Kayaking Pictured Rocks National Park, Munising

The city of Munising, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is located on the southern shore of Lake Superior on Munising Bay. It has a population of just under 2000 people and is home to Pictured Rocks National Park. 

The Park is world-renowned for its 15 miles of vibrant, multi colored sandstone cliffs that tower 50 to 200 feet directly above the turquoise waters of the lake. The "pictured" effect comes from groundwater seeping through rock cracks and staining the face with iron (red/orange), copper (blue/green), manganese (brown/black), and limonite (white/yellow).   

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel which was included with our room and headed out around 9am. We had booked a kayaking trip with Pictured Rocks Kayaking and they were incredible. We choose the ultimate kayaking trip which was 5 hours long and hit all the major stops. 

Don't worry.. not all of it was spent kayaking. We started off in a boat which took us to location number 2. From there our group was split up into mini groups and led by a guide. We had the amazing Faith O leading our crew of ten. 

The black contraption they are wearing is a spray skirt that fits over the kayak and prevents your lower half from getting half. Funnily enough H's ended up having a small hole in it somewhere and his lower half did get wet. In all the times we have kayaked we had never encountered a spray skirt.

We kayaked 5 miles and it took us a little over 2 hours.

The water was magnificent.. so crystal clear.

 

A common merganser and her babies.

Above is Chapel Rock which is on the Michigan quarter released in 2018. On top of the rock sits a lone white pine tree. In real life, this tree is estimated to be roughly 250 years old and stays alive by stretching massive roots across open air to draw nutrients from the mainland cliffs. See the pictures below. 

Once our tour was complete we reboarded the boat and made the journey back to the mainland. While we had packed some snacks with us we were now famished and headed back to the little Munising downtown for lunch

We ate at Driftwood deli. Yum.

Afterwards we drove to Miners Castle Overlook followed by the Miners Beach. 

That above is the rock formation known as Miner's Castle. We spent some time on the beach.. mostly resting. We were tired. 

We headed back to the hotel, showered and headed out for dinner. It was not good. It was supposed to be Mexican.. it was so so not good. So we crossed the street and indulged in some ice cream.. it thankfully was good and all was right in the world again. 

            

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