23 FALL 2020 ISSUE 01 / VOL . 02 SNOWGOER . COM
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ANOTHER MUST SEE : PICTURED ROCKS NATIONAL LAKESHORE
The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along Lake Superior , northeast of Munising on Trail 422 , is a great drop-in spot when connecting Munising to Grand Marais , Michigan , by trail .
The snowmobile trail leads right into the national park , which you ’ d have to pay to enter in the spring , summer or fall , but your trail pass is your entry fee in the winter . Once there , make sure to take in Miners Castle , a towering rock formation that juts out into Lake Superior – the overlook is a short stroll from the snowmobile parking lot . Standing atop the sandstone cliffs , visitors can look out into Munising Bay and see Grand Island in the background .
Other short hikes off the trail can take sightseers to more of the U . P .’ s amazing waterfalls , including Miners Falls south of the famous Miners Beach and Munising Falls closer to the city of Munising . Both are narrow , steep falls carved into sandstone cliffs . More water flows at Miners Falls so it is more active in the winter ; Munising Falls is in a more fascinating cove but it completely freezes in winter . Both feel remote but are easy to access .
RIDING IN A TRUE PARADISE
Tall timber , twisting trails , dramatic waterfalls and a big old chunk of nautical history make this part of Michigan truly a snowmobiler ’ s paradise , and we don ’ t say that just because it also happens to contain the city of Paradise , Michigan .
There are interesting , densely wooded trails throughout this region to explore , but one trip that has to be on the itinerary would be riding Trail 45 north and east out of Newberry toward Tahquamenon Falls State Forest .
Not surprisingly , this is where riders will find the two distinctly different Tahquamenon Falls . The 200-foot wide Upper Falls truly gushes – flowing as much as 50,000 gallons per second over a 48-foot drop , making it the third most voluminous falls east of the Mississippi River . Four miles further down the Tahquamenon River is the Lower Falls , a more subtle , tiered
set of falls with five separate drops . At each falls , the water is the color of root beer due to the cedar swamps upstream .
Take a few minutes to soak up the images , then saddle up again , because this adventure has just begun . Next , continue east on the always interesting Trail 45 toward Paradise , but before shutting down for the day , catch the spur trail north toward Whitefish Bay . There , you can look out over the “ big lake they call Gitche Gumee ” and ponder the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald 45 years ago – on November 10 , 1975 , when it disappeared from sight and sunk in a storm off of Whitefish Point .
It was a horrible tragedy , but it became legendary by the Gordon Lightfoot song by the same name . And that song plays eerily inside the fabulous Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Bay . Sadly , the museum doesn ’ t hold regular hours in the winter , but check ahead if you ’ re headed to the area , because you might be able to catch onto a custom tour like we did 10 years ago .