Waterfalls

September 11-12, 2012

Bond Falls

Waterfalls.  No other description is necessary.  The Upper Peninsula of Michigan has the most water of any place I have ever been.  I started noticing the proliferation of water when we drove through Minnesota, then Wisconsin then into Michigan.  Once we got here,  I noticed that everywhere we went there were signs pointing to water:  rivers, lakes, boat launch areas,  recreation areas, waterfalls, kayak rentals....the list seems neverending.  So, we started exploring the water sights.  Waterfalls are one of our favorites and on several different days we went in search of waterfalls.

September 11th found us on our way to the Porcupine Mountains, west of Crystal Falls on the shore of Lake Superior, based on a recommendation from our friends, Jack and Janet. They visited there last year and their trip yielded some beautiful photos.  Jim and I had to see the sights for ourselves.

Our first stop on the way was near Paulding, Michigan.  There, we found Bond Falls, our first experience with the waterfalls of Michigan.  Wow!  (See above) These falls are on the Ontonagon River and they are 40 feet high.  The falls are easily accessed via nice footpaths built by the State of Michigan.  Jim and I spent about an hour roaming around the area and taking pictures.

We left there with renewed appreciation for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.  They have made quite a few locations more accessible and user-friendly to the public .  There are extensive Off Road Vehicle routes and Snowmobile trails, heavily used in all seasons.  We have been told that people come from all over the world to snowmobile on these trails, that they are "world famous".  These forests are so dense that the fact that these trails are there makes the area a lot more attractive to sports enthusiasts and hunters.  (See Senior Color Tour)


We continued on to several more waterfalls in the Porcupine area that day.  Two falls that we saw were in close proximity to each other, Manido Falls and Manabezho Falls, both on the Presque Isle River.

Manido Falls

Manido Falls from the top

Downriver from Manabezho Falls

Manabezho Fal

Again, easy access made possible by the DNR (that's really what they call themselves!).  Manido was really easy to get to, the Manabezho Falls, quite a few more "steps".  Both equally beautiful.  We got our hiking in as well as photo opportunities this day.

Lake of the Clouds

Toward the late afternoon, we made our way to the Lake of the Clouds, located within Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.  It is a pretty little lake, but I have to scoff at the name:  it is at 1,076 feet altitude!  Living in New Mexico for the past 20 years at 5,000 feet, I have trouble believing clouds ever touch this lake.  But it is nicely nestled in a valley between two "peaks".

Sand Lake Lighthouse (courtesy of Jim)

  Somewhere in here, on the 16th, we went to Florence, Wisconsin for Jim's birthday dinner.  There is a restaurant there called Maxsell's, and it's right on the lake.  Jim had prime rib and I had pork loin....very good!



The week following our Porcupine trip was very rainy so we didn't get out and about much.  We did take a drive to the coast of Lake Michigan and visited the town of Escanaba. Jim took some photos.  I was too cold to get out of the car!  Their harbor area was very picturesque and nicely laid out, and included the Sand Point Lighthouse.










After the weather cleared up, we went waterfall hunting again on Friday, the 21st.  This time, we ventured to Wisconsin, which is really close to our location in the U.P.  We visited several falls in Florence County, Little Bull Falls and Meyers Falls.  Both were located many miles down dirt roads, Little Bull Falls on the Popple River, Meyers Falls on the Pine River.

Little Bull Falls

Jim at Little Bull Falls

Moss grows everywhere here!

The road in

Color along the road

Meyers Falls

Abandoned house

More color on the road

Forest road to the falls

We followed a "waterfall" map to get there and at times were sure we were lost.  The trees are so thick that you can't see daylight in some areas of the forests.  Both waterfalls were more like rapids to us as they don't fall from great heights, just over descending rocks.  But beautiful nonetheless.



























On Saturday, September 22nd, we again went on a ride to another water scene, this time a place called Horse Race Rapids, south of Crystal Falls, on the Paint River.The hike down to the falls was steep, as most are.  The color on the trees was fully peaking.  The scene was fantastic.

Horse Race Rapids

Color on the ground

When we were hiking south of the falls, we came upon a gentleman painting the forest scene on canvas, trying to stay dry (it had started raining while we were there). He was painting a path through the trees next to the river.  Not a bad artist.

 Sunday we took a ride to see the color.  The tree colors were glorious.  We ended up at Camp Lake, a rather smallish lake.  Not sure where we were in relation to Crystal Falls.   We were just driving and roaming around so I lost track of where we were.  Nice little fishing lake, beautiful color.  Jim was really impressed with the house across from us that had a pontoon plane in the front yard!  He thought that was great.   Nice ride.

Camp Lake

Color at Camp Lake

Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge them!