Waterfalls of the Keweenaw

Conditions:

Sunny, warm, humid, some recent rain

Companions:

Logan

Vehicle:

Saturn Vue

Katie, Logan and I camped at Big Erick's campground the night before, and as we were very close to plenty of waterfalls, I planned on spending part of Saturday finishing up the falls along Huron River. I had visited over half of them, and though they weren't impressive, I remained hopeful that the remaining three falls would be worth the difficult driving.

Katie decided to stay at the campground, so Logan and I took off in her car down Black Creek road to relocate East Branch Huron River Falls and find Big Falls. We had scouted out the area the day before with Katie and found two difficult parts of the trip - we had to drive across West Branch Huron River and through a deep, large puddle that I would never drive through with my car. Katie's SUV almost enjoyed both challenges, though, and I explored the road that continued on. However, my journey was cut short by an orange gate with recent tracks nearby. I was fairly certain that East Branch Huron River Falls were past the gate but didn't want to bump into the property owner, so Logan and I turned around and tried the right fork located several yards past the massive puddle.

This two-track circled around the puddle's swamp and headed south. I wasn't sure that it would led anywhere, and was just driving with the window open to enjoy the cool breeze when I heard the rushing sounds of a waterfall to our left. Pulling off to the side at the small parking spot and leaving the dog in the car, I found Big Falls at the bottom of the steep riverbank. I didn't spend much time here taking pictures before going back to Logan and heading back the way we came through the puddle and river.

Parking on the side of the west side of the river, Logan and I started following a faint footpath on the side of the river a short distance before losing the trail. Surrounded by thorny brush, we crossed the river here over a few logs and rocks without getting wet. Continuing onwards past several cabins and crossing the river two more times with the trail, we found an impressive West Branch Falls at the top of rocky canyon. We headed back, getting slightly wet fording the river, and made it back to the car in the mid-afternoon.

Hoping to visit one more waterfall before going back to Katie, I headed back to Black Creek road and past Erick's Falls to Leatherby road. I bumped into a four-wheeler less then a half-mile down the road and asked for directions. I usually try to avoid this, partly out of pride, but I had spent the better part of an evening hiking this area earlier in the summer and just wanted to find the main falls this time without the lengthy search. The man was a bit of help, though the directions he gave were incorrect in terms of mileage. We headed further down Leatherby road, turning right at several different two-tracks before finding a suspicious two-car parking lot at the end of a particularly long drive.

Parking and bringing Logan with, we soon found an impressive two-tiered waterfall surrounded by a network of trails and several small camping spots. After crawling around and taking several pictures of the falls, we headed back. By their relative position along West Branch Huron River, I'd guess that they are Upper Leatherby Falls, though most people seem to call them Leatherby Falls. I do hope to return and hike upstream to see if there's another waterfall further upstream, which would make the naming of these falls even more questionable.

We headed back to the camp site to an irritated Katie. It was getting close to three in the afternoon, which was the check-out time for the campground. While there is no office at Big Erick's, a county officer drives through the area several times a day. We packed up and headed back up to Houghton. I was hoping to stop at a few other spots along our route (Slate River Falls), but was still elated by the discovery of three impressive waterfalls along an otherwise mild river.