to partake in the Bell's Tap Takeover!  It was all Octoberfest and K-Zoo Stout for us!  After, we made it over for a pint at The Vierling Brewery.

That pretty much concludes the hiking portion of our trip...phew!

More photos can be found in my photo album and here's a link to the map we used to guide us throughout the trip.  This is also a great site with guides to the U.P.