Camping with Bozz: Chasing Waterfalls

in #travelfeed6 years ago

Yesterday I took you across the mighty Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula(UP) of Michigan.

If you follow @amberyooper, she actually lives in the great place most Michiganders are talking about when they say they are heading "up North".

The UP is quite the magical place with miles of untouched wilderness, countless inland lakes, shoreline on three of the five Great Lakes, and as my title suggests: waterfalls!

I have written posts in the past about Tahquamenon Falls. They are by far the largest and most well known in the UP. There are close to 100 other falls in the Upper Peninsula as well and though not all of them are worth takign the time to check out, some of them are.

We took the drive from Manistique up to Munising where several of these smaller falls are located. The first place we decided to stop was Wagner Falls.

This rock is located at the start of the path to the falls and it says:

"Wagner Falls State Scenic Site
This site became the property of the people of Michigan through the generosity of the Michigan division of the Women's Farm and Garden Association Incorporated. Erected by the natural resources commission, this marker is an expression of gratitude."

The path leads you a short distance into the woods up an down some stairs and over some well built wooden bridges. It isn't that far of a walk and the views once you get to the falls are well worth it:

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This is just a teaser that you see while walking down the path. While it is pretty, it is a far cry from the beauty of the actual falls shown below.

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This is as close to the falls as the path takes you. You can see in the lower right hand corner though that many people have strayed from the path and walked around in the falls.

When we got to the falls, there was only one other couple admiring the view. As we were walking back to our vehicle though, we passed a large group of people on the path. I think we came and went at just the right time!

The drive to Munising took us 45 minutes and we spent about a half an hour at Wagner Falls, so our morning was already starting to get away from us. We decided to visit one more set of falls before we headed back to our campground.

Cell phone service was shoddy in this area(which meant no Google Maps), but I took a stab in the dark and decided to have us head towards Au Train falls, not really knowing what I was getting us into.

We turned off the main road onto an old gravel road that wound its way into the woods. A short drive down that road and we were abruptly stopped by a gate at a parking area. The gate blocked off the road, but there was a sign that indicated you could walk down the road to view the falls.

We parked and started walking down the road. Heading down I didn't realize quite how steep the incline of the road was. I was made completely aware of that fact on the walk back up though!

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There are several natural springs in the area that feed the falls. As we were walking down the road, we came across this wall of stone with moss growing on it and spring water dripping down. It was a quite beautiful sight, but a mere trickle compared to what we were about to see.

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It has actually been a pretty dry summer in our state, so I think the falls might be more impressive with a higher water level in the river. They were still a sight to behold though. As you can see there is a small hydro electric plant on the location. Most likely that is what the service road we walked on was originally intended for.

Once again there were many tourist-made paths heading down to the water where countless people have no doubt dipped their toes in.

Although I was taking a gamble on bringing us to this site, I think it was well worth it and I would definitely recommend it to others that are chasing waterfalls in Michigan's UP.

By now it was close to lunch and most of the other waterfalls we were interested in were a significant drive away. We decided to head back to Manistique and grab some lunch from one of my all time favorite places to eat.

More about that tomorrow!

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Thank you!

Beautiful. Really nice area, as we both know. I don't believe I've ever seen either of those falls, but I have seen a few in the UP. I saw a 'new to me' falls in the UP of Wisconsin :) I'm guessing we were less than 10 miles from the real one.

I love some of the little state rest stops that you'll find out there. Lush grass, great trees and a hand pump for water. I love it.

Thanks for taking us along bozz.

For sure, we have some cool little nooks and crannies tucked away all over the place! It is on my bucket list to visit the Apostle Islands area at some point. Hopefully while I am still young and can do some exploring!

Hello. I love the shots where the pine trees were framing the water. The third shot, in particular. Looking forward to pictures of your camp in the next post.

Thank you!

How amazing this place is! It is absolutely beautiful! I've been through Detroit many moons ago when I was going to Saginaw for a convention in Midland. For some reason that last sentence didn't make much sense but there was a college in Midland there but I think the name of it has changed since.

Northwood? I grew up in Midland. I am very familiar with the Saginaw, Bay City, Midland area.

Possibly, but I believe it was called something else back in the mid 90s.

Might have been a different one. Northwood University has always been that. The other ones are Delta college, Saginaw Valley State and Davenport which used to be Great Lakes Community College.

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Thank you!

Beautiful area for camping, it reminds me of certain part of the Ardennes here in Belgium. Too bad that the water level was that low, can't even go for a swim I think.

No, not much for swimming. There is one set of falls in the lower Peninsula that has some really cool pools that people swim in.

The scenery is really amazing there @bozz!
I would love to visit those gems in America one day, cheers

It is pretty spectacular. I have a feeling most people feel the same way about the place they live though. I know there are areas of the American North West that I would love to visit. There is something about mountains that trumps everything else. Great to hear from you @bafi! It has been a while!

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