Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has been on our list since the beginning and while we drove through it a couple of years ago, we didn’t stop and explore.

The Mitten and UP are connected by the 5-mile Mackinac Bridge and crossing that bridge feels like entering a completely different place. The UP contains ~30% of Michigan’s land, but only ~3% of its population. Nearly empty two lane roads crisscross through endless forests connecting small towns. There are some touristy spots, but it generally feels very uncrowded.

On our drive to the town of Munising, we detoured to visit Tahquamenon Falls State Park. The beautiful river and falls are brown due to all the tannins in the water. It’s also the only state park in the country with an on-site brewery.

Our campsite at Munising Tourist Park was probably the best of our summer. It’s a city park so its reasonably priced and we managed to snag a full hookup waterfront campsite on the shore of Lake Superior.

We were there to see Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which was made even better by the company Michael works for. He recently had his 20 year work anniversary and they had asked me if they could surprise him by gifting one of our summer excursions. I chose a kayaking tour of Pictured Rocks. Then, the best weather day of the week also happened to be his birthday, and I was able to move our tour to that afternoon.

The Pictured Rocks name comes from tall sandstone cliffs that are colorfully stained from iron, copper, and manganese in seeping ground water. The tour company we used, Pictured Rocks Kayaking, is unique because it transports you and the kayaks by boat to the best section of cliffs. The sun hits them in the late afternoon (the kayaking part of the tour was from ~3-6pm) and the lighting was perfect.

Below is a photo of the boat loading up the kayaks when we were finished. We also got to see the East Channel Lighthouse on Grand Island our way back to Munising.

That weekend we hiked along the same section we had kayaked earlier in the week and can confirm that the best views are from the water, preferably on a sunny afternoon! After the hike, we had a pasty, which is a handheld meat pie stuffed with potato, carrot, and rutabaga from Muldoons. Pasties are a UP speciality left over from the days of Cornish miners working in this area.

Next up is the Keweenaw Peninsula and day trip to Isle Royale National Park.