The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore stretches in a colorful line for about 40 miles along Lake Superior's shore between Munising and Grand Marais in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
There is plenty to see and do in the National Lakeshore area, and one of the best ways to prepare to make the most of your time there is to drop by the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Hiawatha National Forest Visitors Center in Munising at the intersection of M-28 and H-58. We picked up brochures at the center, as well as visited the gift shop there for a couple of souvenirs.
The Visitors Center is open year-round and, unlike some of the smaller visitors centers throughout the park that are only open seasonally or subject to closures due to Federal budget cuts. We experienced some problems with closures when we visited the park in early June of last year, and I couldn't link to a lot of the great information available for those considering or planning trips to the park last fall because the government shut down the Web site for a few weeks in a budget fight stalemate among government officials.
The good news this year is that the National Park Service Web sites are back up and it's possible to access some great information about the park if you want to a plan trip before you get there.
Check out the Plan Your Visit section at the park's Web site for links to lots of useful information like park maps, lakeshore accessibility, camping fees and rules, hiking path suggestions for novice and more experienced hikers, family activities, maritime and logging history in the area, details about individual attractions, and much more.
Authorized as America's first national lakeshore in 1966, the stretch of Lake Superior shoreline and the surrounding 73,000 acres of protected land offers a great place to visit for outdoor recreation, adventure, learning about the history and culture of Michigan's wilderness areas and finding a bit of peaceful solitude away from your hectic everyday life.
The best known attraction at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore has to be the stunning shoreline with cliffs painted in shades of brown, tan and green by minerals like the iron, manganese, limonite and copper in the water at the park. Rocks and cliffs sculpted by the water and erosion over time excited the imaginations of early explorers and visitors and created a natural gallery along the shoreline best viewed by taking a boat cruise and viewing them from the lake.
The boat cruise was a high point of our most recent visit to Pictured Rocks, but we also have some great memories of a Shipwreck Cruise we took a number of years ago where sailed out from Munising in a glass-bottomed boat to view wrecked ships submerged and preserved in Lake Superior's icy waters.
The park offers plenty of opportunity for hiking, camping, photography, picnicking along the beach, hunting, fishing, cross-country skiing, snow shoeing, snowmobiling and sightseeing year round, drawing nearly 500,000 visitors annually.
There is no entrance fee or charges for day use at Pictured Rocks, although there are some fees and charges for guided tours and camping in the area.
Lighthouses and waterfalls in, and near, the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore are among my favorite attractions in the area.
We also enjoyed some easy hikes along some of the park's 100+ miles of trails and seeing some of the early summer wildflowers in our most recent rambles there.
I've already posted stories about our most recent visit to the park and plan to continue my running series of stories about the park through this spring and summer.
My stories about the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore area include: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore boat cruise excites the imagination in northern Michigan; Atop Miner's Castle; Easy Hike to Miner's Falls; Visiting Sable Falls; and Driving H-58 (which includes a couple of photos of the much more primitive iteration of this is route from the mid-1990s).
You can also connect with the park at their Facebook page.
Want to learn more about the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and activities in the area? Check out Pictured Rocks: From Land and Sea by Craig Blacklock, Geology and Landscape of Michigan's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Vicinity by William L. Blewett or Hunt's Map Guide to Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Mary and Don Hunt.
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What great tips - and photos! This is truly a special part of Michigan
Posted by: wanderingeducators | April 02, 2014 at 02:40 PM
We traveled through Pictured Rocks last June and were unfortunately not able to see how beautiful it really is. It was covered in a very dense fog covering much of the lakeshore. We will have to make it back through there to do more including maybe a boat tour.
Posted by: Lisa Trudell | April 07, 2014 at 10:58 PM