When the whether allows, Lake Superior is a fantastic place to go kayaking.  On the Michigan side is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  There is a nice sized recreation area on an island near Pictured Rocks, off of Munising, MI.  My recent trip was more about seeing rocky cliffs, aquamarine water, and seeing if I had what it took to bring everything I needed to camp.  At Pictured Rocks you need a reservation to camp, but the cost was minimal: $10-15 a day.  

This trip took place in mid July.  We brought everything we needed on two inflatable kayaks, pictured below.  Prior to the trip we practiced entering and exiting our kayaks in deep water, and wore drysuits for most of the trip.

As far as supplies go, if you are going to do a kayak camping excursion like this, I don't recommend hauling all of your water with you, like we did, it's heavy and hard to transport.  Invest in a nice gravity-driven water filter that you can hang from a tree!



So what kind of scenery can you expect from Pictured Rocks?  Miles of different colored cliffs, different hues of clear Lake Superior Water, where you can see gigantic bolders far beneath you....it's awesome!

If you want to get close to nature and feel very, very small, along side giant rock formations, it's worth the (7 hour) drive to Michigan from the Twin Cities!



After a rain you can catch the spray of temporary waterfall:


We paddled 13 miles on day one (oops, I missed a landmark and skipped our campsite by a couple miles)
But what we got to see was worth it!  


Now for a little commentary on the camping.  We weren't really prepared for the bugs at the ummm....Mosquito River campsites.   There is a nice, long, beach, there is a cool bubbling river emptying into Lake Superior, and there are, when the sun goes down, mosquitos.  I highly recommend looking into some Insect Shield clothing, maybe even a second 'eating' tent if you can find a way to pack it.  I wouldn't take back the memories made on this trip, but I didn't like those skeeters.  

I also saw my first 'bear pole', that is a tall pole you can lift your pack up to so Bear's can't mess with your food.  We would have used a Bear Locker but it was already filled with someone else's gear.  This wouldn't have been a problem but due to my navigation error we set up camp at dusk and once it was dark, we realized our pack was so loaded with food we couldn't lift it up in the air and see what we were doing to find the hanging spot.  I recall messing with using the tall hook to get a rope up there and fashioning some kind of pulley, but we got it up there, and Yogi didn't bother us at night.



Putting the memory of the bugs aside, when we were on the water, it was blissful.  Do I look like I have a care in the world here?


And, once we got settled, our campsite did have a nice view of Lake Superior at sunset.


All in all...find a way to shield yourself from the flying critters at dusk and plan a trip to Picture Rocks National Lakeshore.