Waterfalls of the Keweenaw

Conditions:

Warm, sunny, recent rain

Companions:

Emily, Katie, Logan

Vehicle:

Saturn Vue

Katie and I were on the way down to a wedding in Appleton, WI with a friend and decided to visit Falls River Falls. Luckily, our route took us straight through L'Anse and we left early in the afternoon on Thursday, so we had plenty of time to make the stop.

We parked on north side of US-41 near the railroad tracks and hiked down the riverbank to the middle falls. Our friend hadn't been to these falls before, so we took our time and enjoyed the view. I decided to go ahead alone to try to find the upper falls, as all of us were wearing sandals and I was the only one willing to venture upstream.

The well-defined trail that leads from the waterfront all the way to US-41 breaks up into a few paths at middle falls. The leftmost path turns into a two-track and heads into town. The middle one leads along the top of the bank, and the right path leads straight down along the side of the falls. However, the right one peters out near the top of the falls at the first railroad bridge and I found myself jumping from rock to rock to continue on.

The first railroad bridge wasn't too bad - the cement footings were wide and dry. However, the next bridge was US-41, and drains opened up on the footings and leaked orange sludge out over the path. Also, the undergrowth both before and after this bridge was substantially thick, and I found it quite difficult to keep dry while going upstream.

The next bridge was a much older railroad bridge, but the footings here dry and easy to walk along. You could see the upper falls from here, and I stopped and took pictures here. While I was under here, a train also passed over the first bridge, which was a pretty exciting event. After a few pictures, I headed back to the now worried girls and we continued on our way to Wisconsin. It would be several months later before I realized that there is a much easier and drier path to these falls.