2017.08.23-Munising, MI

2017.08.23-Munising, MI

We arrived to find our friends, Fred and Hilary, already here.  We last saw them in Tampa, FL back in January.  They are good friends from our Alaska trip who reside in Florida and FUN people to be with!

After we set up the coach the four of us drove to downtown to have a late lunch.  Afterwards we drove around to scope out the area.  This is a nice small town right the shore of Lake Superior.  We found two or three small waterfalls just driving around.  We ended up at the Pictured Rocks Cruise desk to see what was available the next few days.  Turns out they were expecting high winds on Tuesday and Wednesday, but had openings for that nights 6:30 trip, called the Sunset Cruise.  We signed up and away we went.

The pictured rocks are within a National Seashore and are actually cliff faces around the shoreline of Lake Superior that have been discolored by seeping mineral deposits such as iron and copper.  Some say look like various figures and designs.  Regardless, the patterns are very interesting and very colorful.

Tuesday we headed out in the car to find some of the structures we saw while on the boat.  After talking with a very helpful National Parks Visitor’s Center staff we stopped at Miner’s Falls which was nice and not far away.  It was about a ½ mile walk into the forest and then steps that dropped about 70 feet to a nice viewing platform.  The forest was also interesting the way the sun light made light and dark spaces.  The wind made the leaves sing a lovely, soothing noise.

Notice the roots growing from the right to the left towards the shore

We then drove on to Miner’s Castle overlook.   It was a long way down to the water from the park built platform and very WINDY, two of us almost lost our hats!  The boat cruises for the day were even cancelled due to the high winds.  It was a good thing we took the Monday evening cruise even if clouds covered up the advertised sunset on the lake. That evening we had dinner at Hilary and Fred’s, then played some Rumikube.

Miner's Falls

Wednesday we drove to an overlook of Lake Superior and Munising harbor.  Not much of a drive, but a nice view.  We could still see the wind blown white caps in the bay.  Next we went on a search for the bay’s “range finders,” red lights that boats use to line up their approach for a safe docking. Then onto lunch and more Rumikube.

Sunset on Lake Superior, after a day of high winds