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Friday, August 6

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When we visited here the night before to get our bearings for the cruise, the lady at the ticket table suggested that we get here one hour before our cruise time.

We arrived a 9 AM and were the second couple in line. We had fun visiting a bit. They were both PE teachers from Iowa. Before long the line grew quite long. Many people want to get the top deck, but we wanted the front of the enclosed deck so I could take lots of pictures. If you wanted to take pictures from the top deck, you must stay seated. On the bottom deck we were free to move around.

Our ship was called Chapel Rock.

The view as we waited to board

Our captain was a great guide.

We traveled a bit from shore before getting to the first of what is considered Pictured Rocks.

There were lots of kayakers. Boats brought people and kayaks to a location in the lake near the rocks where they unloaded both and where everyone began enjoying the scenery by kayak.

From the Internet: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a U.S. National Lakeshore on the shore of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It extends for 42 miles along the shore and covers 73,236 acres.

A lake is a large water body that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland, not part of the world’s oceans. These lakes are drained and fed by numerous streams and rivers. The largest lake on Earth is the Caspian Sea. However, as its name would suggest, the Caspian Sea is sometimes classified as a sea and not a lake. In these cases, Lake Superior would be the largest lake in the world.

Lake Superior holds 10% of the world’s surface fresh water.

Lake Superior’s surface area is approximately 31,700 square miles and has a volume of 2,900 cubic miles. The lake measures 350 miles long, 160 miles wide, and 483 feet deep on average.

Rank	Lake	Continent	Size (surface area in square miles)
1	Superior	North America	31700 sq mi
2	Victoria	Africa	26600 sq mi
3	Huron	North America	23000 sq mi
4	Michigan	North America	22000 sq mi
5	Tanganyika	Africa	12700 sq mi
6	Baikal	Eurasia	12248 sq mi
7	Great Bear Lake	North America	12028 sq mi
8	Malawi	Africa	11400 sq mi
9	Great Slave Lake	North America	10500 sq mi
10	Erie	North America	9910 sq mi
11	Winnipeg	North America	9465 sq mi
12	Ontario	North America	7320 sq mi
13	Ladoga	Eurasia	6800 sq mi

I have lots of pictures from our cruise, so I will show you the rest with very little narration.

The view was stunning.

The rock formations all had names, and I have forgotten most names. However, this is called Battleship Row, because at the right angle there appears to be at least a half dozen ships docked against the edge of the lake.

This is obviously a vase

The captain pulled our ship right into this opening as far as he could go.

They are fascinated that this tree is still alive because the rocks around it are crumbling and it has very little ground for its roots.

Spray Falls was the end of our tour – the reason this choice of cruises is called Spray Falls. From here we turned around and traveled the same shoreline for the last hour of our two-hour cruise.

It appears these steps are made of logs. I noticed them because someone was climbing up them and reached the top just before I took this picture.

I think these are cormorants.

The Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse was intended to lead boats from Lake Superior through the channel east of Grand Island into the Munising Harbor. It is constructed of wood and was first opened for service in 1868.

The light was very hard to see from Lake Superior and light maintenance was very difficult so the Munising Range Lights were constructed and this light was removed from service in 1908 or 1913 (sources vary). It has been maintained because it was a great landmark for photographers. One of the reasons it has not been painted. Photographers like it like this.

More of our day in my next post.