Known to the Ojibwe tribe as Lake Gichigumi (Big Water), Lake Superior is the world’s third largest freshwater lake after Lake Baikal in Russia and Tanganyika in Tanzania. It is the largest, deepest and coldest of the Great Lakes, beset by vicious storms that can spawn waves over 20 feet high, destroyers of countless ships that lie at the bottom of the Graveyard Coast near Munising, Michigan. It is also home to a place of great natural beauty, the nation’s first National Lakeshore, Pictured Rocks!

Over a 15-mile stretch, huge sandstone cliffs, topped in places by white dolomite, soar 50-200 feet directly out of the turquoise blue water into the sky. Covered by ancient, dense forests of pine, birch, and maple as well as other types of trees, interspersed with white sandy beaches, accented here and there by gushing waterfalls, the multicolored cliffs are constantly changing, sculpted by the wind and the water.

The name, Pictured Rocks, comes from the streaks of mineral deposits (iron, manganese, limonite, copper) that color the cliffside white, green, orange, black and red, like a giant living canvas of natural graffiti, glistening with water that drips incessantly. If you look closely and set your imagination free, images and shapes appear.

Although it is possible to hike along cliff-top trails, the only way to see the Picture Rocks in all their glory is on a 2.5-3 hour cruise, starting in Munising, on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  As the boat pulls out of the harbor, it passes over several shipwrecks that succumbed to the wrath and fury of the lake, including the Bermuda (1870), the Manhattan (1903) and the Herman Heitler (1926) which can be visited by glass-bottom boat in the Alger Underwater Preserve near Grand Island. Farther along the coast is the 1975 wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, once the largest ship on the lake, immortalized in the song by Gordon Lightfoot.

The first major sandstone formation you reach is Miners Castle, the most famous of the Pictured Rocks, perhaps because it is also accessible by vehicle. A turret of rocks rises above a series of interconnected caves, a favorite of kayakers. There once were two turrets until a few years ago when one collapsed, falling 90 feet into the water, part of the ever-changing face of the shoreline. Farther along the lake, several arches dot the cliff sides. The entrance to the Grand Portal Arch is heaped with piles of boulders, the debris from the most recent collapse of the sandstone. Meanwhile, the Petit Portal is a favorite of kayakers who paddle under it over the green and blue water. According to legend, the tree-lined Lovers Leap Arch got its name when a Native American woman jumped to her death after her husband failed to return from a hunting trip. Yet another story tells of a couple who wanted to show their love for each other by jumping off the archway. Unfortunately, they did not realize that the water was only 2 feet deep.

Look for the Indian Head formation, so named because it appears to be the profile of an old Native American, keeping watch over Lake Gichigumi. If you use your imagination you can see the nose and chin jutting over the water. It reminds you of Longfellow’s poem “The Song of Hiawatha.”  As the boat rounds a corner, a series of cliffs appear known as Battleship Rock. They resemble a line of battleships formed up and ready for action, their bows pointed into the crashing waves of Lake Superior.

At the farthest point of the cruise, look for Chapel Rock (or La Chapelle as it was known by the early settlers), a large, solitary formation on the edge of the water that looks like Swiss cheese. Once, an archway connected it to the cliffs. When it collapsed, Chapel Rock was left isolated, topped by a single pine tree whose roots are now connected to the mainland where the arch once stood.

The best time to visit the Pictured Rocks is in the summer and fall unless you like snow and ice. Munising has over 200 inches of snow every year and the lake freezes, making this the perfect winter playground. Whether you call it Gichigumi or Lake Superior, this enormous body of water with its ever-changing natural canvas as Picture Rock National Lakeshore is the perfect example of nature’s unending cycle of creation and destruction.

IF YOU GO
Munising is on the north shore of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, about 40 miles east of Marquette. You can get there on highways M28 and M94. The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is open year round 24 hours a day although many roads are impassable in winter. There is no entrance fee. Pictured Rocks Cruises offers a number of sailings each day, weather permitting. See www.paintedrocks.com for details.

 

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