Michigan, Part 9 - Munising, Part 1 (Pictured Rocks Cruise) [240616b]

This blog post continues the story of our (very full) first day in the Pictured Rocks National Seashore area.

(Editor's note:  don't forget to check out Special Edition 1 - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like... [241116-21] and our latest trailer Trailer 10 - Shenandoah National Park [241028-1102], if you haven't already!)

-----

Leaving the Au Sable Light Station in the late afternoon, we drove another hour south-west to the City of Munising Tourist Park Campground, where we'd be staying for the next two nights.  Although the name says "Campground", it basically is a large RV park with just a few tent sites.  We found our site so we'd know how to get back to it later (in the dark), and then headed out again.

-----

"Whitefish" was on our list of regional cuisine to try while in Michigan, and a Google search revealed that a semi-permanent food truck named "The Fish Basket" in Munising supposedly has some of the best.  We located it, and placed an order a for a fried and a broiled whitefish meal (with fries and coleslaw). 

To be honest, we weren't that impressed and aren't quite sure what all the hype is about.  The cornmeal breaded and fried fish sounded like it'd be really good, but ended up being kind of dry - possibly because it was nuggets and not a fillet, and probably because they were cooked too long.  The broiled fillet was much moister, but lacked any flavor beyond the lemon pepper sprinkled on top.  The fries were nothing special, and the coleslaw was laughably small.

-----

After dinner, we headed to the dock to catch our sunset Pictured Rocks Cruise.  It turns out that folks showed up to line up to board way before the recommended arrival time.  With the large number of people in front of us in line, we weren't able to secure an edge seat on the top deck like we planned - at least not initially.  The family in front of us ended up spending a lot of time below decks once the cruise started, though, so Tom was able to pop into one of their seats for a large part of the cruise.

With the recent rains and cloudy day earlier we were a little concerned about the weather for our cruise, but it actually ended up being "not too bad".

The first point of interest on the cruise was the East Channel Lighthouse on Grand Island.  Constructed of wood, it was put into service in 1868 to guide boats from Lake Superior through the channel east of Grand Island into the Munising Harbor.  However, the light was hard to see from Lake Superior so it was replaced by a pair of range lights in 1908.  The lighthouse and the surrounding land are privately owned now, so practically the only way to see it is by boat.

Starting to get to some of the interesting looking cliffs.

Sailing around Miner's Castle, one of the most well-known of the Pictured Rocks landmarks.

Next up was Bridalveil Falls, followed by the Painted Coves.

We cruised by a few areas where the cliff face had sheared off and fallen into the lake.  In the video snippet below, the tour guide mentions that a few of these "cave ins" have been captured on video before and can be found on YouTube.  We found one and it really is quite extraordinary to see (warning: the linked video has some strong/foul language in it).

These are the aptly named Caves of All Colors.  Legend has it that the Native Americans feared the caves, because they believed them to be places of execution.  A 1957 Munising News article claimed "The vermillion coloring was thought to be the blood of victims within the caves. The Indians named the place 'Caves of the Bloody Chiefs.'"

Lovers' Leap, with its heart-shaped arch (you kind of have to tilt your head to the side 😉), is another iconic Pictured Rocks photo spot.

Rainbow Cave.

This pile of rubble isn't on the official list of anything, but to us it looked like some sort of critter.  Dog?  Iguana?  We weren't quite sure.

This rock formation is named "Indian Head", although to us it looked more like some sort of large cat (like a panther or puma).

On a tree high up on one of the cliffs, a bald eagle was looking around.  (Unfortunately, getting a clear photo of a bird in a high tree from a moving boat at sunset is near impossible. 😉)

We were a little too late to see the Grand Portal in all its glory - about a century too late, since it collapsed in the early 1900's.  It reportedly was quite the sight back in the day, though, and large enough to drive boats through.

The rock on the right is Battleship Rock, and is the start of Battleship Row off to the left - a line of cliffs that is thought to resemble a row of parked battleships.

Flower Vase.

Indian Drum.

Chapel Cove doesn't look particularly noteworthy at first.  However, it happens to be large enough to fit a tour boat into, so the cruises pop in and out just for the fun of it.  The video below is at 2.5x speed, to fit below Blogger's 100MB limit.

Chapel Rock was pretty cool, though.  There used to be an archway that connected the rock to the mainland, but it collapsed in the 1940's.  The lone white pine on the rock is estimated to be about 250 years old and still has roots (presumably that used to run along the old arch) back to the mainland.

The last stop on the tour was Spray Falls.

After that, the boat turned around and retraced its path back to Munising.

-----

We got back to camp after dark, and got ready for bed.  Tomorrow would be another day in Munising - but we had a task to take care of in the morning before we could get back to the fun sightseeing...