MUNISING, Mich. -- The mighty natural forces that carved the 200-foot cliffs of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore are still at work, a fact forgotten only at great peril by the sailors of Lake Superior.

The lake, second largest in the world, has been the site of more than 2,500 documented shipwrecks. But one man's misfortune is another's tourist attraction.

Today, the shipwrecks -- as well as the magnificent colored cliffs -- are the big draws for visitors in this remote, forested region of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, at least in the summer. (In the winter, residents bill Munising as the snowmobile capital of the world.)

The national lakeshore covers 73,000 acres, including 42 miles of coast. More than 100 miles of trails crisscross the area. Many hikes of 3 miles or less take visitors to scenic vistas and historic sites such as Au Sable Light Station.

But the best way -- indeed the only way -- for the typical visitor to view the cliffs and the wrecks is via tour boats that leave several times daily from Munising's harbor.

Pictured Rocks Cruises concentrates on the rocks, traveling 17 miles up the shore to visit all the major formations, including caves, natural arches and an unusually shaped outcropping called Indian Head, which resembles a 200-foot-tall bust of an Indian brave staring out onto the lake.

During the cruise, Capt. Chuck Cook pulled the boat close to the cliffs, which are colorfully stained with the minerals leaching through the sandstone. The colors, mostly reds and oranges with some greens and yellows, suggest the deserts of the southwestern United States.

True to their name, the rocks -- like clouds on a summer day -- suggest a variety of pictures, at least to imaginative onlookers.

"People see all kinds of things along here in the colors of the cliffs: horses, faces, desert scenes," Cook said, narrating the cruise. "But frankly, I think it has more to do with what you drank the night before."

The first large rock formation east of Munising, Miners Castle, is the only one accessible by car. Visitors who take the short hike from the visitors center will get a great look at the natural carving.

The Glass Bottom Shipwreck Tour leaves from another dock in Munising Bay. The two-hour tour overlaps with the Pictured Rocks tour at just one point: the old East Channel Lighthouse. Passengers on both tours get plenty of opportunities to take pictures at the lighthouse, built in 1867 and resembling an old wooden church with a light instead of a steeple.

The operators claim their tour is the only one in the United States during which shipwrecks can be seen from a glass-bottom boat.

The tour visits three shipwrecks, plainly visible from the boat's viewing wells through the clear lake water.The wrecks occurred in three eras -- the 1840s, 1870 and 1926 -- and lie in less than 20 feet of water. Large pieces of the ships, potentially preserved for thousands of years by the cold waters, are easily identifiable.

Viewing the wrecks and hearing the captain's tales offer a short, painless history lesson about ship construction and the dangers of sailing the Great Lakes.

The wreck of the Bermuda, a 150-foot wooden schooner hauling general supplies, is typical. Pounded by a gale in October 1870, the boat began to take on water and made for shelter in Munising Bay.

The captain beached the vessel and went ashore for help. But in the night the ship worked itself off the shore, filling rapidly with water and drowning the sailors.

The shipwreck tour also gives visitors a great view of Grand Island, a 13,500-acre island that's a national recreation area.

New to the tour, the captain said, was a bald eagle's nest on the island's shore. During my visit, an adult eagle and a fledgling seemed as interested in us as we were in them.

Divers can get an even better view of the wrecks with guided excursions into the surrounding waters, which have been designated the Alger Underwater Preserve and hold seven major dive sites.

For landlubbers, the dusty gravel and sand roads that snake through the 42-mile-long national lakeshore make a car ride from one side to the other something of an adventure in itself. Driving through on the longest day of the year, I passed only a couple of other vehicles every 5 or 10 miles.

But the road was certainly passable, even in a rental sedan. And it gave me access to several beautiful locations that I wouldn't have seen otherwise, including Twelvemile Beach, which is just what its name implies.

There, where the tall sandstone cliffs ended, I saw only two other people on a beach covered with wonderful rocks polished smooth by the lake's surf. The small rocks, oblong or kidney-shaped, were as colorful as the grand cliffs and as beautiful as precious gems, especially when piled in wet, gleaming heaps.

Farther up the coast in the national lakeshore is Grand Sable Dunes, a 300-foot-high ridge of sand stretching for miles along the shore. The truly ambitious can amble (or more likely, tumble) down the almost vertical face of a dune at the Log Slide overlook, once the site of a logging camp.

Near the Log Slide, the pavement begins again, and it's a short drive to the small visitors center at Grand Marais. Thirsty visitors who make it this far should treat themselves to a microbrew at Lake Superior Brewing, one of the few businesses in the tiny town.

Another surprise awaiting me in Grand Marais was the Pickle Barrel House, a tiny house made to resemble a large pickle barrel. The whimsical house was built in 1926 as a summer cottage on nearby Sable Lake for a Chicago Tribune cartoonist and later moved to its current location in town, where I just happened to spy it in passing.

Back in Munising, one of the most popular eateries is the Dogpatch Restaurant, built in 1966 when Al Capp's hillbilly-themed newspaper comic Li'l Abner was popular. Although the comic is long gone, the restaurant -- named for Li'l Abner's fictional home -- is going strong. (And the cut-out comic characters on the walls, created by a local artist, are all kept in like-new condition.)

While in the Upper Peninsula, visitors should try the local delicacy: the pasty (pronounced PAST-ee), a personal-sized meat and vegetable pie. Some of the best, locals say, are found in Munising at Muldoon's Pasty Shop.

And for anyone who loves Great Lakes whitefish, this is the place to be. Even some of the area's fast-food restaurants serve the local delicacy.

The Navigator restaurant, on the waterfront in Munising, has good whitefish.

And it's a great place to watch the skies darken with a summer storm and be glad that you're not out there, somewhere, at the mercy of that mighty lake.

sstephens@dispatch.com