Everyone in my National Park Facebook Group is like you must view Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore from the water. You can either kayak or take a boat tour. After some search searching I found two different boat tours but the glass bottom boat tours ended at the end of September. Based on tour times and our schedule, we opted for the Sunset Spray Falls Tour.
The Sunset Spray Falls Tour is ran by Pictured Rocks Cruise, LLC. They offer four different cruises and operate daily from Mid-May to the end of October weather permitting. Two of the cruises are sunset cruises. The sunset cruise time is dependent on the time of the sunset so our departure time was 5:45. The sunset cruise is the most popular because of how the sun hits the rocks during sunset.
Boarding is first come first serve and you can line up an hour before hand with boarding starting 15 minutes prior to departure. We got in line about 50 minutes beforehand there were probably 50 people or so in front of us. The boats are have three decks and the top deck is open seating while the other two are enclosed. You really want to be on the top deck. You also want to be on the left (port) side of the boat so you get the views of the rocks on the way back. Trust me on this. This is when the sun hits the rocks and you can get those awesome pictures.
Despite the hubby's initial hesitation about the cost, he really enjoyed the tour. It is over two hours. You go out to Spray Falls and come back on a high speed catamaran. You definitely need to dress for the weather. It gets cold on the water during October.
Our captain was fabulous. He would stop or slow down at every scenic point to allow for pictures. Depending on the location, he would spin the boat around so both sides of the boat could get pictures. You were not allowed to stand up unless on the bottom deck at the back of the boat.
Some of the highlights include East Channel Lighthouse
Miners Castle
Many sea caves
Spray Falls.
At the end you can just sit back and relax and enjoy the sunset as you cruise back to the dock.
It was great boat trip. I highly recommend taking the sunset cruise if you make it to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the future. It is well worth the money and time. However, I would recommend eating before hand if you can as food choices can be limited afterwards.
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