December 3, 2008
Canyon River Falls, Falls River Falls
- Conditions:
- Cold, snowy, recent snow
- Companions:
- Logan
- Vehicle:
- Ford Taurus
Even though the snow was high and weather quite crisp, Logan and I were going a bit stir crazy with no weekend hiking. We headed out to two easy hikes south of Baraga one afternoon in my little car, sticking to the main roads for the entire drive.
Parking on the side of US-41 at the closed park, we trudged through the snow towards Canyon River Falls on Sturgeon River. There were some tracks in this area, but it had been several days since the last visitor, and we had several inches of snow to push our way through. The path was easy to make out, especially as it follows the river for most of the way, and we made it to the main falls without mishap.
The river was higher then I expected and the waterfall looked great. It was a hassle to get down to the lower flat rock for a good photo with the thick snow over slippery rock, but the image was worth it. Logan and I then headed downstream to the other two falls and just to check out the snowy canyon. I wasn't able to get good pictures of the other two falls (you'd have to work some magic to get a good picture of the middle falls, and the lowermost drop would have involved fording the icy waters), but the entire trek was rather pretty and enjoyable.
We headed back out to the car and drove north to Falls River Falls. I was curious how this river would look with the snowfall, and since it was right on our route, decided to stop there as well. Parking on US-41 near the train tracks, we hiked downstream to the lowermost falls before slowly making our way back to the upper falls. The main falls were a bit of a disappointment, as the snow and ice covered up most of the good drops, but the lower falls had some awesome ice formations on them and the entire hike was easy. I did have to keep Logan on his leash during this hike, though, as we were close to the highway and I didn't want to take chances. After a quick stop at Subway, we headed home cold but dry, happy to have gotten out of the house for a bit.