A Month in Michigan (Part 3): Pictured Rocks, Keweenaw Peninsula, and Porcupine Mtns.

Aug. 2022

Pictured Rocks Natl. Lakeshore

The last week of our month in Michigan was spent in the western part of the Upper Peninsula. We wished we had arranged to spend more time at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, as we weren’t able to see the eastern half of it. We still did a lot of hiking, though. On our first evening, we visited the overlook to Miner’s Castle. The water in Lake Superior was so clear and a beautiful color. Then we ate dinner in Munising, at Muldoon’s Pasties. A pasty is a meat and vegetable hand pie. It was good, especially with the gravy! A pasty (pronounced PASS-tee), is a local dish with roots in the Cornish and Finnish heritage of the region.

On another beautiful day, we hiked to Chapel Rock. This was not a difficult hike, but it was long—about 7 miles total out and back, and parts of the trail were covered in mud. A big tree is growing out of the top of the rock, and its roots are suspended in air as they reach to the nearby cliff. We saw a lot of kayakers floating on the calm, blue lake below us.

That night, we took a sunset cruise to really see the pictured rocks. We passed East Channel Lighthouse on our way.

Pictured Rocks, as seen from a sunset cruise on Lake Superior

A view of Chapel Rock from the boat.

Our last day in the area was chilly and windy, even though it was August, so we decided to drive to Lakenenland, a very quirky spot west of Munising. It was free to walk around all the funny sculptures made out of scrap metal. The creator used some of his art to express strong opinions about some things!

Next on the agenda was the Keewenaw Peninsula. We camped at a city park in Hancock with a great view of Portage Lake. We enjoyed watching the boats and kayaks and the sunset. In the mornings, the still water looked like a mirror.

We drove up to the tip of the peninsula to the little town of Copper Harbor, where we saw this road sign.

There were some pretty parks near the town along Lake Superior. Lots of little red rocks at this park!

Another roadside park outside of Copper Harbor.

We drove this short scenic road that had great views of Lake Superior and Copper Harbor.

Another day trip was to the Porcupine Mountains (the Porkies), which were about an hour from our campground in the opposite direction from our visit to Copper Harbor. The Lake of the Clouds was so blue, and the view from above was excellent. I imagine it must be even more spectacular when the trees are at peak fall color.

A short, easy trail led to where those people are standing on the top of that rock.

View from the top of the rock

Porcupine Mountains State Park is Michigan’s largest state park. We drove a long way down South Boundary Rd. to hike a bit and see some waterfalls. We didn’t get any good photos of the waterfalls because the sunshine was so bright. We thought it was interesting how the water carved the rocks into a round bowl shape.

We were standing on a little bridge over the river. After crossing the bridge, the trail to the right led to bigger waterfalls. Going down the trail to the left from the bridge was a little beach on Lake Superior.

We loved our month in Michigan. It’s a beautiful state with so much to see and do, especially outdoors in nature.