This past Saturday I set off towards the west of the UP in search of some good hiking trails and new sights. Coming along for the ride was Ryan, my next door neighbor and the only person about my same age who I wasn't working with during my internship. Ryan works for the Delta County Conservation Unit and was very helpful navigating the woods and long stretches of dirt roads.
We headed out towards the Iron Mountain area. We had both done some preliminary research but had not set plan. One stop we made was at the Fumee Falls, which is located right off the highway that connects Escanaba to Iron Mountain. Through some quick research prior to the trip, I discovered Henry Ford and his fellow travelers would make this a regular rest stop on their way to a camp further north. It certainly wasn't like any rest stop I had ever seen.
After our quick rest stop, we continued on in search of a trail that supposedly ran atop a bluff overlooking the entire area. However, the sketchy directions I found proved too hard to decipher and we choose to continue on down the dirt road to our next stop instead.
Our final stop of the day was at the Pier's Gorge which is a portion of the Menominee River that runs along the Michigan-Wisconsin border. It is known for its whitewater rafting and bald eagles. The trail is wonderful and allows a hiker to walk all along the river bank getting as close as possible to the rapids, or piers as they are referred to, without actually getting wet. The rapids are considered class IV now, but in the spring, with the snow and ice melt, can be classified as class V rapids. We were fortunate to see a couple boats make the plunge. It definitely warrants a return trip to actually go in the rapids.
The river bank was made up of shale or slate rock that jutted out at some crazy angles and was stripped from all the different sediment.
The orange hue in the river is part of the iron run off that is in the area. In the slower moving portions and along the shore, it looked much more red.
The white water rafters at the beginning of the rapids.
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