“There’s no better place to find yourself than sitting by a waterfall and listening to its music.”
― Roland R. Kemler
In July 2024 we spent three weeks traveling throughout Michigan's Upper Peninsula (U.P.). During our second week we stayed at a campground on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Although we spent a great deal of time exploring various sites on the Peninsula, we also stopped during our travels to see a bunch of waterfalls along the way. The lower peninsula of Michigan (the part known as the mitten) has only one waterfall! All of the rest (and there are many!) are in the U.P. This post covers the ones we explored in the western region of the U.P.
Haven Falls - July 21, 2024
Haven Falls is located in a small county park in the quaint little village of Lac La Belle. The 20-foot-tall fall is visible from the road, but there's a nice little park with a pavilion, restrooms and picnic tables nearby. The steep falls have an upper portion that's hidden from view. After the falls, the creek flows through the park and into the scenic Lac (Lake) La Belle.
 | | Haven Falls |
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 | | Lac La Belle |
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Eagle River Falls - July 22, 2024
The 40-foot-high Eagle River Falls is a roadside waterfall located in the village of Eagle River. There's a small park with a trail that leads a little closer to the falls, but you can get great views of them from a historic bridge that has been converted to pedestrian use only. When we were there one of the drops in the falls was from the top of an old dam and fed down into two pools in the rock face below before reaching the river. We could only imagine how much more beautiful the falls must be in the spring when they are running more fully.
 | | Eagle River Falls |
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 | | Top of the falls at the old dam |
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 | | Eagle River Bridge |
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Jacob's Falls - July 22, 2024
Jacob's Falls is located about 3 miles east of Eagle River, right along the highway, close to the Jampot. The Jampot is a very popular local bakery, candy & jam shop which, unfortunately, was closed the day we were in the area. Although you can see the main 20-foot drop of Jacob's Falls from your car, there are several other drops above it which can be viewed if you're willing to climb the steep path along the side of the falls. We chose not to explore further than the roadside because we had other sites we wanted to see that day.
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| Jacob's Falls |
Silver River Falls - July 22, 2024
East of Eagle Harbor, right before the entrance to the Keweenaw Peninsula's scenic Brockway Drive, is the 20-foot-tall Silver River Falls. The falls have two drops below a historic bridge. The upper portion is a long sloping fall over shelves of rocks. Then the river levels out for a bit before falling over a few more drops. There's a path that takes you along the river as it descends and if you look back upstream you can see the arched stonework bridge above the falls.
 | | Silver River Falls |
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 | | Silver River Falls |
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 | | Silver River Falls |
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Houghton-Douglas Falls - July 23, 2024
The impressive 120-foot tall Houghton-Douglas Falls can be viewed from a trail just north of Lake Linden and has beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding forest. The falls plunge down over sharp volcanic rock from steep walls. There are several overlooks along a winding trail, making the hike well worth it. Construction of a parking lot and veterans memorial were slated to begin at the site in October.
 | | Small fall before the main one |
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 | | Houghton-Douglas Falls |
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Hungarian Falls - July 23, 2024
A short drive from Lake Linden to Tamarack City brought us to the Hungarian Falls Nature Area, which includes three major falls along a 1.2 mile trail. This is a very popular site and the parking area was full, so we had to park along the road.
We followed the trail past a historic early 1900s dam and pond before arriving at the 39-foot cascading Upper Falls. These falls were formed by the Keweenaw Fault, a billion-year-old geological feature. We had to carefully climb down a steep embankment to get the best views from the edge of the river.
 | | Historic dam spillway |
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 | | Hungarian Falls - Upper Falls |
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We followed the trail back down along Dover Creek, passing a small drop on the way to the top of the 18-foot-high Middle Falls. We passed the top of the falls and continued on the trail a short way to where the bank leveled out and we could wade across the creek, then head back upstream to view the falls from below.
