We had a fantastic trip with this outfit. While it seems pricey, consider you're getting both a boat tour along Pictured Rocks, and the opportunity to kayak and get really close to the amazing rock formations for about 4.5 miles (2 hours) along the most scenic part of the park. The boat stays near enough during the entirety of your kayak tour that you're able to go aboard to use the restroom or if you've simply had enough paddling.

Only tandem sea kayaks available, but everyone paddles with a partner; if your group has an odd #, you'll be grouped such that you're not alone. The kayaks, life vests, and paddles all seemed well-maintained. The boat we road on was only a few years old and seemed in great condition.

Safety seems to be a high priority here. To that end, we'd actually booked a tour earlier in the week, but was canceled due to weather. We managed to snag some of the last spots on a tour the day before we left town, when the weather seemed like it would clear up by the time we were scheduled to depart. Prior to boarding the boat, we got a spiel from the manager that the previous group coming in had reported that the lake had gotten a little choppier than when they first put in. We were told in no uncertain terms that they couldn't guarantee that we'd be able to paddle the planned route; the backup plan was a slightly shorter but more sheltered stretch along Grand Island (and discount to the rate for the inconvenience). Fortunately, the wind had died down enough by the time we made it out to the drop point about 45 minutes later that we were able to do the entire stretch with no interruption.

On the boat ride portion, you pass by and can see the East Channel Lighthouse on Grand Island and Sand Point Beach. You also go by Miners Castle, though it's not so easy to make out from afar. A couple miles past Miners Beach, our group of 6 kayaks put in at Mosquito Beach and the up-close tour (led by one of the company's employees) began.

The day prior to our kayak trip we hiked the Mosquito & Chapel trails in Pictured Rocks and, while there were places you could see the cliff formations, this was entirely more amazing. It seemed like around every bend there were slightly different rock formations; our guide gave us a pretty amazing geology/history lesson with this, explaining how some layers we saw and could touch were literally 10x older than the dinosaurs. Other places you could paddle under a massive overhang or into a little cave (if you're daring enough). We paddled past Lover's Leap, Grand Portal Point, and over to Chapel Rock where the boat picked up everyone.

Not sure if it's standard, but our guide also made sure to take a handful of pictures of the group and texted us a link to the album before we even got back to the dock in Munising; it was nice having pictures of our family that, say, didn't have my daughter awkwardly twisting about 75 degrees around to try and look at me as I took a picture.

Recommend a dry bag/case if you're planning to bring wallet or keys out with you. And a waterproof case with a lanyard or flotation device for your phone, because you'll definitely want pictures.

Well worth every penny, very highly recommended. Pretty much the best part of our 2 week vacation through the UP.