Waterfalls of the Keweenaw

Conditions:

Hot, sunny, humid, recent rain

Companions:

Katie, Logan

Vehicle:

Saturn Vue

It was a glorious Saturday morning when Katie and I decided to go for a road trip for waterfalls. Planning to hit close to a dozen different sites, all within Houghton and Baraga county, we set off early in the morning and headed south in her vehicle.

The first stop we made was actually the Bishop Baraga site. Katie had never stopped there before, so we spent a bit of time walking the dog and admiring the towering copper statue. Our next stop was at the local drugstore in downtown L'Anse to pick up some sunscreen and bug spray, as the humidity and bugs were starting to pick up with the warming sun. Deciding to wait for lunch until after the first falls, we headed down to the shore front park, got the dog some water, and headed past the marina towards the mouth of Falls River.

I was unsure how many falls were along this river at this time, so we started at the mouth and just headed upstream. Luckily, there was a solid path along the fenced-off factory that follows the river all the way up to US-41, almost a mile from our starting point. The first bit was a narrow footpath that, but it soon widened out to a snowmobile trail near a wooden bridge before the first falls.

The first drop we saw was at an old dam structure. Cement extended perpendicular from each bank and left a small gap for the water to pour through. As it exited this narrow gap, several rock formations quickly diverted the river to the left in a swirling, foaming rapids. The solid rock here led straight below the gap, so we were able to get very close to this section for some awesome pictures.

The first falls were a short distance upstream from here. They looked like an elongated sloping slide, with the water pouring down and around the rock. All together, it was only a several foot drop, but it was still rather impressive.

Within site of these falls was the bottom section of the main falls. After going underneath a railroad bridge just east of US-41, Falls River drops at least twenty feet through a series of little, mini waterfalls that looks simply incredible. At the bottom of these falls, the river takes a sharp, ninety degree turn into the lower falls which allows a perfect view of the entire drop.

We spent a bit of time here, both sitting at the bench near this turn and wandering around on the falls. Unfortunately, we didn't try to go any further upstream, and it wasn't until several days later that I finally got to see the upper falls along this stretch. We simply turned around and headed back along the trail to our vehicle, grabbing lunch on the way out of town.

Our next stop was Power Dam and Power House falls. We took Power Dam falls straight to its dead end and I walked out through the meadow here, looking for Power Dam falls. Unfortunately, they took a dam out of this area about ten years ago, and I wasn't able to find anything besides a measly six inch drop along this stretch of the river. We then tried the turn off that's mere yards from the dead-end and found ourselves at Power House falls.

This drop was definitely incredible. I decided to start a short distance downstream with my pictures, where I soon slipped and dropped the camera onto a hard rock surface and watched it slide down into the water. Our trip was over at this point, as my camera refused to start and looked pretty damaged in general. We headed back up to Houghton sadly, with only pictures of Falls River Falls to show for our grand adventure.