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 | | Hungarian Falls - Middle Falls |
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The 40-foot high Lower Falls were much harder to see. The trail leads to the top of the falls but doesn't give you much of a view because they drop down into a deep gorge before draining into Torch Lake and it was a bit too dangerous to get too close to the edge. There is a very narrow path leading along the cliff face leading down to the bottom, but it looked far too risky for us, so we didn't attempt it. Unfortunately, we couldn't take a photo of the Lower Falls.
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| View of Torch Lake from above the Lower Falls |
We could easily see why this area is so popular with locals and tourists. The trail through the towering pines, hemlocks and other trees was beautiful and there were plenty of viewpoints on both sides of the gorge.
O Kun de Kun Falls - July 24, 2024
O Kun de Kun Falls is located along a remote section of the North Country Trail (NCT) in the Ottawa National Forest. The NCT is an approximately 4800 mile route from Vermont to North Dakota. We hiked many other sections of the trail at different times during our U.P. trip and were always happy to find another section to explore.
Although most of the NCT in the Western Upper Peninsula is usually quite challenging, the 2.8 mile section of the trail to the falls was gentle with only small hills and no rocks to contend with. The trail winds through the thick forest along the gravel, dirt and boardwalk path before winding its way along the Baltimore River to the falls. On the way we passed some unusual wildflowers and plants.
 | | Creeping Dogwood |
 | | Ghost Plant/Indian Pipe |
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 | | Heal-All |
 | | Blue Bead Lily |
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There are actually two sets of watefalls here. The first, Konteko Falls is more popularly known as Peanut Butter Falls due to its normally brown color. A somewhat challenging side trail leads down to the best views from the river. The falls drop 4 feet over a sandstone ledge before heading downriver to the main attraction.
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| Konteka/Peanut Butter Falls |
After rejoining the main path we passed by a grove of Aspen trees. Then the trail opened up on a beautiful view of the Baltimore River with the main falls on our right and an impressive suspension bridge carrying the NCT over the river on our left.
The 26-foot-tall O Kun de Kun Falls is named after an Ojibway chief. It's one of the few plunge falls on the Upper Peninisula. The width of the falls can get pretty thin in the summer, but it was still worth the hike to see it.
Agate Falls - July 24, 2024
The 42-foot-high Agate Falls is located along the middle branch of the Ontonagon River and is considered one of Michigan's most picturesque waterfalls. It's accessed by a half-mile paved trail from a roadside park, taking you under the highway to an observation platform with views of the top of the falls and the railroad trestle crossing above them. To get an even better view, we followed a steep, narrow trail under the observation platform down to the river's edge. Unfortunately we didn't know we could also look at the falls from the trestle bridge, which is currently part of a snowmobile trail.
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| Agate Falls |
Bond Falls - July 24, 2024
Bond Falls is easily one of the most impressive waterfalls in Michigan's U.P. and is located near Paulding in the Ottawa National Forest. The drive south from our campground took about 1.5 hours, but it was worth it! We followed a paved trail through the forest from the parking area to an expansive boardwalk giving multiple viewing locations of the falls. You can definitely hear the falls before you see them - they are loud!
This powerful waterfall is 100-feet-wide with a total drop of about 50-feet. The falls pool at the bottom creating a little island with a bridge to it so you can stand in the middle of the falls for the best view. After viewing the main falls from all angles, we followed the path to the right of the falls and up some stairs for even more falls upstream. There we found multiple smaller drops over volcanic rock mixed with boulders and chutes.
 | | Bond Falls - Main Falls |
 | | Bond Falls |
 | | Bond Falls |
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 | | View standing next to the main falls on the staircase |
 | | Bond Falls |
 | | Bond Falls |
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We filmed videos of many of the waterfalls we saw in our Michigan travels, but haven't finished editing them yet. We plan to post a video of all the waterfalls we saw while in the Upper Peninsula on
our YouTube channel at some point in the future. If you don't want to miss it, go to our channel, subscribe to it and click on the notification bell so you can receive notifications when we post a new video.
* All photos and videos are the property of the owners unless otherwise noted. *
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