Pictured Rocks Sunset Cruise

October 1, 2012

Harbor at Pictured Rocks Cruise Line

Waiting in line - we were first!

Since the cruise didn't take off until 5:15 p.m., we showed up in Munising early and explored the area a little.  We left Crystal Falls around noon because the trip to Munising takes around 2 hours.  We drove all the way through the town and ended up at a visitor center on the main highway.

Wagner Falls

Jim's photo - slowed water down

My photo - real time water

The gentleman inside was very informative and steered us to some local waterfalls that were easily accessible and ones we could see before our cruise took off.  The only one we ended up seeing was Wagner Falls, a few hundred feet off of the main highway through the town.  After we spent some time there, we went to the Sunset Cruise docks and waited for our turn to get on our cruise boat.




































The cruise turned out to be well worth the money spent.  It lasted about 3 hours and took us up the coast of Lake Superior along the Painted Rocks National Lakeshore, which we'd only seen from above on our previous trip.  (See Pictured Rock National Lakeshore Blog)  There is also an island near the shore of Lake Superior here, called Grand Island, which we passed on our cruise.  It is pretty rustic, with minimal access.

Abandoned building on Grand Island

 While on the cruise, I wanted to change lenses on my camera.  I took my 17-55 mm off my Nikon D90 and laid it on the seat next to me.  The boat hit a little rough water and my lens rolled right off the seat! The lens cap was on it but the glass was not spared.  Fortunately, I had a neutral density filter on it so the only glass that broke was the filter which I didn't find out until later.  Due to the broken glass, I put the lens away and used the 80-200 mm for the rest of the cruise so my photos were limited sometimes.

Colored Rocks

More Colored Rocks

Natural Arch

Cruise ship identical to the one we were on

Sandbar decor

Stowaway

Sunset on the way back

All in all, not a bad way to spend the day.  Dinner at the Dogpatch Restaurant in Munising, decorated with all the characters from L'il Abner....kinda silly, okay food.

Nice way to end the day