Pictured Rocks National Shore Line and Water falls

Our day 2 at Upper Peninsula started at around 10AM on Sunday-05/27/2017. We had the pictured rocks cruise planned for the afternoon and few sightseeing for the morning. Pictured rocks national shore is a magical place. The painted rocks will make you wonder at how diverse our beautiful world is. It is a must see-never to be missed-place in Michigan. I don’t know what took us this long to visit this magical place. I already am in love with Michigan, and after exploring the pictured rocks, the beauty of it made me emotional and made me feel so proud to be a Michigan resident!

Our first destination was Miners castle. It is one of the most photographed points of Pictured rocks National shore. It is a beautiful rock formation beside the very blue lake Superior.  There are two viewing decks for miners castle. The upper deck is very close to the parking lot, and provide beautiful views. The Miners castle had two towers earlier, and one of them fell into the lake because of erosion.

From the upper deck there is a trail leading to the lower deck. The trail has stairs and mostly a steep one. As you guessed already going down is really easy 😃 The lower deck is almost on top of the castle. You see the remaining tower of the castle so near along with beautiful views of the lake.

From miners castle we drove to Miners falls trailhead. It is a very short hike through the forest of 1.2 miles round trip. It is a wide and beautiful walk through the woods. Since it was summer the whole area was filled with wild flowers which made it look like a movie scene. Like a trail to paradise. Did I already say it was beautiful? It was gorgeous!

After a very short hike you will reach the Miners falls. This also has two viewing decks, one from the top and one at the bottom. The stairs leading to the lower deck is a little steep.

But you get a beautiful view of the waterfall at the bottom. The viewing deck itself is really small, so you cant stay there for long. Once the next group reaches there you have to move, there is not enough space.

It started to rain while we were returning from the waterfall. It was a short hike, so it was fun walking in the rain enjoying the wild flowers all through the trail. The wild flowers made the trail unexplainably beautiful.

From miners falls we drove to Munising falls. It is 800ft walk from the parking lot. The trail was nice and wide. The view of the water falling through the carved rocks was a treat to the eyes. It is not a huge waterfall, instead a pretty one. I think this is my favorite waterfall I have seen so far in UP.

This waterfall has three viewing decks. One just in front of it and two on both sides of the fall. The one just in front of it is the best one in my opinion, completely unobstructed views. The one towards the right also was a great view from the side. The one on the left side was mostly obstructed by trees and was not our favorite. A view from the right viewing area:

After Munising falls we had our lunch and got ready for the cruise. While getting the tickets confirmed inside the pictured rocks cruises-store we saw breath taking photos of painted rocks on their walls. It made me even more excited to go see them in person.

Our 2 hour cruise started at 2 PM. We opted for the spray falls cruise since it traveled an extra mile to the spray falls. The side you sit also matters, because while going to spray falls the cliffs will be on your right side. That’s when they have commentary. While coming back people on the left will also get views, but that time there wouldn’t be any commentary.

The first point of interest was Grand Island Light house. The lush greens around the lighthouse make it even more prettier.

More beautiful sights along the way:

The next attraction was Miners castle. We have seen Miners castle from the land in the morning, so this made it even more special. Seeing it from the water. We saw the caves at the bottom of the castle, making it even more interesting.

The views of ‘pictured’ rocks are breath taking. Seeing this wonders in person, and thinking about how the creator of all of us, had painted this in such magical ways was unexplainable.  The rocks had all different colors in them, including blue and green! The colors in the cliffs are created by the large amounts of minerals in the rock. As the water evaporates, these minerals leave streaks of color. The colorful sandstone cliffs are 200ft tall and has beautiful arches and caves which makes them unique.

One of my favorite area:

Painted caves:

Some fallen ones:

The next point was Lovers leap. It is an arch shaped rock formation extending into the lake. Legend says a couple proved their love for each other by jumping off this arch!

From lovers leap more painted rocks lead us to Indian head rock formation. The rock resembles the head of a human, with clear jawlines, eyes and nose!

Then we passed Grand portal point and reached Chapel rock. It was really special for us since we had hiked to the chapel rock the day before, and it was amazing to see it from the water. The view from the lake is unbeatable since it shows you the arches and caves on the rock beneath the lonely pine tree.

Chapel rock and chapel beach:

The last vantage point was of spray falls. The site of water fall landing directly in the lake is impressive. This is where our spray fall boat turned around.

Selfie time :D

After such an unforgettable cruise experience we headed out to get UP’s pasties. We tried chicken and apple ones, the apple one was done within few minutes 😊

We left Munising and returned to our hotel in Mackinaw city by around 5PM.  The next day morning we went to the beach and admired the 4 mile Mackinac bridge for some time before returning home.

Until next time, adeos UP!