Superintendent, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, PO Box 40, Munising MI 49862. A special park topo is available from the Lakeshore. The park brochure is also adequate, as are the sketch maps given here. M-28 and East Munising St. The trail ascends the escarpment gradually, past the former site of the Schoolcraft Iron Furnace.
Small streams cross the trail and descend in picturesque unnamed waterfalls.
There is a beach near the headquarters. Past the junction, the main trail converges with the coastline, and will follow the coast for much of the next 40 miles. Sheer, rocky cliffs make up the Pictured Rocks shoreline here, with lookout points that give a good view of Grand Island and Miner's Castle opposite. The trail continues on high, level ground through open hardwoods until it emerges near the restrooms at Miner's Castle. The trail leaves from the path closest to the parking area and goes along the rim of the escarpment, where there's a bird's-eye view of the basin and the cliffs at the lakefront.