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.

Munising in Alger County, Michigan - Sun., Oct. 5, Part 1

This morning in Marquette Bob started running about 6:30 a.m. to get in 12 miles. He was back in the 5th wheel in a relatively short time for such a long distance. He said he could only make it six miles.

The temperature was about 36 degrees outside with a 10-15 mph wind. His run was along the shore of Lake Superior so he was exposed to the elements. It wasn't raining, but you can imagine what the wind chill might be. I'm pretty sure he had hypothermia when he came in. When he got back he was shivering uncontrollably. He climbed in under the covers to warm up and then took a nice hot shower. After that he was okay.

Around noon, we checked out of Marquette Tourist Park for our "long" 43-mile drive to Munising. We arrived about 2:30 p.m. We decided to spend two nights so we could see waterfalls and take the Pictured Rocks Scenic Cruise along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. A full hook-up (E-W-S) site runs $37/night at this rather rustic RV park. But we are overlooking Lake Superior.

The cats made themselves right at home.

For over an hour, we checked the weather reports and tried to decide if we should go on the scenic cruise today or tomorrow. Since we're go for it kind of people, we thought, "Let's just go."

At the Pictured Rocks Cruises ticket window our decision was made for us. The agents selling tickets said all the cruises for today turned back about halfway out because of the 5-7' swells. It was not a good day to go out, but we could if we were only here for one day. Um, no thanks. We would be here another day.

Lighthouse bench outside Pictured
Rocks Cruises office

Monday's weather looked perfect. So, we bought two tickets for the 2 p.m. Spray Falls Cruise on Monday. That was at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Four hours of daylight left. Time to start waterfall chasing.

We drove 14 miles or so southwest from Munising. The first set of falls we found were Upper and Lower Au Train Falls. Pretty, but not the best we've ever seen.

Lower Au Train Falls

Upper Au Train Falls (notice big pipeline?)

Heading farther west toward the town of Rumley, we eventually came to the turn off for Laughing Whitefish Falls. Another scenic drive down a fall-color-lined country road ensued.

Yet another autumnal scene

How do you like this drinking fountain?

You can tell it's fall here! Bob fits right in.

At the top of Laughing Whitefish Falls

Wait!! There's more. But you have to go way down to see the whole thing.

Down and down

Then more down

At the bottom, you can see the whole of Laughing Whitefish Falls. How did it get its name, you might ask? Well, the Native American Indians liked to name geographic features after animals. At the mouth of the river where it enters Lake Superior is a rock that looks like a laughing whitefish; hence, the name of the falls.

Laughing Whitefish Falls

We loved this waterfall. And, no, there isn't snow in the photo. The white at the bottom of the photo is foam. Foam and the brown color in the water are from tannins leaching into the water from the northern hardwoods, such as hemlock.

Waterfalls for today...check, we're good.

Now I just want to go back to that weird place we passed on our way from Marquette to Munising. I was looking at maps or filing my nails in the car when Bob said, "Look up!" I swiveled my head back just in time to see this...

What on earth???

To be continued in Part 2...