First Day

Today was my first day on the job at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but it was pretty easy. I am one of four new Visitor Services Assistants. We all met at park headquarters, which is just down the road from my house. Whitney, my roommate, and I walked over and met the other two, Marc and Rudy, and I got to meet Amber, our boss. The other three are all from Michigan, and graduated from the recreation program at Northern Michigan University at Marquette. Amber had scheduled our first day but then couldn’t be there for most of the day, so after a quick tour of headquarters and the interagency visitor center in town (both National Park Service and Forest Service staff work there) she checked out a car to us and told us to go explore the park on our own! We went to Munising Falls, and with our new keys were able to get inside the visitor center where we’ll be working.

 We walked back to the waterfall, and the big chunk of ice that had been standing behind the falls on Saturday was almost gone – it had fallen and only a short ridge remained.

 

It was a chilly, cloudy day, and all of the yellow trout lilies were closed up tight! The cowslips, or marsh marigolds, were just starting to open.

We drove out to Miner’s Castle. The view from the overlook was quite different – almost all the ice was gone! There were only a few pieces left, blown or floated into the cove below the iconic rock formation. The rest of the water was clear. I still had the photos from three days earlier on my camera so was able to show the others what a change there had been. I got my “before” pictures just in time!

 
There is a trail from the overlook down to Miner’s Beach, but my foot was bothering me so I wasn’t sure about hiking it – or rather, about hiking back up afterward! So while they hiked down, I walked back to the car and drove it around and down to the Miner’s Beach parking lot, then went down to the shore to wait. It was very beautiful but the shifting sands are hard to walk on! I’d like to go back when it’s a little warmer and I can go barefoot. There were just a few brightly colored, smooth pebbles at the water’s edge – and the water was COLD! Naturally, with some ice still out there – but it was still a shock!

We drove to the Miner’s Falls trailhead and hiked down to the falls – just under a mile and a quarter round trip. It’s a very nice trail, wide and smooth; and while there are some hills, it’s not all up one way and down the other. There were a lot of flowers that were either closed up or not quite ready to bloom yet, but still evident. The waterfall itself was spectacular – my camera batteries were getting low but I made sure to get a photo to compare later in the summer, when there may be a lighter flow.

It’s an easy trail, but we were pushing pretty fast to get back to the car. Or at least I was pushing to keep up with the others! I’m used to slower hikes, stopping a lot to look at things and take photos, but we had a limited amount of time available.

The last part of our expedition was to drive down to Little Beaver Lake campground. It’s a rougher road, unpaved and steep at times, and there were some really deep potholes – but we made it through all right. We didn’t have time to do the nature hike, but I walked down to Little Beaver Lake and sure enough – there were chewed-off stumps right down by the water, and bare sticks covered in little tooth marks washing up on the shore! I’d love to stake that place out, but apparently the campground gets pretty busy in summer so I’m sure the beavers are out at the other end somewhere.

We drove back to Headquarters, and made plans for tomorrow: Rudy, who is staying in Marquette, will meet Whitney and me here, then we will drive out to pick up Marc who is staying at the other end of the park, and we will go check out all the sites at that end. And I made a quick run into town, so I now have batteries in my camera! I’ve got to take more “before” pictures before summer really starts!