Michigan’s Picturesque Rock Pile is a Boulder Place for a Nature Vacation

Most visitors claim the formation named Chapel Rock resembles a mystical castle or church.

But from my vantage point atop a cliff to the west, it looks malevolent rather than regal or religious, a giant multihued skull with gaping eyeholes that stare relentlessly over Lake Superior. Its horrendous grin gloats over the graveyard of many a Great Lakes vessel.

Nature will have revenge, however. Just as thousands of years of natural forces shaped the sandstone into this formation, the waves and wind continue to nibble and gouge away at Chapel Rock, returning it piece by piece to sand.

This is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, stretching along the northern shore of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula between Grand Marais and Munising.

Officially the first of America’s national lakeshores, this was familiar territory to the Chippewa. French explorers and Jesuit missionaries passed these startling cliffs and sand dunes in search of wealth, territory and souls.

Father Jacques Marquette, the best known of the region’s early priests, reputedly preached to the Indians from Miners Castle, another large formation.

Today’s visitor can feel, as the Indians did, that spirits are present in these stones of many colors.

Terrain Varies Tremendously

Although the distance from end to end is relatively short and the park itself is never more than three miles wide, the terrain varies tremendously. There are sand dunes and beaches, high cliffs and waterfalls, lakes and rivers.

With its pounding surf, white sand, driftwood and gulls pecking for morsels along the beach or soaring above the waves, this could be Cape Cod or the Jersey Shore or Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Unlike these spots, Lake Superior is shiveringly cold even in the heat of the summer, although our children, seemingly immune to water temperature that sends adults scurrying for towels, enjoyed the waves.

The beaches are fertile hunting grounds for brightly colored rocks and pebbles, including agates, smoothed by glacial and water action.

The park’s very remoteness makes it a place where imagination can rule. Also, it’s impossible to see a lot of the spectacular scenery by car from the one country road--partly paved--that gives access to the park.

Only one large formation--Miners Castle--the beach at Grand Sable Lake and a section of glistening Twelvemile Beach are accessible by road.

By Foot or by Boat

That leaves two options: by foot and by boat.

By foot means hiking, either day walks from the trail-head parking lots to the beaches and cliffs, or treks with overnight camping along part or all the 43-mile Lakeshore Trail that hugs the coast. By boat means three-hour cruises from Munising, weather permitting.

The trail, part of the 3,200-mile North Country National Scenic Trail between New York and North Dakota, has its rough spots.

Expect some steep climbs and descents, with roots and stone outcroppings as steps, as well as mud, sand and low-hanging branches. At other points you’ll find wooden boardwalks and log bridges to cross rivers and wetlands.

Leisurely hikes of up to a few miles each begin at various parking areas and end at some of the park’s best known attractions, including Grand Sable Dunes, Miner’s Falls and the Log Slide.

At the eastern edge of the park, trails along the dunes--sometimes indistinct in the shifting sands--lead through tough beach grass, goldenrod and small patches of conifers fighting with varying degrees of success for a foothold and survival. From the wind-swept ridges, the view is Lake Superior’s many shades of blue.

For those who opt to backpack, the park offers a series of free backcountry campgrounds, each with three to 15 relatively private sites along the trail. Reservations are allowed, and permits can be picked up from rangers or at the visitor centers.

Spectacular Sunsets

Because these campgrounds are close to the water, sunsets are spectacular when the skies are clear.

There also are three drive-in campgrounds operated by the National Park Service and a fourth run by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. These, however, do not accept reservations, charge a fee and fill quickly during vacation season.

Bring binoculars. Don’t ignore the frequent overlooks along the trail, vantage points for photographs, rest and appreciation of the setting. In August you can forage for ripe wild blueberries, small and sweet, as we did.

Conifers, beech, sugar maples, birch and an occasional mountain ash, its reddish-orange berries adding brightness to the green foliage, grow along the top of the cliffs. The trail brings you close to several gull rookeries, where you can watch the birds dive for fish.

The cliff walls are like natural canvas worked by unknown artists in black, red, orange, white and gray. Minerals leaching from between the layers of sandstone “paint” the “pictures” that give the park its name.

