Honeymoon: You've Got to Go to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Day 9

I'm sure bears like popcorn, but we didn't see any. It was raining so we skipped making breakfast and ate our snack food instead.

We were ready to sight-see before anyone else. We were the first ones to see one of many waterfalls along the lakeshore. This one was the Sable Falls.

Despite Scott's sprained and now purple ankle he ignored the pain to hike through the day even on uneven sand.

My ankle was already killing me, but I pushed on. I'd been looking forward to Pictured Rocks the entire trip since my sister raved about it.

The Grand Sable Dunes were one of my favorite things from the trip.

Growing up on the east side of Lake Michigan I didn't see to many dunes growing up. These ones were monstrous.

We tried many times to get a photo of the two of us.

Scott's inner-dad didn't like me jumping into the sand pits. But I did it anyway.

We were really hungry from not eating breakfast, so we ate fudge.

On the other edge of the sand dunes was the Log Slide. Back during the lumber days the lumberjacks would push the big timbers down the dunes to the water below to be loaded onto boats. Sometimes the friction between the logs and the sand would cause fires.

A sign at the beginning gave a word of caution that if you want to slide down know that it may take a few hours to get back up. With Scott's ankle and my hatred for hills we decided to skip that challenge.

It's hard to emphasize how steep the dunes are. I believe this is a 300 ft drop to the water.

The view up here was beautiful.

I wanted to check out what we missed out on at the Twelve Mile Beach Campground. I'm so jealous. Each campsite on the waterfront had their own section of the beach. It was drizzly today so I wouldn't have swam anyway. Next time we are coming during the week to make sure we get a spot.

I stayed up top to give my poor ankle a break.

Onto our next destination a restaurant caught our eye. We were still pretty hungry.

It was a massive dive bar. Dollar bills were plastered everywhere there wasn't a bear.

Again we passed on the pasties. I was embarrassed I was going to call it the wrong thing. We weren't sure if it was pronounced PAST-ie or PASTE-ie. One is a Michigan hot pocket of sorts and the other a woman's accessory. After we ordered our food I overheard the waitress call it a PAST-ie. Now I know.

We got burgers instead. I was tired of eating burgers by this point.

I had the Wisconsin-Michigan, which was brat patty with a burger. They clearly were the frozen box of 50 variety.

We skipped a few other stops along the way because they required long hikes. Next time. We moved right onto Miners Falls. Still a pretty long hike for Scott, but I was proud of how much walking he did.

I have never seen so many wild mushrooms in my life. They were everywhere. You'd think the dry summer with do the opposite.

Then we saw probably the most scenic part of the lakeshore, Miner's Castle.

Looking straight down the rock is a gradient of browns, tans and then blues.

To the left of the rock is Grand Island. I want to camp on there sometime.

I noticed while up by Miner's Castle that there was another beach in the distance. I convinced Scott we needed to check it out. We decided to call our trip the Beaches and Brew Tour at this point.

This was my favorite beach of all time. I was so bummed it was so cold out.

I took my shoes off and let my poor ankle soak in the frigid water. It was perfect.

I walked down to the end while Scott stayed behind.

I struck up a conversation with a couple from the east coast of Lake Michigan. They told me that we had to stop at Bay Furnace.

Some sort of chemical reaction created glass when the iron pigs were cooled in the lake.

Although I felt guilty taking a rock, if everyone did this there wouldn't be any left for anyone to see; I still thought it would be neat to have a honeymoon souvenir.

As we made our way back on Hwy 28 we stumbled upon Lakenenland, a sculpture garden.


My ankle wasn't looking good, but there was no point in wussing out now.

I tried out all the sculptures.

You have to stop here if you drive along M-28 between Munising and Marquette.

"You're not supposed to go in that, it's for kids" --Scott

Apparently the Chocolay town council doesn't like his little slice of Americana.

Did Scottie have a vision?

If I had a vision I blame it on the beer.