Exploring Michigan's Upper Peninsula (Part 12) - Tahquamenon Falls

“Mother Nature is the greatest artist and water is one of her favorite brushes.”

― Rico Besserdich, professional underwater photographer 

July 28, 2024

Our exploration of the the eastern section of Michigan's Upper Peninsula began with a trip to Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (see our previous post), and was followed by a visit to the nearby Tahquamenon (Tah-kwa-me-non) Falls State Park to see its famous waterfalls. Tahquamenon Falls State Park is located between Newberry and Paradise. The park is 13 miles long, covers nearly 50,000 acres and includes a series of waterfalls on the Tahquamenon River before it empties into Lake Superior. In addition to the waterfalls, the park has multiple campgrounds, overnight lodging facilities, a boat launch, and more than 35 miles of trails. The park is also known for its abundance of wildlife, including black bear, coyote, otter, deer, fox, porcupine, beaver, and moose are occasionally seen feeding in wet areas of the park. Unfortunately, we didn't see any during our visit. A wide variety of birds can also be found in the park including songbirds, waterfowl and bald eagles.

Naturally, the centerpiece of the park is the waterfalls, which are viewable from multiple overlooks. We started our exploration of the park at the Lower Falls, which is located 4 miles east of the Upper Falls. An ADA-accessible trail from the parking lot takes you to the riverbank where there are views of the falls. There's also a universally accessible pedestrian bridge to an island in the river where there is an ADA-accessible boardwalk that takes you around the island for closeup views of the falls. In addition, the falls can also be viewed from the water by renting a rowboat from a park concession.  Two campgrounds are located within the state park at the Lower Falls.

Tahquamenon Falls - Lower Falls Tahquamenon Falls - Lower Falls Tahquamenon Falls - Lower Falls

Sign along the trail

Visitors to the park can take an approximately 4-mile trail to the Upper Falls and use a fee-based shuttle to return, but we opted to return to the parking lot and drive to the Upper Falls since we had other stops to make that day. From the parking lot we followed the short ADA-accessible path to the right where there's a boardwalk that takes you to a viewing area with direct views of the falls from above. From there we took the 94-step staircase down to another viewing area at the top of the falls. After returning to the top, we went in the opposite direction and took the 116-step staircase down to the base of the gorge. 

The Upper Falls, at 200-feet-wide and with a drop of 50 feet, is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River. More than 50,000 gallons of water per second plunge over the falls when the river is at its highest. The rusty color of the water is from tannins leached from cedar, spruce and hemlock trees in swamps drained by the river. The large amounts of foam below the falls are caused by the extremely soft water being churned by falling water.

Upper Tahquamenon Falls Upper Tahquamenon Falls

Upper Tahquamenon Falls

After finishing our exploration of the falls, we headed back to the parking lot and stopped at the large park store where you could buy snacks, refreshments and souvenirs. We purchased some new stickers to add to our camper window.

To view a short video of our visit to Tahquamenon Falls, click here for our YouTube video.

* All photos and videos are the property of the owners unless otherwise noted. *