Traveling with the Stampers: Pictured Rocks Cruise

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Pictured Rocks Cruise

We woke up to a beautiful day so we decided to drive to Munising, MI to take the Pictured Rocks boat tour. The drive up was beautiful and we saw evidence that the colors are really beginning to come out.

We got on a tour boat for the 2:00 sailing. You could see the colors peaking through on Grand Island across the bay.

The first part of the trip takes you out of the bay and into Lake Superior. This is the Miner’s Castle.

In this view you can see the observation deck on the back portion of the formation. There were people who had climbed up there.

We finally arrived at the Pictured Rocks. The “pictures” on the limestone cliffs were formed by water seeping through the rocks and the various ores scattered throughout. This one reminds me of an angel or a dragonfly—two of my favorite things.

There was an area with several hoodoos.

Here is a large area with several different colors.

This area is more browns and tans.

I see Indians in this mural.

The white, brown, and black streaks can lead the imagination to picture all kinds of things.

This is the pass-through at Lover’s Leap

I have no idea what made the horizontal stripes on this cliff at the base of Lover’s Leap.

This is a better view of the leaping platform.

Unsure of the name of this formation.

This is Indian Head.

This is called the Grand Portal. There was a collapse of some rocks in the past few years so you can no longer drive a small boat through it.

This is the backside of Grand Portal.

This was one of the many beautiful beaches that we went past. There were people who had hiked in on all of them.

This is Chapel Rock. Note the tall tree that is growing on top of the rock.

More beautiful cliffs.

The 2:00 tour goes to Spray Falls as a bonus. There were heavy rains recently so the falls were beautiful.

When you are on Lake Superior you can look towards Canada and see nothing but water.

On the return trip we got closer to the cliffs.

As we got back toward the dock we came close to the East Channel Lighthouse that was built in 1874. It has been adopted by the residents of the area and has undergone some restoration.