Out of Our Rut: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

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Pictured Rocks is a big park that stretches from the town of Munising to the west and Grand Marias to the east. It covers over 40 miles of the Lake Superior shore which is way too big to see it all in a day so we decided to break it into two days. In hindsight, we should have allotted 3 days to see things better.

Our first stop on the east side of the park was the Grand Sable visitor center. We did a hike out from there to Sable Falls. It was neat to be hiking on the NCT or North Country Trail. We have done a fair amount of that trail in the Pennsylvania and New York areas and have done some sections in Ohio as well. But given the trail is 4600 miles long, and goes through 7 states, we still have most of it to experience.

Sable Falls were not all that impressive. Not sure if it is because of the extreme dry weather the area is experiencing or we have just seen a lot of other falls in our travels. However, the dunes along the shore at Grand Sable were quite impressive but off limits to people.

Grand Sable Dunes

Then we drove over a few miles west to an area know as the Log Slide Overlook. Named because the steep sand dunes down to Lake Superior worked as a means to get trees cut in nearby forests down to the water to be rafted to sawmills in Munising in years gone by.

One of the features of this area is that people are allowed to actually walk down (and back up) the dune. The sign at the entrance does warn about what to expect. It is about 500 foot walk from the top of the dune to the beach level. Not bad, until they point out that it is a 300 foot vertical drop in that distance!

I managed to get the nerve to get a close perch up top to take some pictures, while Chris opted to stay well back from the edge. We saw several people walking down. Even though it is obviously steep, the sand is so soft and deep, that it looked fairly easy to walk down - it's not like they were tumbling uncontrollably. But part way down the dune, all the people disappeared from my view, so it's tough to say what the bottom two thirds was like. I only saw two people come back up while I was standing there. They both looked very tired, hot and thirsty as they made it to the top. I suppose its just as well we didn't try it.

One Couple Starting the Downward Trek

A Couple Guys Trudging Back Up

The Water Had a Shimmering Appearance Today

Dunes Stretching to the Horizon

After lunch, we headed to Hurricane River for the 1.5 mile hike to Au Sable Light Station. The hike was pleasant enough except for some pesky flies again. Since there were many other people doing the walk, the files probably were better fed, so they weren't unbearable. The light house was pretty but nobody there to give any tours at the time of day we stopped.

Along the Hike to the Light Station

Au Sable Light Station

By the time we got back to the car, we decided to head into Grand Marias and check out the town. There is a nice little harbor there and a long break wall out to another small light house. And just like we have seen in many places during this trip, there are plenty of kids jumping off the pier into the water.