Pictured Rocks National Seashore

After checking some of the other campgrounds along the the scenic route to Munising, we decided that we probably wouldn’t move today. We discovered that is we want to see the Pictured Rock Cliffs, we could hike down to a couple of beaches and see the cliffs near them or by renting a kayak or we can take a boat tour and see 11 of the 13 miles of cliffs along the shoreline.  

These cliffs are colored by nature on a daily basis.  Most of the rocks are sandstone which is very porous and allows water from the surface to seep through the rock.  As it exits the rocks it has picked up minerals like iron (red and orange), copper (green and blue), calcium (white), manganese (black) and tannic acid (brown).  These minerals stripe the rocks while the wind, waves, cold and heat shape the cliffs. One particular rock formation separated from the land had a lone white pine tree on top of it.  The only way this tree survived was its roots spanned the gap between its home and the shore.  At one time there were rocks to support the roots but now they look like a rope bridge across the span. On the return leg, we passed by a very old wooded light house on Grand Island. It was a beautiful ride on a really magnificently sunny and warm day.

We rushed back to the campground so that we could hike 1.5 miles to catch the last tour of the day at the Au Sable Lighthouse.  Over 45 shipwrecks occurred along this shoreline between Grand Marais and Munising making lighthouses imperative, at least until technology made them obsolete.  Like other lighthouses we have visited, this one was also equipped to rescue floundering seamen after a wreck.  The water is very shallow for up to a mile from shore because of a reef and that is where most of the wrecks occurred.  Because the ship compasses were affected by all the iron ore they carried and the maps were not accurate plus most ships cruised close to the shoreline to keep from getting lost, storms had a way of pushing the ships toward land and grounding then sinking them.  If we had wanted to, we could have looked at some shipwrecks along the shoreline.  Scuba divers love wreck diving along here as the wrecks are generally only 15 - 50 feet deep.