Munising and Marquette

Weekend in Munising and Marquette, MI | Wagner Falls | Kayaking the Michigamme River | Canyon Falls Roadside Park | August 2023

We awoke in Ottawa National Forest to a sunny morning, though a little chilly and windy. It was a Saturday morning, and we decided that based on how busy the state park had been the day before, we didn’t really want to spend the day in state parks, national parks, or other popular areas, and instead wanted to take it easy, play PokemonGo, and enjoy being on the shore of Lake Superior in a less-touristy town.

To start off our morning, we went for a short hike to Wagner Falls. The hike was right of the road close to MI-28, and a short and easy trail to the waterfall. We took our time, took some pictures, then continued on our way to Munising. We ended up spending most of the day here, going between walking around town and hanging out at Binsfield Bayshore Park. The waves of Lake Superior were big and loud all day, so much so that the cruises that left from this marina to go to Grand Island weren’t operating today, reducing the crowds even more. We enjoyed our lazy day here, ending it with fish and chips from Eh! Burger and ice cream from Miners Pasty Kitchen. Since we had enjoyed our dispersed campsite in Ottawa NF so much the night before, we decided to return since we weren’t that far away. 

The next day, we drove over to Marquette to visit Curtis’ sister. She didn’t have a lot of time free as she was preparing to start school the next day, so we grabbed breakfast with her in the morning from Third Street Bagel, and made plans for dinner. After breakfast, we made our way over to Ellwood A. Mattson Lower Harbor Park for another lazy day spent letting Charlotte lead us around on walks around the park, and resting in the shade. 

Later in the afternoon, we were hanging out in the shade getting ready to order a pizza to have with Curtis’ sister, when the day took an interesting turn. All day, the park had been busy with families, other PokemonGo players, and people cleaning up after a carnival that had gone on the day before, but it was starting to quiet down when we heard some kids yelling. One of them said something like “She’s in the water!” And then all of a sudden, their mother, who was sitting at a table across the park, jumped up and yelled, “She’s IN THE WATER?!?” And took off sprinting towards the harbor. Curtis and several others also sprung to action running to where the kids were, but the mom arrived first and jumped right in. Curtis made it shortly after her, and was able to grab the kid from the mom and drag her out — totally conscious and fine, just wet and upset that she had gotten caught. Curtis and another bystander helped the mom get to a place where she could climb out and then helped her out of the water. The best part of this whole ordeal was the eldest child who was loudly giving her color commentary on the situation. “She probably jumped in, that sounds like something she would do!” In the end, all was well, the kid was probably never in real danger but hopefully she’ll think twice before jumping in the harbor again.

After all that excitement, Curtis went to pick up a pizza from Third Coast Pizzeria, and Claire came to meet us for dinner at the harbor. After enjoying the delicious pizza and delightful conversation, we said our goodbyes and got back on the road. That evening, we camped at Moose Rapids Campground near Republic, MI, right on the Michigamme River. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were too bad to enjoy being outside here. But after weeks of hearing the unmistakable sound of Sandhill Cranes while we were in both Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas, we finally saw some flying overhead confirming our suspicions. 

The next morning, Curtis really wanted to do some kayaking, and we were in the perfect situation for him to kayak the Michigamme River right from the campsite to MI-95, so I let him do that while I drove the van with Charlotte over to the highway, where we waited at a pull out for him to arrive. I say this was the “perfect situation” because the road between putting in and getting out was not busy at all, so I felt comfortable enough driving the van by myself. 

Curtis: The Michigamme River starts a few miles North of where we camped in Lake Michigamme and then flows in a Southerly direction across several reservoirs and dams until it forms the Menominee River and flows into Lake Michigan. But from our perspective the Michigamme River was very languid and still, but still flowing and we had seen a pair of kayaks on the way in the night before. From the road into the campsite I had only seen a couple ripples, so all in all, it looked like a pretty easy kayak of 5-6 miles. 

I put in after breakfast and managed to scare up a pair of Sandhill Cranes right away. The river overall oscillated between almost flat water, and short river runs. With just me in the kayak I was light enough to get through most of the runs without issue, but occasionally I would pick a wrong route and end up grounded on a gravel bar. Nothing a little scooching can’t fix. During the flat water sections I would see the occasional blue heron and sandhill crane, but nothing else. The only mammal I saw was a guy enjoying his morning and filling the hummingbird feeders behind his house. We exchanged pleasantries as I cruised along. Towards the end, the river turned into almost exclusively flat water as the river entered into one of the many reservoirs. I managed to see Jess drive by during this part and waved and soon enough I saw her again on a landing just before the highway bridge.

Jess: Once the kayak was packed up, we got back on the road, taking MI-95 North back up to US-41, and up to our chosen hiking area for today: Canyon Falls Roadside Park. This park is also known as the “Grand Canyon of the Upper Peninsula” (a bit of a stretch, but ok) and is also part of the North Country Trail. We took the trail through the woods, following the creek, until we finally came to the waterfall and canyon. It was very pretty and worth the hike, as long as you don’t go actually expecting to see a “grand canyon.” We had a little lunch here, then continued on our way.

That evening, we decided to drive further South into Wisconsin so that we could say we visited another state this year, and for more counties. Worth it! We camped in Stevens Lake Campground in Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, but because of some rain storms going on and off, we mostly stayed to ourselves in the van and didn’t venture out to the lake.