Waterfalls of the Keweenaw

Conditions:

Cold, cloudy, some recent rain

Companions:

Logan

Vehicle:

Saturn Vue

I got out of work early this day in hopes to find two waterfalls in an area I had visited too many times over the summer: the Herman-Nestoria road. There are plenty of waterfalls that are accessible from this road, and most of them required several repeat trips to find, something I did not always enjoy. The two falls were No Name and Upper Sturgeon, and Logan and I arrived near No Name at three in the afternoon.

We parked on the side of the road and headed straight in the woods, hoping to make a shortcut to the creek. It was cloudy out, and without distinguishing landmarks, we quickly went into a circle and ended up back on the road. This was rather disheartening, so we turned back and headed up the road, past the car, to where the unnamed creek passed under the road.

Following the creek was easy to do, even though it had massive, open swamps along the route. The trees had lost their leaves and the underbrush was dying, so we stayed high and dry on the surrounding hills for most of the trip. There are three main swamps to pass. We crossed the creek, following the west side, after the first swamp near a beaver dam. This swamp reached out a long distance through our path, so we had to bushwhack through some nasty woody brush. After that, though, the way was easy and the views excellent. The second swamp ends with an earthen dam, and the third swamp ends with the falls. Also, the third swamp had large expanses of open water in the middle which almost appeared to be a small pond or lake.

I could hear the falls in the distance as Logan and I neared the end of the third swamp. After climbing one last, particularly steep hill, we saw the sudden drop that this unnamed creek took into the Sturgeon River valley. The top third was hidden by huge boulders, so we used those to cross the creek and continue on the other side, which gave better angles for pictures. The last two-thirds of the drop was continous little drops over dark, mossy rock. The total drop was definitely one fo the tallest falls in the area, but the little drops along the route broke it into two to five foot sections.

Logan was being difficult near the falls, not enjoying the slippery black rocks, so I decided to try something new and let him off the leash. We hadn't seen any houses or hunters out, so I figured the worst he would do is run back to the car. He stayed within twenty feet of me while I finished taking photos of the falls, and on the way back, stayed within fifty feet of me at all times. It was a relief that he was good enough to run loose - having a puppy on a leash often ruined my photos.

I had planned on the hike to take much less time. I had thought that the falls were located between the first and second swamps, were the DNR had them located. However, we didn't get out of the woods until twilight. Deciding that hiking to Upper Sturgeon Falls in the dark was a bad idea, we headed home, happy with both the waterfall and Logan.