Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Our next stopping place was Munising, MI, jumping off place for the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I just had to correct myself two times there and write Lakeshore instead of Seashore! These lakes are so large they look just like the ocean, ...hard to wrap my head around it all. The lighthouses don't make it any easier to remember. Anyway, I bought tickets for the sunset cruise (the most popular cruise because of the rosy glow of sunset) in eager anticipation of seeing the famous rocks from the water. I then made friends with a fellow selling fish sandwiches (Greg) down the way, found out what all to see before our cruise time, made a date for us to have dinner with him, and even got an invitation to park the rig for the night on a piece of his property down the road. You would be proud of how my friendship skills are developing!

While I rode my bike around Thayer did his programming stuff for Chris, finding good internet right near the boat dock. I pedaled a few miles down to a waterfall and a perfect little beach on the bay called, fittingly enough, Sand Point. The sand was just like the finest golden brown sugar, without the sticky. The beach sloped out gently for about 100 feet before dropping into the lovely, clear blue green depths. There were a few people there but not many, and I really felt the need for Jackson to help me enjoy it all and to play with. I splashed around to cool off as the day was again pretty warm and sticky. I rode back to town, explored around a bit, found the thrift store and grocery store and just coasted around looking at the old buildings. 

 

Later that afternoon we walked down to the fish shack, visited with Greg while he made our whitefish sandwiches and homemade fries (we brought the beer), then enjoyed our meal. Overlooking the fact that we always forget something, we headed down to the dock for the cruise. We and our approximately 80 new shipmates cruised by Grand Island and the old lighthouse on our way to the main event. Unfortunately, dead ahead, loomed a gloomy fog bank, sitting there like a big old wool blanket ready to tuck us in for the night. We were able to see a few of the fabulous pictured rocks before getting engulfed in the wooly interior of the fog. 

As the temperature dropped we realized what we had forgotten, Thayer's jacket. Being the tough old salt that he is, he did not whine or complain one little bit. It wasn't freezing fog anyway. Well, the short story is that the boat ended up turning around early and we received a full refund for our trip. But, as you can see, I did get a few good pictures and I'll bet you can't tell which ones I ripped off from Google images or our friend Anna Berger's blog. The color of the water was incredible, even in the fog.

 

 

 For those of you who don't know, Anna and Emir Berger are the wonderful Australians we met a few years ago who inspired this year long adventure. Anna is a fantastic photographer and wrote up an amazing blog about their year and a half journey around the US with their delightful and beautiful daughters, Jordan and Bella.

 

Now comes the educational geology part of the post so you may opt to quit reading now. These sandstone formations range in age from 1.1 billion y.o. (the dark red ones at the bottom) to 400-500 million y.o. (gray on top.) They were formed in ancient seas, wetlands and rivers. The top gray layer is harder than the others and has helped form these beautiful cliffs by protecting the softer layers underneath from erosion. The vertical streaking of black, brown, white, green and red is caused by minerals in water that flow between the layers of rock and drip down the cliffs. The most common minerals are iron, manganese and copper. The caves and arches are caused from the tremendous wave action of the great lake. I find it remarkable that the layers are still parallel to the water after a billion years, this must be a relatively stable part of the North American continent.

Oh, and by the way, these are all my photos. I didn't need to steal any!

Those crazy Aussies, the Bergers! Thanks for getting us inspired!