Last summer we spent a week outside Traverse City while my husband was the preacher at a youth church camp. We decided since we were already so far north, we might as well head up to the Upper Peninsula to see some sights. But, we only had a day! Here is how we went about exploring Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in one day!
I’ll elaborate…
I have to say that the Upper Peninsula is gorgeous. We stopped just before the Mackinac (pronounced like it ends with aw) Bridge to eat a picnic at a park right below the bridge and on the shores of Lake Huron. The kids were fascinated by how huge the bridge is and how Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet right at the bridge.
We rented a cabin on AirBnb in Grand Marais. It is such a cute little town right on the shores of Lake Superior. There are two restaurants and a general store. We enjoyed walking around and seeing beautiful views of Lake Superior. Grand Marais also less than 10 minutes from the eastern portion of Pictured Rocks. After checking into our cute little cabin in the late afternoon, we set off for the Pictured Rocks Grand Sable Visitor Center which was about 10 minutes away. The park ranger directed us to a nearby hiking trail to Sable Falls. This might have been one of our favorites. You walk down 168 steps to see a waterfall. If you keep going about a quarter of a mile, you come out onto a multi colored rock beach with a beautiful view of Lake Superior. The rocks look like they’ve been painted. Going back up the steps was a trek, but we made it!
Sable Falls 
Sable Beach with beautifully colored rocks
The next day, we had a lot to accomplish in order to see as much of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in one day as we could! So, after a quick breakfast of cereal bars and fruit, we left the cabin early and headed west to Miner’s Falls. This is a trail of about 1.2 miles to see a waterfall. It’s well worth it and the hike is easy. My four year old had no problems!
Then, we headed west to the main launching town for Pictured Rocks called Munising (which I can’t pronounce right and my family found this hilarious:/). This is where you can catch the boat ride that takes you down to see the rocks. Sadly, as soon as we left, clouds rolled in and it stayed rainy and cloudy the whole time so we didn’t get to see the colors of the rocks in their sunshine glory (google some pics!), but it was still stunning! I had packed lunches and we ate on the boat. When we were done, we meandered through the cute town and ate our first ever meat pasty! It was really good!
From here, we drove about a mile to the main visitor center for Pictured Rocks. The younger two boys turned in their junior ranger books and got their badges! Then, we walked about a quarter of a mile to a waterfall that is directly behind the visitor center.
We drove back east to Miner’s beach and Miner’s Castle. For the beach, we got out and walked and dipped our toes in the water. It was late July and the water was incredibly cold! There were some people swimming though despite 60 degree weather! Then, we headed to Miner’s Castle. It was about a half of a mile down to an overlook. The pictures don’t do it justice. The colors, as you can see below, of the water reminded me of being in the Caribbean! It also has some buildings there with a ranger on duty telling you about the area and wildlife.
The last adventure on our list was hiking 3 miles to see Chapel Falls. This is a really easy hike, mostly level and despite all the walking we had already done, the kids did great! The falls are beautiful and the scenery was equally gorgeous! Thankfully, despite the signs that black bears had been seen by the rangers, we had a bear free adventure! It could be because our crew of 6 is generally loud, but who knows! I wasn’t sad about it!
I’m so glad we decided to head up to the Upper Peninsula, even if we only had a limited amount of time there. It is well worth a trip, and my kids are begging to go back!