Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tahquomenon Falls

Ken remembers his parents talking when he was growing up about how impressive Tahquamenon Falls was, so we decided to spend a night in the Tahquamenon Falls State Park Overlook Campground. We moved on from Grand Marais this morning, and after lunch we went out to explore the falls.

One night stand at Overlook Campground
There are actually six falls. The Lower Falls is a group of five smaller waterfalls arranged around a sandstone island in the Tahquamenon River. We walked around the boardwalk and saw four of them, but the fifth can only be seen from the island, which is reached by rowboat.
Lower Falls
Tannin stains the water tea brown
Next we drove four miles down Highway 123 to the Upper Falls. A four-mile trail links the two areas, and we were surprised to see that a shuttle service is available to take you back to your car, but four miles was more than we wanted to walk (on top of the hikes to the falls).

The Upper Falls are quite different from any we have ever seen. The water is a dark yellowish brown from the dissolved tannins. We walked from overlook to overlook along the boardwalk and then descended the 94 steps to the brink overlook. As the streams of water plunge over the brink, the sun glitters on them and they seem like tresses of hair, ranging in color from platinum to beige to gold to brown.

We walked back around to view the gorge and took the 116 steps down to the river level. The steep gorge is quite dramatic.
The river has cut a deep gorge.
Multicolored streams glitter in the sunshine.


Tomorrow we’ll drive to Saint Ignace, near Mackinac Island, but our current plan is to take a couple of days off sightseeing.

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