Waterfalls of the Keweenaw

Conditions:

Cool, cloudy, recent rain

Companions:

Cory, Faith, Katie, Logan

Vehicle:

Saturn Vue

Getting out of work early this Friday, Katie and I picked up Cory and Faith from Michigan Tech and headed up to the Keweenaw to visit a few places. Our main destination was Copper Falls and the nearby mine/mill, but I thought we could hit up Fenner's Falls on the way there and take the Garden City Road up to the Copper Falls Loop.

The roads were nice and didn't have a lot of traffic on them, so we made it up to Phoenix in rather good time. Parking on the side of the road, Cory, Faith and I took off into the woods towards the falls while Katie and Logan stayed in the car. We found an easy path down the side of the river's steep side and ended up right on top of the lower falls. Eagle River was flowing quite heavily that day, and the falls looked amazing.

It's close to impossible to go upstream along the western bank, and being unable to ford the swollen river over the falls (like I did during the first visit), I headed downstream alone to find a spot to cross over rapids. I was able to make it about three-fourths of the way on rocks before I had to step in a foot-deep pool. Climbing the opposite bank also proved to be a hassle. In a comical manner, I would climb up three feet and slide down two on the slippery pine needles before finally making it up to the roots above.

The lower half of Fenner's Falls looks much better from the eastern bank, so I spent a good amount of time taking pictures from this side. I headed upstream then, passing by Faith and Cory, who were splashing it up at the large pool on the other side near the falls. After doing some minor rock climbing, I finally got a few good angles on the upper falls. After fording the river above the falls, getting soaked up to my knees in the process, I climbed the gorge and called out to Faith and Cory and we headed out.

We parked the car a short distance off the unimproved Central cutoff road. All five of us got out and started hiking down the two-track past the blue mineshaft and got to Copper Falls in time to hear gunshots. I only got a few pictures in before we quickly headed out the way we came. We didn't explore further in this area, and I still am unsure if there's another waterfall further upstream before Owl Lake, although the topo maps make this seem unlikely.

After driving through Central and debating our next stop, we decided to head to the Centennial Mine (#6 shaft). It's clearly visible from the road, and Katie and I had passed it a number of times without checking it out. We stopped and climbed around a bit, but the wooden shaft looked completely unsafe and the larger metal one was locked up, so we headed out after a short bit. We headed back to Houghton, not realizing that this was the last trip any of us would take before snow hit Houghton.