Of Pictured Rocks and Waterfalls - Mon., Oct. 6, 2014

As predicted, today is a picture-perfect day. Sun, a few well-placed clouds, and two happy people ready to go exploring. We set out to see Miner's Castle and Miner's Falls before we had to be at our Tour Cruise line up area at 1:30 p.m.

A pretty drive northeast from Munising took us to the Miner's Castle trailhead. Miner's Castle is a rock formation on the cliffs of Lake Superior. The views were wonderful today.

Miner's Castle rock formation, Lake Superior

Fall colors against Lake Superior blue

I've talked in my Texas blogs about the escarpment that runs for miles across the Texas hill country. Now we are at the Pictured Rocks Escarpment, cliffs that run for miles and miles across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and form part of the storied cliffs of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore holds 15 miles of 50-200' sandstone cliffs that rise directly from Lake Superior.

Map showing Pictured Rocks Escarpment

Miner's Castle

Us enjoying our hike

Trail to Miner's Falls

Miner's Fall from top lookout

Miner's Falls from the lookout across from it.

Looking up on our hike back to the car we see this!

Time to grab a bite to eat before our 2 p.m. Pictured Rocks Cruise. The cruise lasts just about three hours so we had pasties at Muldoons in Munising. Fast food meal deal: pasty of your choice with coleslaw, gravy and a drink for $8.95 each.

Then we were off to line up for our spot on the Grand Marais (our boat). Actually, two boats went out for the 2 p.m. cruise. Looks like a lot of people didn't want to go out on 5-7' swells yesterday and opted to go today instead. Sounds familiar, right?

Off we go to cruise...

Where we start in Munising

We will be on the Grand Marais, large boat, back right.

Notice the change in water color in the photo below? The lighter-colored water is a sand bar, about 3' deep. When you come to the edge of the sandbar - the darker water - it is about a 65' drop-off straight down!

Sand bar near shore here.

Jasper Falls, seasonal. Had rain, now there's a waterfall.

Miner's Castle on the right,  from the water

The colors in the rocks are made when certain minerals
leach out of the rock. Black is from manganese,
red and/or orange = iron, white is from calcium,
blue or green is from copper.

Lake Superior

Mineral seepage creates works of art

This one looks like a painting.

One of the arches - Lover's Leap (but don't leap the
water is only two feet deep under the arch!)

Indian Head Point

Spray Falls

Spray Falls from a different angle

Brave Lake Superior kayaker

Lighthouse built in a schoolhouse style

Spectacular day!

But we're not finished yet. We have three more waterfalls to see, all within about a four-mile drive: Munising, Alger and Wagner Falls.

800' walk to Munising Falls

Me at Munising Falls

Next we drive two miles or so to Wagner Falls and hike about 1/4 mile. Easy.

Wagner Falls close up

Bob at Wagner Falls

Beautiful Wagner Falls

Interesting how little this waterfall has changed over the years.

Alger Falls is a roadside stop on the way back to town. No hike involved.

Only part of the falls was in sun, so
Bob captured what he could.

Munising Tourist Campground is right on the shore of Lake Superior. We had a pull-through site with full hook-ups. Thought you might like to see the park campground.

Back-in sites overlooking the lake (our view from pull-through)

FHU pull-through sites

Our pull-through site - #81

Back in site with lake access - gorgeous.

Our view of beautiful pines and the lake.

Tonight our cats went berserk, ramming all over the house, climbing the walls, doing headstands, you name it. I only captured a couple of their antics.

Bowie was not sleeping...just winding up

Sunnie on top of the fridge, Bowie on couch

Headstand on the couch.

Have a great week.

Travel Bug out.