Munising and Pictured Rocks

Munising was a very small place. I could easily take the length and breadth of the city on my morning walk. While starting,I just decided to go in the direction opposite to the one from which we had entered the city and within five minutes I had reached the main street which led to the pier.



It was fourth of July and people were getting ready for the celebrations. A fair had been arranged on the ground next to the pier and the number of campers and tents on the ground, and the boats tied to the pier indicated that it was to be well attended.



But very early in the morning, before six, most of them were still asleep and the pier was empty. The atmosphere was very calm and pleasing. The occupants of this sail boat, an old couple, probably did not intend spending the day amongst the crowd and noise and so started moving out deeper into the lake just as the sun appeared in the sky.



As I stood looking at the slowly moving sail boat, the sun broke out of the clouds, making everything bright.



I spent some more time roaming around the small garden next to the pier and returned through another street lined with neat houses. There was no chance of losing my way here even if I wanted to.



We had stayed overnight at Munising as we intended taking the ‘Pictured rocks’ ferry tour in the morning. We had tickets for the Ten’o clock trip and we arrived at the pier ten minutes before that. The ferry left exactly at ten just as the flag was being hoisted and the cannon being fired in the veteran’s memorial park.



The stars and stripes flying on the bow fluttered in the breeze and my patriotic T shirt matched the flag. I had not noticed it till one of our co passengers pointed it out.



‘Pictured rocks’ are the sandstone cliffs bordering Lake Superior which have been naturally sculpted into arches, caves and formations. The minerals in the rocks have added colours to the formations thus bringing the name pictured rocks.







The tour took little more than two hours and we were back on the pier little after twelve in the afternoon. We took a round of the fair, bought some sandwiches to add to our ‘ready to cook’ stuff and had lunch in the shade sitting on the grass. By half past two we were ready to leave. We intended halting for the night at Paradise, after visiting the Tahquamenon falls.