Grand Marais and the Grand Sable Dunes

Pictured Rocks has a second gateway, far quieter than Munising, at the little town of Grand Marais on the eastern end of the park. It’s a longer drive to get here, which is part of the appeal — Grand Marais is a small, friendly harbor town that’s become a favorite of backpackers and people who like their wild places uncrowded.

The scenery at this end of the park trades cliffs for sand. The Grand Sable Dunes rise straight up from the Lake Superior shore in a wall of sand nearly five miles long — a rare kind of “perched” dune that sits atop an ancient glacial bank, among the best examples anywhere in the world. Just west of town, Sable Falls drops about seventy-five feet through a sandstone gorge on its way to the lake. And at the Log Slide, where loggers once sent timber roaring down the dunes to the water, a short walk leads to an overlook with a long view of the shore and the old Au Sable Light Station, built in 1874 to warn ships off this dangerous coast.

You can plan a visit at nps.gov/piro.