As I'm sure you would expect, the shape of a National Lakeshore is long and narrow. Pictured Rocks extends 42 miles along the Lake Superior shoreline and covers 73,236 acres. Fifteen miles of this coastline consists of sandstone cliffs rising…
We went to Munising, Michigan, with plans to visit Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Like National Parks, National Lakeshores are managed by the National Park System (NPS). According to The National Parks Foundation, the NPS oversees 423 units that fall into…
We did a little shopping at the Gitche Gumee Landing Giftshop and the Nonesuch Gallery (aka Brad's Guitars) and then we packed up and started heading south on US 45. We could have followed this highway from Ontonagon all the…
Lake Superior has fifty-six lighthouses along its 2,730 mile shoreline. One of them -- a retired one -- can be found in Ontonagon. The current Ontonagon Lighthouse was constructed in a "schoolhouse" style in 1866 to replace an older wooden…
Highway 45 continues north from our overnight stop in Three Lakes. It goes through the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan all the way to Lake Superior. I've lived in Wisconsin for forty-eight of my seventy-three years but have only been…
Winter can be cold and dark and make you long for longer days. But it can also be a magical time of year when snowflakes dance through the air and icicles become exclamation points for the season. Recently, our landscape…
Bryce Canyon National Park is located in southwestern Utah. If you need a nature fix, Bryce is pretty nice. Spoiler Alert: Despite its name, Bryce Canyon is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern…
Native Americans have inhabited the area around the Grand Canyon for about 12,000 years. The first Europeans, soldiers led by GarcÃa López de Cárdenas, did not see it until 1540. His disastrous failure to find the fabled Seven Cities of…
[This is another very old story, with photos from trips to Cape Hatteras National Seashore in 1978, 1980 and 1981.] Sunset over the Hatteras Island dunes. Cape Hatteras lies in the Outer Banks, a 200-mile-long string of barrier islands that…