Some resemble the work of modernists, possibly intoxicated, with bright splashes of color, slap-dashedly applied. Other sections look more deliberately designed.

Isolated though it may seem, the human presence is visible on the lake, at least temporarily, much like footprints in the sand before they are erased by the rising tide.

Cliff-Hanger

One evening after supper, perched on a cliff top near our backcountry campsite, we watched a tugboat slowly tow two heavily loaded barges westward.

In the morning, with the water calm, a small brightly colored sailboat cruised along the base of the cliffs, past caves and arches carved into the colored rock by the water.

Hiking, we waved to passengers on the tour boats far below us. They, in turn, snapped photos of us backpackers on the trail high above.

That human presence has not always been so transient. After the French and then the British lost control in the late 18th Century, American settlers began to use and exploit the resources.

This once was timber country, for example, and its white pine helped build the cities of the Midwest. Evidence is still visible at spots such as Kingston Lake, a state forest campground in the national lakeshore’s inland buffer zone.

Even now, a hike along the Fox River Trail, which leads south from the campground to the Seney National Wildlife Refuge 27 1/2 miles away, reveals slowly rotting stumps, lasting legacies of the lumbering era.

At the Log Slide inside the park, lumberers shoved logs down a 500-foot wooden chute into Lake Superior for towing to the sawmills. Sand was used to put out the flames when the heat of the friction set the slide ablaze. The slide itself is long gone.

Exploitation also came in the form of charcoal kilns and blast furnaces, fueled by the area’ abundant forests to refine the iron ore mined in the western Upper Peninsula.

Boom and Decline

Artifacts and exhibits about the boom and decline of those endeavors are displayed at the park’s Munising Falls Visitor Center, while the forest, in its own quiet but relentless way, has reclaimed the physical ruins of blast furnace operations.

For a different view of Pictured Rocks, we boarded a double-decker tour boat at the Munising city pier, where Capt. Doug Morrison promptly launched into a narrative about differential erosion and shipwrecks.

We cruised past heavily wooded Grand Island, once home to Indian villages, fur trading posts and a summer resort, but now without any year-round residents. A post-Civil War copper-topped wooden lighthouse with boarded-up windows still stands on the island’s shore.

Miners Castle is the first major landmark we spot within the park. From here, it’s obvious how a zealous Father Marquette would have chosen it as a natural pulpit far more impressive than that inside any cathedral.

Offshore from the park lies the state’s Alger Underwater Preserve, a popular spot for divers who enjoy exploring sunken wrecks, rock formations and caves.

A number of local charter and dive companies offer equipment rentals and tours. Mapped dive sites include the resting places of 19th-Century vessels such as the steam barge Smith Moore and the side-wheel steamer Superior. Among the 20th-Century wrecks are the freighter Manhattan and the steamer Kiowa.

Hugging the shore, our boat presented a prime view of water-level caves, enlarged regularly by frost, the undercutting action of powerful waves and early spring cave-ins.

The boat inched forward into a narrow “painted” cove, then backed out carefully. We passed sandy beaches where the Mosquito and Miners rivers empty into chill Superior, then rounded Grand Portal Point.

There, just ahead, loomed Chapel Rock. To me, far below at water level, it remained a giant skull vigilantly guarding its realm. I don’t argue with those passengers who called it a castle or a church, for we all are entitled to our own myths at Pictured Rocks.

-- -- --

The closest airports to the park are at Sault Ste. Marie to the east and Marquette to the west. Rental cars are available. The park is open year-round. There is no park entrance fee. Commercial boat tours run from early June to mid-October.

Public campgrounds with a limited number of sites are located in the park. None of the sites have electric or water hook-ups. Most motels in Munising and Grand Marais are small (under 20 units) and independently owned, with double rates of about $30. Munising has a Best Western that is larger and about twice as expensive. For reservations call (906) 387-4864.

For more information, contact Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Box 40, Munising, Mich. 49862, phone (906) 387-2607; Grand Marais Chamber of Commerce, Box 131, Grand Marais, Mich. 49839; Alger County Chamber of Commerce, Box 405, Munising, Mich. 49862, phone (906) 494-2766, and Pictured Rocks Cruises, Box 355, Munising, Mich. 49862, phone (906) 387-2379.