Hey friends!
Marc Guido here with Grand Adventure, and
in this episode we are here in the UP of
Michigan
to visit Pictured Rocks National
Lakeshore,
so come along!
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
follows 42 miles of the Lake Superior
shoreline
in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,
stretching from Munising to Grand Marais
and encompassing picturesque rock
formations,
waterfalls, and sand dunes. The North
Country National Scenic Trail extends
the length of the lakeshore,
providing beautiful views along the
trail for both backpackers and day
hikers.
Pictured Rocks derives its name from the
15 miles of colorful sandstone cliffs
immediately northeast of Munising,
near the western end of the Lakeshore
that we'll visit momentarily.
We're going to travel through the
National Lakeshore from west to east,
beginning at Sand Point on the outskirts
of Munising.
Pictured Rocks has some of the most
beautiful pristine beaches found
anywhere on Lake Superior. Sheltered
along Munising Bay,
Sand Point Beach offers shallow water,
less waves,
and usually slightly warmer water than
other park beaches.
The U.S. Congress designated Pictured
Rocks the first National Lakeshore in
the United States in 1966.
Governed by the National Park Service, a
variety of recreational opportunities
await visitors year-round
including hiking, backcountry camping,
kayaking, boating, swimming,
scuba diving and fishing, and winter
activities
including snowmobiling, ice climbing, and
cross-country skiing.
The cliffs of pictured rocks reach up to
200 feet above lake level,
and have been naturally sculpted into a
variety of shallow caves,
arches, and formations resembling castle
turrets,
like here at Miner's Castle where the
inner turret collapsed into Lake
Superior in 2006.
Miner's Castle is one of the most famous
landmarks along the Pictured Rocks
shoreline,
and is the only cliff area in the park
accessible by vehicle.
Adjacent to Miners Castle lies the
nearly mile-long Miners Beach,
a beautiful stretch of coastline where a
group of visiting kayakers is receiving
safety instruction from several
commercial guides.
Pets are allowed on leash at Miner's
Beach.
Within the National Lakeshore, roads come
close to the Lake Superior shoreline
only near Miners Castle, 12 Mile Beach,
and the Grand Sable Dunes.
Other areas require a boat or a healthy
hike,
as we're going to do today from the
trailhead at the end of the dirt Chapel
Road.
The National Lakeshore's Chapel area was
named by early European explorers,
and is found on early maps as "La
Chapelle".
The trail leads us along an abandoned
road bed through a thick, lush green
forest as we travel north towards the
shoreline of Lake Superior.
Near the halfway point our trail to the
lake passes
Chapel Falls, as water cascades some 60
feet down the sandstone cliffs
on its way to Chapel Lake.
Now that we've left Chapel Falls behind,
we've left the old road bed behind as
well.
We're now hiking along a narrow trail
for the rest of the way to the lake.
Pets are prohibited on the trails in
this area of the National Lakeshore,
so we had to leave Zoe behind, but pets
are permitted on trails in
other sections of the park -- a sharp
contrast to the strict
"no pets" rules in place in most areas
operated by the National Park Service.
After about 3.5 miles we've reached
Chapel Beach,
a picturesque sand beach containing high
bluffs, the mouth of the Chapel River,
and the famous Chapel Rock. There was
once an archway connecting the rock to
the mainland, but it collapsed in the
1940s.
It's been a pleasant visit to Chapel
Beach, but we have lots more to see,
so it's time to head back to the
trailhead and continue eastward through
the rest of the National Lakeshore.
The Grand Sable Dunes at the eastern end
of the Lakeshore
were formed when sand, washed ashore by
wave action,
was blown upslope by the prevailing
northerly winds until it came to rest
atop a glacial moraine.
They form a five-mile long sand slope
that rises from Lake Superior at a 35-
degree angle.
The summits of the tallest dunes are as
high as 275 feet above lake level.
In the late 19th Century, loggers in this
area built here
a wooden log slide from the top of the
dunes to Lake Superior below,
to facilitate the transportation of
timber from the area.
Legend has it that logs sent down the
tall dunes on a dry
log chute would generate enough friction
to cause the chute to catch fire!
For our brief visit to this part of the
UP we're staying at the Country Village
RV Park in Ishpeming,
which is home to numerous cabins and
large full-hookup RV sites and tent
campsites.
Full-hookup campsites cost $49 per night,
while tent campers pay $35 and
cabin rentals cost
$75 per night.
There's a large swimming pool and hot
tub available for soaking after a long
day of hiking.
Our RV park is located in Ishpeming at
the heart of the UP's iron mining country.
This part of the UP has been on a
decline since mining peaked here in the
1950s and 60s.
Thanks to an influx of Norwegian
immigrants in the 19th Century,
Ishpeming is considered the birthplace
of organized skiing in the United States,
thanks to the Norden Ski Club formed
here in the 1880s.
They've been jumping here continuously
ever since.
The National Ski Association, the
forerunner of the present-day US Ski
and Snowboard Association,
was founded in Ishpeming in 1905.
Ishpeming is therefore home to the US
National Ski Hall of Fame and Museum.
Just our luck, though, the museum is only
open limited days during the COVID-19
pandemic,
and those days of the week don't
coincide with our visit to Ishpeming.
So we really hope that you've enjoyed
coming along with us on our
#AmericanHeartlandTour2020 to 
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore!
We will definitely return to this area
as there's much more to see and do,
especially when the National Ski &
Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum here
in Ishpeming
is actually open. So if you're not yet a
Grand Adventurer, this is the perfect
time
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Coming up next week we're going to take
our #AmericanHeartlandTour2020
further west here on the UP,
so until next week please remember ... life
is nothing but a Grand Adventure!
We'll see you then.
