Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI

Lake Superior strikes again! We went to Munising, MI, to take a cruise along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore which we had heard so much about. The weather was threatening to rain before sunset so we decided to take the 4 pm cruise and we're glad we did. We set out from the harbor with 250 or so of our new best friends on what we hoped wasn't about to be a Great Lakes version of Gilligan's Island on a 3 decked boat. Having arrived just before they started loading, we didn't get our first choice of seats on the open third deck but found some nice window seats in the enclosed second deck and settled in for the tour. By the way, they had snacks for sale and we have fallen in love with the best dang BBQ chips ever - Great Lakes Michigan Cherry BBQ!

Pictured Rocks is a section of cliffs along Lake Superior's southern coast where various minerals have leached from the soil and rock above to color the rocks all along that section. It's very picturesque! There's also sea caves and arches with some recent rock falls all along the coast as water erodes the rock slowly. There were a bunch of groups of kayakers out on tours as well but I'm glad we did the large boat because just after we reached the turnaround point, a thunderstorm with some moderate rain fired off and those on the open top came scurrying down. I also noticed the kayakers all seemed to disappear immediately which is good because there was all sorts of lightning strikes out on the water nearby. The scenic cruise is by far the best way to see Pictured Rocks!