Tahquamenon Falls

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Let's get this out of the way first. Tahquamenon rhymes with phenomenon. I was half tempted to get the Tahquamenon Phenomenon t-shirt!

We saved the visit to Tahquamenon Falls State Park until our last full day in Newberry. Given it was one of the closer destinations at just over 20 miles, I suppose we could have checked it out sooner. But we also know it will be reasonably close to our next planned stop so we can come back. 

The park is divided into two main areas - the lower falls, and the upper falls. Although it is possible to hike the trails between the two halves, most people will choose to drive rather than tackle the 4 mile hike each way. The only downside of driving is that you must exit the park at one section and drive to the other and enter again. It is not that far of a drive, but boy was this place busy today, so the line to get in could take some time.

Our first stop was lower falls. The Tahquamenon River is split by an island at these falls so there are two distinct sections of lower falls. The boardwalk between the areas had many viewing platforms where to get a good look. But each platform had so many people, that it would take some time to get up front.

One Half of Lower Falls

The Other Half

Foaming Falls

You can rent a row boat to go across to the island allowing you to walk its trail to get a different perspective of the lower falls. Chris had read that it was also possible to just walk across the river to the island. So we donned our water shoes and started to head past where the railing keeps you from entering the river. But each place we found that had the look of being a possible crossing location, we would stick a hiking pole in to test depth and realized I was carrying too much expensive electronics to take the chance of going swimming by accident.

Our Best Crossing Point Wasn't Good Enough!

Before heading to the upper falls, we headed the other direction to do a geocache which turned out to have this wonderful view of a little place called Cabin Lake.

View of Cabin Lake Through the Trees

Small Island on Cabin Lake

Supposedly the upper falls are the second biggest east of the Mississippi. Don't get me wrong, they were quite nice but I would say the ones at Letchworth State Park are more impressive. At one of the overlooks, the crowd notices two guys on the opposite side of the river climbing down an embankment and then going across a small ledge on the cliff face to get to the edge of the falling water. It even looked like they were able to get part way behind the falls. We all knew that what they were up to was not condoned and given the occasional clumsy steps taken, I think we all were wondering if we were going to witness some tragic end to their escapade. Fortunately, they made it back to safety to live at least one more day.

Upper Falls from a Distance

Overlook from Above

Overlook Next to Upper Falls

Long Shutter Time to Blur Falls

Another Long Exposure Time

Although there is another park to visit twenty miles further, we have whiled away most of the day here and wouldn't have had enough time to do the other park justice. So we decided to stay at Tahquamenon and hike the Giant Pines Loop trail. It was around a 3 mile walk thru a section of the park with some massive white pines. It was nice to get to a section of the park where we were the only ones walking. I suspect most visitors don't even realize what they missed as it was quite the nice hike.

Chris Looking Up

Giant Pines Info Sign