Munising – August 21 & 22, 2015

On Friday, we left inland rural Newberry and traveled to coastal rural Munising, trading the woods for the coast but staying very rural.  In fact, we even had a sighting of Big Foot.

Big Foot

The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and numerous water falls are the big attraction to this area and we have joined many others in making this trip this year.  One of the waitresses we spoke to said there is a 30% increase in tourism this summer and none of the restaurants were ready for it.  They are all short on food supplies and wait staff.  Even our RV park is booked to the point where we could only get water and electric; no sewer available.  We think most of the parks in this area are strictly seasonal and have a higher percentage of pop up and tent campers who don’t need sewer so they don’t go to the expense of putting it in at many sites.

Bright and early on Saturday morning, we left the RV to visit a few of the falls in the immediate area.  The Wagner Falls, and Munising Falls are maintained by the National Park Service with walkways and steps leading to these falls.

Wagner Falls

Munising Falls

We read that the falls are more spectacular in the Spring when the melting snow adds to water volume coming down he rocks, but they were still pretty to see during this time.

Our next stop was at Miner’s Falls and then Miner’s Castle, which is a huge rock on the coast that resembles a castle.  While it doesn’t sound like much, these three locations earned us most of our 10,000 steps for the day (we put pedometer apps on our phones).   It was the last stop that finished us up and took us over the goal to almost 13,000 steps and almost finished me completely.

Miner’s Falls

Miner’s Castle in Painted Rocks National Lakeshore

The adventure didn’t start well when we drove past the entrance three times without seeing it.  There were two narrow staircases hidden by the trees with no parking visible on the same side of the highway.  We found parking on the opposite side and walked across to find the staircase and half way up what looked like a grave stone with a man’s name and his apparent date of birth and death.  This to me is not what you want to see as you begin a walk into the woods.  I walked a little farther and the wooden steps were replaced with an 18 inch wide path over roots and rocks.  Of course, I asked Jim to go ahead and find out what we were getting into.  My hero!  Before long he was calling me to follow him so up I went climbing on rocks and roots carefully placing my feet at every step.

Steep path at times

When we reached the plank bridge over a stream with no railing,

I began to question my faith in Jim’s decision-making ability.  Not too far from there was the falls, by far the most rustic and interesting but also the most difficult to get to.  Here at the falls was another grave stone complete with name and beginning and end dates.  What were they thinking!

Tannery Falls

The trail continued around into a big horse shoe and ended at the second staircase.  On the return leg of the horse shoe, we noticed blue dots on the trees to guide the adventurers to the falls.  Maybe we are not as bright as your average tourist looking for waterfalls, but I might have done this entire stop differently.

With 13,000 steps under our belts, it was time for lunch and more mediocre food before we took off on our Pictured Rocks Cruise.  It looks like the economy of this town is supported primarily by the tourists taking these hourly cruises and things may not have been good for a while.  There were lots of closed businesses and very little traffic except around the dock.

I have to say the cruise was by far the highlight of the day giving us views you could not see any other way than from the water.  Besides, we had earned our 3 hour rest on board the ship.  We chose the 5 pm cruise thinking the sun would be shining on the rock formations and we were right.

Miner’s Castle from the water

Looks like murals on walls

Indian Head

While each view was more spectacular than the last, the most memorable was the rock standing off shore with the tree growing on top with the roots stretching across to the main land and thriving.

Battleship row

Spray Falls

After the cruise we decided a dessert Pastie was in order so we stopped and got two to go.  They would taste good with some hot coffee back at the RV.  The wind was howling but we were warm and secure reflecting on our day and looking forward to tomorrow’s adventure.