Michigan’s wildest lakeshore has 200-foot cliffs that bleed color into Lake Superior

Munising’s the door to all of it

Munising sits on the southern shore of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and from here, you can reach sandstone cliffs stained red and green by minerals, waterfalls that freeze into towers of blue ice, and shipwrecks so shallow you can see them through glass.

The town pulls double duty as the gateway to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Grand Island, and the Hiawatha National Forest. More than 200 inches of snow buries this place every winter, and people still come.

The cliffs alone tell you why.

America’s first national lakeshore started here in 1966

The Ojibwe people knew this stretch of Lake Superior long before anyone drew a boundary around it.

Artifacts found on nearby Grand Island date back to around 1300 B.C. Fur traders and loggers came through next, and the small communities they left behind still dot the shoreline.

On Oct. 15, 1966, Pictured Rocks became the first national lakeshore in the United States. It runs 42 miles along the coast and covers more than 73,000 acres of cliffs, forest and water.

Iron turns the rock red, copper paints it green

Groundwater seeps through cracks in the sandstone and leaves minerals behind. Iron stains the cliff face red and orange.

Copper deposits blue and green streaks. Manganese adds brown and black, and limonite lays down white.

The result is a 200-foot wall of color rising straight out of Lake Superior.

Some of the rock you’re looking at dates back 500 million to a billion years, deposited during the Precambrian period. Waves and ice keep carving it all into caves, arches and shapes that look like castle turrets.

Kayak through the sea caves or cruise the cliff face

Narrated boat cruises leave from Munising City Dock and run right along the cliffs, passing sea caves, waterfalls and rock formations the whole way.

You can pick a daytime tour, a Spray Falls cruise or a sunset run.

If you want to get closer, guided sea kayak tours take you right up to the colored rock and through the sea caves themselves. Tours range from two to eight hours and work for different skill levels.

The turquoise water against those mineral-stained walls is one of the most photographed stretches of shoreline in the Midwest.

Seventeen waterfalls within a short drive of town

Alger County packs 17 named waterfalls into a tight radius around Munising. Wagner Falls sits just south of town at the end of a short boardwalk through a cedar forest.

Miners Falls drops about 40 feet into a rocky gorge, and you can reach it on a 1.2-mile round-trip hike. Chapel Falls takes more effort, about three miles one way, but it plunges roughly 80 feet.

Spray Falls is the showstopper, a 70-foot drop straight off the Pictured Rocks cliffs into Lake Superior that you can only see from the water.

If you don’t feel like hiking, Alger Falls and Scott Falls sit right along M-28.

Take the ferry to a 13,500-acre island with no cars

Grand Island sits half a mile offshore from Munising in Lake Superior, and it covers 13,500 acres.

Congress made it a national recreation area in 1990 after the U.S. Forest Service bought it from the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company.

Sandstone cliffs rise up to 300 feet on parts of the island, and it falls under the Hiawatha National Forest. A passenger ferry runs from the Friday before Memorial Day through Oct. 10.

No public vehicles allowed. You explore by foot, mountain bike, kayak or narrated bus tour.

Circle the island on 21 miles of trail

Grand Island has more than 40 miles of trails and gravel roads for hiking and mountain biking.

A 21-mile perimeter trail loops the whole island, and the overlooks give you straight shots of the Pictured Rocks cliffs across the water. Sandy beaches line parts of the shore where you can swim in the cold, clear lake.

Black bears, white-tailed deer and sandhill cranes share the island with you.

Camping is available at designated sites with bear lockers, but there are no supplies on the island, so you pack everything in and out.

See real shipwrecks through a glass-bottom boat

The Alger Underwater Preserve became Michigan’s first underwater preserve in 1988, and it covers more than 100 square miles of Lake Superior shoreline near Munising.

Grand Island shelters the bay, which made it a harbor of refuge for ships caught in Superior’s storms.

Several wrecks sit within recreational diving limits, including the Bermuda, which sank in 1870, the Smith Moore in 1889, and the Herman H. Hettler in 1926.

Glass-bottom boat tours let you see the wrecks through the clear water without getting wet. Few places in the country let you do that.

Walk to Miners Castle for the big cliff view

Pictured Rocks has more than 100 miles of trails, including a stretch of the North Country National Scenic Trail.

Miners Castle is the most popular overlook, a short walk from the parking area with views of the cliffs and Lake Superior spread out below.

The Chapel Loop passes Mosquito Falls and Chapel Falls, then takes you along Chapel Rock and Chapel Beach. The Log Slide overlook gives you a sweeping view of the Grand Sable Dunes and Au Sable Point.

All visitors 16 and older need a park pass.

Frozen waterfalls and 300 miles of snowmobile trails

Winter turns the waterfalls into towering columns of white, blue and green ice.

Water seeping from the sandstone cliffs freezes into formations 20 to 50 feet high along the Pictured Rocks.

Every February, the Michigan Ice Fest brings climbers of all skill levels to Munising for one of the longest-running ice climbing festivals in the country.

Alger County grooms more than 300 miles of snowmobile trails, and the Valley Spur Trail System in the Hiawatha National Forest has more than 45 kilometers of groomed cross-country ski trails.

Snowshoeing paths lead to frozen waterfalls throughout the lakeshore.

Nearly 900,000 acres of forest touching three Great Lakes

The Hiawatha National Forest spreads across nearly 900,000 acres of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Munising is one of its main entry points.

They call it the Great Lakes National Forest because it borders Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron. Inside, you’ll find 19 campgrounds, six wilderness areas and six historic lighthouses.

Summer fills the forest with swimmers, anglers, hikers and mountain bikers.

When fall hits, the canopy shifts from pale yellow to bright orange and red, and the leaf-peepers show up right behind it.

A walkable main street 43 miles from anywhere

Downtown Munising keeps it simple. You can walk the main street and hit locally owned shops, outdoor gear stores and a bookstore-coffeehouse without moving your car.

When you want sand, Miners Beach and Sand Point Beach give you quieter stretches along Lake Superior.

About 12 miles west of Grand Marais, the Au Sable Point Light Station stands 86 feet high along the shore, built in 1874. Cell service gets spotty out here, so plan ahead.

Marquette is 43 miles west on M-28 if you need a bigger town.

Explore Munising and Pictured Rocks in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

You can reach Munising by taking M-28 or M-94 into Alger County on the southern shore of Lake Superior.

The town sits about 43 miles east of Marquette, and the nearest major airport is Sawyer International in Marquette County.

From here, you have Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Grand Island National Recreation Area, the Hiawatha National Forest and the Alger Underwater Preserve all within reach.

Check the official website for seasonal hours on boat tours and ferry service before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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