For those who enjoy hiking, one of the very best ways to experience Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is on foot. Yes, do take the Pictured Rocks Boat Cruise, which delivers splendid views of fascinating cliffs and their brilliant colors caused by groundwater seeping out through the sandstone cliff faces and leaving mineral-stained streaks behind. In fact, the only way to see the most colorful of these spectacles is from the water, so the 3-hour roundtrip voyage is time well spent. In some spots, the colors are so vivid they seem man-made, as if someone hovered above the lake with a paintbrush and hundreds of cans of blue, green, red, purple, and orange paint.
For those who want a closer look at this stretch of Lake Superior and its captivating cliffs, hiking trails run along the entire stretch of the National Lakeshore with several loops leading to waterfalls, rock formations, inland lakes, campgrounds, and beaches. Some trails are short and will satisfy an urge for a quick fix of the area’s natural beauty; others will range from a few hours worth of walking to all-day excursions.
In Michigan, we spend close to six months of the year remembering, thinking of, and looking forward to summer’s bliss. Sitting on my sofa, the morning of the second day of spring 2008, looking out my living room window, I’m confronted by (of course) a fresh, six inches deep, white landscape. Why doesn’t this surprise me? The city of Dearborn has declared a snow emergency alert by sounding the snow alarm, so that we all knew that at O’ Dark thirty hours to get out of bed, get dressed and go out on the frozen tundra to move our vehicles so snow crews can plow the streets.
