Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI

We boarded the ‘Miner’s Castle’ around 9:45 and she shoved off right on schedule at 10:00 on her way to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The boat departed from the city dock in Munising, MI for a two and a half hour cruise along the limestone cliffs of the park. The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was the first of the now four National Lakeshores and is co-managed by the US Park Service and the US Forest Service. It covers about forty miles of coastline on Lake Superior and this cruise covered about half of that.

We could not have asked for a better day weather wise. I should have worn a hat and sunscreen since I spent the entire outbound leg squinting and holding a hand up to shade my eyes in order to see what the captain was pointing out. To take pictures we should have been on a later cruise since the sun was backlighting the cliffs. Barbara tried to get shots, but they are probably not going to be as dramatic as they could be if taken later in the day. Barbara is collecting about a thousand photos in her camera and hopefully she will eventually get them into the gallery. There is not much she can do here since she needs a better internet connection. To get this blog entry in I need to take the car to the front of the campground and park outside the office to download the pictures emailed from my iPhone, open Blogspot and a new posting, then cut and paste the text from Word and upload the pictures. I write the blog in advance using Word rather than be online while I think of the astute, yet pithy, dialogue to subject you to.

After the cruise we headed for Muldoon’s and the promised award winning pasties. The manager here at the campground said they received an award for the best pasties on the UP. Perhaps they were the only ones in the competition, or then again, perhaps the judges never had the opportunity to try Joe’s in Rhinelander, WI. No comparison! Joe wins hands down!

Now filled with potatoes, carrots and something purported to be beef we set out to walk some of the areas we saw from the lakeside. You really can’t beat this area for scenic beauty. The water had the clarity and much of the color of the Caribbean. The clean pine scented air is wonderful. We visited Miner’s Castle rock where these pictures were taken as well as Miner’s Falls. More pictures will eventually be forthcoming when Barbara gets a good internet connection and the proverbial round tuit.

Tomorrow we are off to Makinaw City. It should be a short day on the road and we hope to have a site looking out at the famous bridge. We understand it is a pretty sight at night when it is lit up.