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Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore A mantle of snow creates a winter wonderland at Sand Point within Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
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Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Things To Know Before You Come
 
Morning along the Mosquito River in the backcountry at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
National Park Service photo
Morning on the Mosquito River
 

Wow, what an incredible place! The Lakeshore offers towering multicolored sandstone cliffs, miles long sparkling beach strands, dashing waterfalls, a huge area of sand dunes, inland lakes and streams, and it’s all OURS to explore! Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is managed by the National Park Service as one of only four national lakeshores.

Just like an old-time quilt, this park, which is about the size of five Manhattan Islands, is also a mosaic of human history. Historic sites include an 1874 lighthouse, early U.S. Coast Guard lifeboat stations, old farmsteads and a Civil War era iron blast furnace site.

The Lakeshore includes some 15 miles of cliffs along its 40 mile length. Within the park, about 100 miles of trail lead to remote trout streams, secretive bogs, and a system of thirteen backcountry campsites. The park is open year-round and is truly a four season recreation destination with ice climbing, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, and ice fishing, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, sightseeing, birding, backcountry and vehicle based camping, the list goes on!

To appreciate the Lakeshore to its fullest, stop by one of five visitor information centers in Munising, at Miners Castle, Munising Falls, the Au Sable Light Station, or Grand Sable, near Grand Marais.

Experience Your National Lakeshore!

Small gray gun
Firearms
carefully follow federal and state laws
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This visitor enjoys wading along the Lake Superior beach, but needs to be wary of rip currents.
Rip currents
powerful currents of water moving away from shore.
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Boat anchored off Chapel Beach.
Boating safety
information from U.S. Coast Guard
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Black bear make their home in the Upper Peninsula.
Please don't
feed the bears
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Dune grass thrives on the Grand Sable Dunes near Grand Marais, Michigan, in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Did You Know?
On October 6, 1972, ceremonies in Munising marked the establishment of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, America's first national lakeshore. To symbolically link the park's two gateway communities of Munising and Grand Marais, water was poured from two glass containers into a third.
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Last Updated: August 31, 2010 at 11:53 MST