Munising

Moving day

Saturday was moving day again. I was really happy when I pulled in to the state park on Wednesday and there was hardly anybody around, especially since the campsite was a little tight to get into and I had to use part of the site across the road to back in. Well, come Friday afternoon the campground filled up, and when I was leaving on Saturday (probably the only person to leave), I had a nice audience. Things went pretty smoothly, although I did notice a few miles down the road the storage door on my camper was flapping a bit. It was several miles before there was a safe space to pull over on the small, two lane road I was on, so I was pretty nervous about losing my stuff. Fortunately I don’t think anything bounced out. I had locked the door but I guess didn’t slam it shut hard enough. Hopefully won’t make that mistake again.

Other than that, it was a pretty easy 91 mile, one hour and 43 minute drive to Munising, Michigan. I wasn’t even finished setting up when my neighbor asked for help - she had locked her keys in her Winnebago van. Fortunately her rear slide windows were open and she is a small person, she was able to use my ladder to climb through. I was a little nervous that I just helped someone break into a van, but it appears she is the actual owner, so all seems ok there.

Pictured Rocks Cruise

The main draw to Munising, Michigan is the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Since they are literally on the shores of Lake Superior, the best way to see most of the Pictured Rocks are by boat from Lake Superior, so I took the Spray Falls cruise to get a bonus waterfall too. The weather worked with me too, as it has been in the 50s most of the last week, so when it was mid 60s this morning it was almost perfect weather to be out on a boat, at least if you aren’t going to be able to get in the water. The cruise did have a rule that you aren’t supposed to stand up, which overall was probably good for viewing but made it pretty difficult to get pictures since they almost all have a head or arm in them, or in some cases, the mullet of the guy in front of me. I found a benefit of solo travel: I was able to get the last seat on the upper deck, even though there was a pretty good number of people that had boarded before me. Here is the boat:

Miners Castle:

Random waterfall:

Lovers’ Leap:

Caves formed from the water smashing against the rock:

Indian Head:

This is Chapel Rock with a tree that had to grow its roots across a rock arch that used to be there to find more soil. The arch collapsed but the roots still hold on:

Chapel Beach Falls:

Spray Falls, the turnaround spot for the cruise. This one is about 50’ high as well, but after Tahquamenon Falls felt a little underwhelming:

East Channel Lighthouse, first opened in 1868 and just repaired to keep it from crumbling in the last 20 years:

Some other shots of Pictured Rocks:

Munising Falls

After the cruise, I went over to Munising Falls, mostly to see the falls: But also the Visitor Center there had the stamp I needed for my first stamp in my Passport To Your National Parks book: It is amazing to me that this passport program has been around since 1986 and it wasn’t until recently that I had seen or heard about it, even though I’ve been to a fair number of national parks before.