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Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

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callen60
callen60
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5 out of 5
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Editor Pick

Only Access to Beautiful Bluffs

  • November 16, 2008
  • Rated 4 of 5 by callen60 from Ozarks, Missouri
Only Access to Beautiful Bluffs

This is probably the most visited site in the National Lakeshore, and with good reason. It’s not far from Munising, and thus in the most easily accessed part of the Lakeshore. Plus, it’s the only site where you can reach the Pictured Rocks by car, and it’s the most famous formation on the bluffs.

I’ve seen postcards of Miners Castle from the 1940’s, done in that odd, iconic Currier-and-Ives-like engraving style. That predates the lakeshore by 30 years, when Miners Castle was contained in a small park, administered by Alger County as the state dithered about establishing its own park in the area. In that time, and until late in the 20th century, visitors could walk out on to the castle itself, looking up the coastline and down the shore. Those days are long gone, and probably rightly so, as the continued action of the lake and winter makes every feature of the Rocks a temporary one.

There’s a large parking lot here, the only place in the Lakeshore where you find an infrastructure intended to accommodate a healthy number of visitors. This was to be the first phase of a larger plan to develop the entire area in a similar fashion. Budget difficulties put that on hold, and then it turned out that lakeshore visitors preferred less infrastructure and unpaved roads.

So the entire Miners complex—Castle, Falls and Beach—remains the only interior pieces of the lakeshore with paved access. The road ends at Miners Castle, just over 10 miles from Munising. There’s a small information center here, restrooms, and a short trail out to the bluffs. The entire area is under trees, and is very pleasant. Two viewing areas give you a vista out at the Castle, one from direcly south of it (where in earlier times you would have headed to climb on the formation and itself), and one to the east, which gives the best view of the Castle and the neighboring bluffs.

Although half of the ‘ramparts’ fell into Lake Superior in 2006, it’s still a pretty place. If you head out here, consider stopping at Miners Falls, which is reached from a turnout about 2 miles south of the Castle parking lot. This is a popular hike, and the lot can hold only a few dozen cars. It’s a nice stroll through the forest straight east to the falls, which can be seen from a small viewing platform at the end. Coming mid-day means you’re more likely to see a lot of friends on the trail, including those who, despite the warnings, climb over the fencing and wander down along the base of the falls itself.

If you’d like your waterfalls with less company, head south back to Highway H-58 and continue east to the small town of Melstrand. If you wish, you can fortify yourself with snacks at the small general store, and then head in five miles to the trailhead to Chapel Falls. This is a nice 3-mile roundtrip hike, and won’t have nearly as many people. There’s a number of other trails in the area, and a couple ways to reach the shoreline with about 5 miles of hiking.

From journal Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Editor Pick

Sand Dunes and Waterfalls: Next-door Neighbors?

  • November 14, 2008
  • Rated 5 of 5 by callen60 from Ozarks, Missouri
Sand Dunes and Waterfalls: Next-door Neighbors?

With the exception of Tahquamenon, nature rarely goes for the grand, Niagara-like gesture in the UP’s 300 waterfalls. 75-foot high Sable Falls are larger than most, and could be heard be softly heard through the quiet woods as I approached during the hike from the parking area. It was a late August afternoon, and I’d checked my family into the Arborgate Motel a mile away in Grand Marais, where the kids were watching satellite TV and my wife was ‘resting her eyes’.

No one wanted to join me for a little more exploring, but I was OK heading off either alone or with company. The parking lot held room for dozens of cars, but only three or four were there. I had this area completely to myself during the 45 minutes I was here. One family passed me returning from the shore, and I passed one group as I ascended back to the parking lot.
At the lot’s west end, the trail led to the top of the falls, and a wooden staircase that descended along Sable Creek’s west bank. This little waterway runs just over a mile from Grand Sable Lake, which collects behind the dunes of the same name. The river spills over sandstone cliffs, in a series of drops, paralleled by over 200 steps (I counted ‘em all) strewn over a series of descents interspersed with viewing platforms and walkways.

The main part of the falls is a staggered series of short falls, lit by mottled sunlight coming through the trees. The river isn’t too wide (perhaps 15 yards across), so the tree canopy covers nearly the entire waterway. Most of the climb down is to reach the initial platform for the main falls, but the wooden pathway continues on down along the river and its modest canyon.

I followed it for a while, but turned back before the river eventually spilled out into Superior. From the parking lot, another trail ran west on to the Great Sable Dunes, and I was anxious to climb over the dune’s back slopes for a vista out over Lake Superior, one with a wider view than what we’d had atop the Log Slide earlier that day, which sits in among the trees.

It was longer than I thought to the edge of the dunes. The first part of the trail crossed Sable Creek and continued through the forest surrounding Sable Falls, ending at a field covered with tall grasses and smaller trees. It was a beautiful afternoon, with bright, bright blue sky overhead, and pretty soon a bright edge of sand emerged to meet the lower edge of that sky.

The trail turned north and ran towards the lake, and I remembered how difficult it can be to hike in sand. I recognized the familiar feeling of making two steps forward to gain one step’s progress. After a few hundred double-counted steps, I could tell I was reaching the end of a modest climb, and the lake gradually separated from the horizon. A few more steps put me at the highest ground in the area (although I clumsily ran forward a few dozen more to see if the view improved significantly).

This was the part of Michigan I’d come to see. If, miraculously, you could toss out the Keweenaw Peninsula, that rocky fin jutting northeast into Superior, I was nearly at the northern edge of the US. Unexpectedly, it was covered in sand, an odd symmetry with the nation’s southernmost point reaches. On a bright summer day, with the deep blue of Superior stretching out in front of me, it brought back all the things I love about my home state and particularly its upper reaches. It was tempting to think about racing down the dune’s face to the Lake, but I knew that would add at least an hour to my expedition, and eventually leave my thighs burning from the difficult climb back to the top. I sat down in the sand for a few minutes, let the grains trickle between my toes and cover my sandals, and wondered why it had taken me three decades to return.

From journal Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

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