Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore [part 2]

Barring the combination farewell present of possible heatstroke and/or getting hit by lightning that Cornell gave us at my graduation, most of my travels have not been strongly adversely affected by the weather. We had a couple marginal days at Acadia, and I have all sorts of transit stories, but overall it’s been awhile since we’ve gotten caught in a full on downpour in the middle of an outdoor activity. The forecast for our U.P. trip wasn’t great, and that combined with a fairly tight schedule and companions who probably didn’t want to trek 10 miles through the woods, led me to pick a few shorter/less involved sights to see at Pictured Rocks.

After hotel breakfast, we set out to our first destination, Miners Falls, a 1.2 mile round trip from a parking lot near the east end of the park. It was damp, misty, and a little drizzly when we set out on the short hike, but overall conditions weren’t too bad. There were a few cars in the lot when we arrived, and more arrived later, but because we were there late in the season, it was pretty quiet. The trail to the falls is more or less flat is it winds through the woods and leads first to an overlook by the top of Miners Falls where you can see the falls but they’re somewhat impeded by trees. There’s a second viewing area further down several flights of stairs with clear sightlines to the falls. Miners Falls is about 50 feet high, so not super tall, but a nice waterfall with a good amount of water falling down it. Including the walk to and from the falls, taking photos of the falls and misty trees, and discovering and observing various slugs, we spent about an hour at Miners Falls before heading further down the road to Miners Castle.

Miners Falls

Slugs, misty trees, and lichen

Miners Castle isn’t a castle building but a rock formation that looks kind of like a castle turret, I guess. There are also two viewing areas for Miners Castle, one off of the parking lot where you look over the lake at the cliffs and the whole rock formation, and one a short walk down some steps where you get to see the turret up close. This was a quick stop, just about half an hour for some photos as the mist rolled in.

Miners Castle

Our last destination in this area of the park was Miners Beach, where you can get some views of the cliffs from the shore. By this time, it had started to rain more heavily, and the mist thickened, but we still spent about forty five minutes wandering up and down the beach enjoying the wet sand and lake.

Miners Beach

Also Miners Beach

Before leaving Pictured Rocks to head further west, we stopped for lunch sandwiches (that I made at the hotel before checking out) in the Munising Falls parking lot. We then made the short walk, all paved, to Munising Falls. The 50-foot falls are located in a sandstone cliff U of a canyon. The rain had let up a bit by this point so we were a little less wet as we explored the area around the falls.

Munising Falls

Between the cruise the previous day and our stops on day two, I think we got to experience most of the big attractions at Pictured Rocks. There are plenty of other sights we didn’t get to see across the 42-mile lakeshore but we hit up some of the major locations with our limited time. Entry to the park was free when we went, but with increasing numbers of visitors and their accompanying environmental impact, Pictured Rocks, managed by the National Park Service, is soon to start charging entrance fees.

Our lodgings for the night was the mini cabin at Baraga State Park, and on the way we made a stop at Laughing Whitefish Falls State Park for one last waterfall for the day. Still slightly damp from the morning, we took another short half-mile hike through the trees to the falls. Finally, we finished the drive to Baraga State Park, about an hour east of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, and got settled into their mini cabin. When we booked the cabin, I didn’t realize the park was right off of Route 41, with its accompanying traffic noise, which was the main negative comment people had, but it didn’t end up being too bad with the windows and door closed.

Laughing Whitefish Falls

A couple of my coworkers had never been camping in any form, and it being the middle of October 4 degrees further north from my usual environs, the camper cabin was a better decision than tent camping, which we very briefly considered. But without much equipment and night temperatures starting to drop towards freezing, we would not have had as good of a trip. The cabin was pretty small, maybe 12 feet square, and had some counter space, a microwave, a mini fridge, a queen bed with a twin lofted over it, and a cot. I slept on the cot (in my sleeping bag). After unpacking bedding and food, we prepared a ramen dinner, then settled in for the night.