PADDLE A GREAT LAKE

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

MICHIGAN

IF ALL YOU KNOW about Lake Superior is from “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” set the GPS for the town of Munising on the Upper Peninsula’s southern shore and prepare to have preconceptions scrambled. Launch a sea kayak from Pictured Rocks Kayaking’s ferry-style boat, and paddle clear aqua-green waters up close to towering, arching shoreline sandstone formations with local names like Chapel Rock, Rainbow Cave and Miners Castle. Bragging rights: For a change of equally awesome scenery, hike the shore’s east end to the Grand Sable Banks and Dunes, left dramatically perched 300 feet above Superior by the last Ice Age.

Copper and iron color the sandstone shoreline. Intrepid kayakers can also access several sea caves.