Kayaking in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

There were times when I looked at the water at Pictured Rocks and I was convinced I must be somewhere in the Caribbean.  The water was crystal clear, and it had that turquoise tint that I‘ve only ever seen tropical climates.  The contrast of the sandstone cliffs perched above this beautiful water makes you feel like you’re walking into a photo from a calendar. 

After a day of hiking at various spots along the cliffs and beaches, we captured some great photos of Miner’s Rock, 12 mile beach and Au Train lighthouse.  These sites made us want to get into the water all the more so we could see the rocks, waterfalls, and small caves up close.  And, we had the perfect tool to do it too – our kayaks.

The Kayaks

 

Luckily before we moved into the RV, Keith bought us two inflatable kayaks.  These replaced his canoe and my recreational kayak, both of which were just too heavy and bulky to come along for our full-time adventure.  

Side note:  prior to investing in our inflatable kayaks, we had some pretty funny conversations about how Keith wanted to bring his canoe along for his fishing adventures.  He had all kinds of zany ideas about how to transport the canoe on the RV.  Needless to say, all of them cost far more to fabricate than buying something lightweight and easily transportable.  I finally drew the line with his plan of hoisting the canoe up to the roof of the RV though.  Sure, we’d get it up there.  Once.  Then we’d decide it was WAY too much trouble to bring it up and down ever again.  And that’s how we finally ended up with the inflatable kayaks.

Most folks don’t arrive at Pictured Rocks with their own kayaks though.  There are plenty of tour companies that rent them in the nearby town of Munising.  Plus, there’s the added benefit that the tour company brings your kayak down to the launch site.  So you don’t have to carry them up and down all the stairs to the beach.  

These tour companies use ocean kayaks, as recommended by the National Park Service.  This means their kayaks are 14 feet or longer and self-contained (i.e., you sit inside them, not on top of them).  

Our kayaks were also that long, with seats wedged between the inflatable sides. They don’t track quite as well as the hard sided ocean kayaks, so we only use them on calm water.  Lucky for us, the 4th of July was a beautiful sunny day, with incredibly calm water to explore Pictured Rocks.  

Kayaking from Miner’s Beach

 

We decided to get an early start to beat any of the holiday vacationers, and were rewarded by a virtually empty parking lot at 8 am.  It’s a good thing too, because inflating the kayaks takes some time.  As does carrying both kayaks, three paddles, life vests, our dry bags, and all our other gear down to Miner’s Beach.

Around the same time we got set up and into the water, one of the kayaking tours had arrived.  They set off to the east to explore the coastline, while we opted to go west to get views of Miner’s Rock from the lake.  (We also didn’t want the kayak tour leader to think we were following them and trying to mooch a free tour, since that definitely was not our intent).

Once we were done taking in the spectacular emerald waters of the cove near Miner’s Rock, we reversed course and headed back in the same direction as the tour.  Cutting across the deep water to get to the next rock outcropping left my arms were smoked.  With Keith and Finn in one kayak, and me in the other, I was having to do double duty to keep up.  Once we hit the edge of the rocks though, I completely forgot my fatigue. 

If you decide to kayak where we did, the best views are definitely up close to the rocks.  It’s really impossible for amateurs like us to capture the sweeping limestone rocks and how big and majestic they are in a photo.  It’s kind of like those folks who show you picture after picture of icebergs from their Alaska cruise.  They are still in awe of them.  But, for the viewer who didn’t see how fantastically big those icebergs were in person, it just looks like a chunk of ice in the water.  So, we focused on the nuances we could only see by being down in the water.

Kayaking next to the rocks lets you see waterfalls trickling down some of the walls. You see where the shore drops off underwater from a beautiful clear turquoise to the deepest sapphire.  You can take advantage of kayaking into small caves and outcroppings.  It’s a spectacular way to see Pictured Rocks.

The cold, COLD water

 

After a few hours of kayaking, we’d worked up our appetites and were ready to head back to the beach to grab our picnic lunch.  As we got closer to our pull-out point on the beach, another group was heading back just ahead of us.  A couple in a tandem kayak ended up accidentally flipping over near the shore, and you could see from their reaction that Lake Superior was really cold – even in just three or four feet of water.

By this point, Finn was begging to get into the water too.  He’d dipped his feet in the lake earlier and declared it definitely wasn’t too cold for a swim.  Keith and I knew better.  It’s Lake Superior.  The water may look tropical…but this is a lake that contains 10% of the earth’s fresh surface water.  It goes to depths that allow huge freighters to cross it.  It’s not going to be warm.  Maybe the water would be nice in the tropics, but THIS is northern Michigan.  The northern sun cannot possibly warm that much water enough to make it even slightly enjoyable.   

Finn persisted though, begging to swim “just a little bit, pleeeease.”  As we got about 20 feet from our landing point, Keith relented and let Finn jump out of the kayak and swim to shore.  The look on Finn’s face when he hit that cold water was priceless.  He’s a decent swimmer, but the sheer freezing aspect of the water made it really challenging to swim.  He probably could have walked out of the water faster than he swam out.  But, that’s how kids learn, right?  And now Finn can boast that he actually swam in Lake Superior.