Agile Trekker: Au Sable Lighthouse, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/8/2025	3.7 miles	2 hours 4 minutes	55'	2.5 mph	149.7 miles

Parking:

H58. This park has an entrance fee.

Map:

Available at the park visitor center.

Directions:

Take the trail from the trailhead and turn right towards the lighthouse. Follow the gravel road to the lighthouse. Return the same way.

Today is the first of 2 days we are spending visiting Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, run by the National Park Service. This trail was about 2 hours away from our hotel, so we had to charge our car all the way up to 100%. There actually is a slow charger in Munising, but we didn't stop to use it. This park has two visitor centers, one on the west side and one on the east side. The map said the one on the east side is open seasonally. We stopped at the one on the west side. There really was nothing there except for trail maps. No exhibits, no passport stamps.

The drive was nice. There are still mounds of snow on the sides of the roads from snowplows. It sounds like once the snow goes away, bug season starts. There are so many campgrounds in this area!

Dogs aren't allowed on many trails in this park. The park does have some paved and gravel trails, and those allow dogs. There were also some trails that allow dogs but were closed for repairs. Today we went on an easy gravel trail to Au Sable Lighthouse. Even though the trail is a wide gravel road, I really recommend it. First off, it's just beautiful walking through the evergreens and birch trees, with Lake Superior on your side. We dropped down to the beach a couple of times to look at shipwrecks. We got to the lighthouse buildings, and I stopped to sketch while Glen explored.

It was really cold today - in the upper 30's and low 40's. It was also windy, so there were rough waves on Lake Superior. We decided it wasn't a good day for dog swimming.