Destination: Michigan
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Michigan's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore offers countless opportunities ranging from hiking and biking, to kayaking. In addition to famous rock formations like Miners Castle and Chapel Rock, the Pictured Rocks are also home to the Au Sable Lighthouse, the Grand Sable Dunes, and many thousands of acres of forests and beaches.
As Henry Rowe Schoolcraft once said, the Pictured Rocks offer "some of the most sublime and commanding views in nature." The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore encompases 73,000+ acres, including sandstone cliffs, beaches, sand dunes, waterfalls, and inland lakes. The National Park is also home to a lighthouse, a former Coast Guard life-saving stations, old farmsteads and logging trails. At its widest point the Lakeshore is only five miles and hugs the Lake Superior shoreline for 42 miles. 15 miles of this shoreline are colorful sandstone cliffs, located northeast of Munising. These cliffs are as tall as 200 feet above lake level. Another significant feature of the Lakeshore is the Grand Sable Dunes. These sand dunes are perched atop five miles of high sand bluffs at the east end of the lakeshore shoreline and cover over five square miles.
In 1966 the U.S. Congress made Pictured Rocks the first officially-designated National Lakeshore in the United States. Authorization of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan's Upper Peninsula was granted, "... in order to preserve for the benefit, inspiration, education, recreational use, and enjoyment of the public, a significant portion of the diminishing shoreline of the United States and its related geographic and scientific features." When President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill authorizing the establishment of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Alger County became the home of America's first National Lakeshore. On October 15, 2006, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore celebrates the 40th anniversary.
The awe-inspiring cliffs are composed of Cambrian Sandstone, dating back about 500 million years. The stains on the sandstone are caused by water running down the cliffs filled with oxides of copper, manganese, iron, and organic minerals. The cliffs are shaped by wind, ice and pounding waves. As the water trickles down the rocks or mountainous waves slam into the cliffs with a vicious suddenness, the sandstone Pictured Rocks are formed and changed.
Posted/updated Jul 10, 2006
by Cody Sprattmoran
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