Between races in Duluth, Minnesota and Gladstone, Michigan, we stopped in Munising, Michigan to check out one of the nation’s four national lakeshores: Pictured Rocks. The national lakeshore on Lake Superior includes around 15 miles of cliffs, 100 miles of trails, and numerous waterfalls and white sand beaches along its 42 mile length.

We allowed three days to explore and did so on land and in the water. First, we drove the length of the park, from Munising to Grand Marais and stopped at several waterfalls and viewpoints.

One of the coolest stops was the log slide. In the past, loggers would use the sand slide chute to move logs down to Lake Superior where they could be easily floated to saw mills in Grand Marais. Now it’s an adventurous three minutes down and a tough climb back up. We just checked it out from the top.

The best way to really see Pictured Rocks is from the water. You can take a tour boat or kayak up to the cliffs and into the caves. Which one do you think we chose?

There are several kayak companies in Munising and we chose to go with Pictured Rocks Kayaking because they have specially designed boats that allow you to launch the kayak from the boat. This allowed us to see a portion of the lakeshore from the boat and put in exactly where the good stuff starts, meaning every bit of time in the kayak is right where you want to be. 

Our crew was awesome and shared interesting information about the area’s history, the geology, and the mythology of the area. The paddling was easy since it was a calm, clear, warm, perfect day. 

The highlight was probably paddling through the caves and seeing how the cliffs were being formed and eroded right before our eyes. We got a video of this. 

And yes, the cliffs continue to break off and change all the time. This was displayed in one area where large rocks had sheered off the cliffs over the winter and had been moved back against the mainland by ice during a winter storm. We were told to paddle clear of this area to be safe.

Our time at Pictured Rocks was short but definitely a highly recommended stop if you are in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.