Pictured Rocks National Seashore

Pictured Rocks National Seashore

Yesterday I hiked part of the Pictured Rocks National Seashore, doing a 10.5 mile loop that allowed me to see Chapel Falls, Chapel Rock, Chapel Beach, Grand Portal Point, and took me right along the Pictured Rocks for about four miles. Seeing the Pictured Rocks up close was amazing, most of the pictures don’t do justice to how high up I was on the cliffs and how close the trail went to the edge. This was too far of a hike for me at this point though, I was gassed the last two miles and really wished I had broken up all the sights into two days instead. The road in and out of the trailhead was pretty interesting, the last few miles were mostly dirt with some pot holes and ruts that were a solid foot deep.

The trail was in mostly good condition, but there were some spots were slightly muddy: And some spots that were swampy:

I probably need to learn to just trust my boots will keep the water out, but it was a lot of extra work to follow some of the detours around or do the balance beam routines on the logs that had been laid down through the swampy areas, but it would also have been a lot of work to trudge through the mud.

Chapel Falls:

Chapel Rock: One of the signs had an old picture of what it looked like before the arch collapsed, that allowed the tree on Chapel Rock to grow its roots for additional nutrients:

Some other random pictures:

This was cool how clear the water was from ~200 feet up:

I was exhausted, but hiking this loop was a really great way to see the Pictured Rocks!

I was treated to a nice sunset at the campground last night too:

Miners Castle

Today is a pretty light day, I went to Miners Castle this morning, which was a short and easy .4 mile walk on a paved path to the various overlooks:

I did my first trip to the laundromat today too. It was pretty nice to have all my laundry done in an hour, but I definitely underestimated the cost of laundry. $12.75 every couple of weeks makes me very thankful for my washer and dryer at home.