Waterfalls of the Keweenaw

Conditions:

Cold, cloudy, drizzly, heavy recent rain

Companions:

Cory, Faith, Logan

Vehicle:

Saturn Vue

Cory, Faith and I headed out early on a frigid morning the day after Michigan Tech's Safehouse without a clear plan in mind. Both Cory and Faith slept most of the way to the Yellow Dog Plains, so I decided the first stop would be at Pinnacle Falls, a famaliar and impressive drop along the Yellow Dog River. Along the way, we saw our first snow of the season along Ford road, a welcome and beautiful site.

The Triple A road was soaked, making the trip feel a bit like mud-bogging. By the time we made it the parking section, the car was covered in mud and we were happy to get out on steady ground. There was another car here, which was odd, as there were no fresh tracks along the road. We hiked down the trail, heading around the large rocky pinnacle to the falls. On the way, we passed by two campers on their way back to their car who had spent the last two days at the falls, explaining the lack of fresh tracks.

Faith and I decided to cross the river under the falls and climb the other side to see the upper wooden structure. Cory climbed up the rock pinnacle instead to get the views at the top and wait for us to meet him. When we crossed back over the wooden structure and climbed the rock, though, we couldn't find Cory. Hoping he had headed back to the car, we headed back up the trail, yelling for him ever few minutes. Unfortunately, he had slid down most of the hill earlier and was a bit lost during this time and didn't hear our shouts. He ended up climbing up the trail about fifteen minutes behind us, unharmed and a bit winded.

Our next stop was a bit exploratory - Wylie Dam Falls. We tried the next two-track on Triple A, which ran through the Yellow Dog to continue on the other bank. There was a small camping spot here next to the USGS river guage, and I believe this road continues on to some breath-taking hills north of Mulligan Plains. Deciding to continue our search for Wylie Dam instead of this tempting sidetrack, we headed back up the road and entered a maze of roads that eventually led to a famaliar silver gate. Hoping to ask the property owner for directions, Faith and I headed past the private property signs with Logan on a leash.

There was a nice hunting camp at the end of the road near a swampy Yellow Dog River, but it was empty. Deciding to press our luck, we headed downstream through thick bramble and walked right into the waterfall. You can barely make out the remains of an earthern dam on each side of the falls, but neither the remains or the falls was impressive. There was another hunting camp right on the falls, again empty, and I'm unsure if there's any good way to visit these falls without trespassing. Heading back to Cory and the car, we drove out of the Yellow Dog Plains on our way to a quick bite at L'Anse.

After our last failure at Upper Sturgeon Falls, we decided to make a repeat trip. After eating, all three of us headed down the Tama Siding and hiked down the railroad tracks to the point where the Sturgeon River meets up with Tama Creek, which had followed us from our parking spot. Heading directly into the thick woods, following Sturgeon River, gave us some great views and untouched, thick woods but no waterfalls. We gave up after a few hours of bushwhacking and cut back to the railroad tracks. It wasn't until a week later when I returned alone that I found the falls, less then twenty minutes from where we turned around.

The way back was rather difficult, with snow/sleet coming at us with a strong headwind. With our heads down, we missed our parking spot at first and had to double back a short bit. Jumping into the car and cranking the heat up, we headed back to Houghton a bit disappointed. We had only found two falls, a single new one, and the weather wasn't pleasant. Knowing that a return trip to Upper Sturgeon Falls was also a damper on our spirits.