North Country Trail/Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Beautiful waterfalls are abundant throughout the Pictured Rocks region. They're caused by the limey sandstone under the many rivers here. Upper Chapel Falls is at the end of a 1.5-mile marked trail off Chapel Road, 15 miles northeast of Munising.

Hike a section of this famous trail connecting the most prominent sights within the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore - Grand Sable Dunes, the Log Slide, the Au Sable Light Station, Spray Falls, Chapel Rock, Miner's Castle - and you'll really experience them rather than just taking in a quick view and driving on. The 43-mile shoreline trail used to be called the Lakeshore Trail. Now the National Park Service refers to it as the North Country Trail since it is a segment of the 4,000-mile trail from upstate New York to North Dakota.

The trailhead is at the Grand Marais Visitor Center, but you could start farther east, at Woodland Park in Grand Marais and hike along the beach to Sable Falls, then hike up alongside Sable Creek to the Visitor Center. See the Munising/Pictured Rocks Region of this web site for points of interest at the trail's Munising end. Call (906) 387-3700 to get a good map of the trail through Pictured Rocks, plus hiking distances between points and backcountry campsites.

Campsites at campgrounds are first-come, first-served. Several designated backcountry campsites are along the way. If you get a permit, you can line up a campsite. They are available by reservation by mail or fax only from the Munising Visitor Center at (906) 387-3700. Reservations must be made at least two weeks before your trip. Group campsites are in greatest demand and get reserved first.

For sources of more specific information about various North Country Trail segments, visit www.northcountrytrail.org and go to the Upper Peninsula section. The online shop sells trail maps and guides. A good, detailed trail guide to the National Lakeshore is Olive Anderson's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore: A Guide, available at the National Lakeshore visitor centers.

Alger County's Altran shuttle will drop hikers off at any point along H-58. It runs Monday, Thursday, and Saturday with a 10 a.m. pickup at Munising Falls and 11:30 pickup at Grand Marais. The cost is $15 a person. Call in advance (906-387-4845) if you're planning to use it.

Here are HIKING TIPS for Pictured Rocks from the National Park Service.
• Always wear sturdy footgear.
• If you plan to be out for an extended time, carry a snack and a water bottle. Save more than half your energy for the return walk.
• Because Lake Superior modifies local weather, dress for cool conditions and carry rain gear.
• If you are hiking in unfamiliar territory, carry a map and compass or GPS and know how to use them.
• Stay away from cliff edges. Rock within the lakeshore is soft, crumbly sandstone and often covered with gravel.
• Tell someone where you are going, perhaps at one of the two Pictured Rocks visitor centers.
• Dogs are allowed only on specific trails. Check a bulletin board or ask a ranger.

The trailhead for what was formerly known as the Lakeshore Trail is at the Grand Sable Visitor Center on H-58 about 5 miles west of Grand Marais.

Return to Grand Marais

GRAND MARAIS
POINTS OF INTEREST

Grand Marais Agate Beach. Prized for their interesting patterns of concentric bands of translucent red and clear or white, agates attract rockhounds to Lake Superior's northern shore. This long stretch of beach is a convenient place and thus more picked over, but a storm may bring up fresh rocks ... more

Grand Sable Bank & Dunes. Vast dunes seen from the trail here create a dramatic view, especially when the sun is low ... more

Harbor entrance, range lights, pier & beach. Fish from the long stone pier jutting far out into Lake Superior, protecting the harbor. Or walk the long beach and enjoy the range light, & 2 museums, one in the old Coast Guard station, draw people to Coast Guard Point ... more

The Marketplace. A showroom for a members of Grand Marais Cottage Industries. You'll find photographs, handknits, lamps, novelties, art glass, carvings ... more

Grand Marais Maritime Museum. In the former Coast Guard station the National Parks Service installed this spare museum with photos and a few artifacts ... more

Old Post Office Museum. The 1882 Grand Marais post office still has the old postal boxes and clerk's window up front and historical photos and items in back ... more

Light Keeper's House Museum. Built by the Coast Guard in 1908, This 1908 Coast Guard keeper's house houses a hands-on local museum strong on stories. ... more

Goewey’s Garage. Lee and Betty Goewey make very popular fish carvings as well as art glass windows ... more

Crystal Pine Cone. Beach stones become landscapes and maritime scenes, or animals and people. The Woropay family’s studio/gallery is in a cabin among pine trees ... more

Pickle Barrel Museum. A summer house in two giant barrels for the creator of the long-lived Teenie Weenie cartoons. Now saved from rot and open to the public with historical displays and period rooms circa 1930. ... more

The Campbell Street Gallery. A spiffy collection of many media in Grand Marais' oldest building ... more

Gitche Gumee Agate & History Museum. Agates, rockhounding, geology, commercial fishing, and the self-sufficient local lifestyle after the lumber company left – Karen Bryzs's heartfelt museum tells these stories ... more

Sable Falls. Take a walk through the woods to the top of this delightful waterfall. Go down a stairway to a rocky agate beach and wander east for awhile ... more

Grand Sable Visitor Center. A good place for information on the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, regional nature and history books, and a 2-mile trail through a shady beech-maple forest ... more

North Country Trail/Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Hike the trail connecting the lakeshore's prominent sights to experience them more fully than a drive-up-and-go-on view. Plan your hike so a shuttle bus can take you back ... more

Log Slide Overlook. Almost 300 feet above Lake Superior, there are splendid views to the Au Sable Lighthouse and the immense expanses of the Grand Sable Dunes. Exhibits show the scene when loggers rolled logs down for loading on ships ... more

Au Sable Point Lighthouse. A picture-perfect lighthouse on the rocks, a tower to climb on scheduled tours, shipwreck skeletons in the sand ... more

Twelvemile Beach & White Birch Trail. Walk the long beach or head inshore along a 2-mile nature trail through an unusual forest of old white birches ... more

Kingston Plains Burns. The best-known of the U.P.'s eerie stump fields or ghost forests created when forest fires across the cutover were so hot they burned off the soil's humus and the forest couldn't grow back. Pine resin preserved giant stumps. Some still remain ... more

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