Morgan Falls & St. Peter’s Dome / Beaver Lake

Potato River Falls to Beaver Lake, WI | Hiking to Morgan Falls & St. Peter’s Dome | Kayaking & Camping at Beaver Lake | May 2024

We started today with a slow and relaxing morning at the Potato River Falls campground. We didn’t have too far to drive today, so it was nice to take our time getting up, doing our chores, and going for one more walk down to view the waterfalls. This campground served us well, and we’d definitely stay again in the future — and maybe next time we’ll visit Copper Falls State Park, which we decided against today because it has an entrance fee and the main hike isn’t dog friendly. When we were ready to move on, we packed up and made our way to our main hike for today: Morgan Falls trail, in Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.

We arrived at the mostly empty trailhead parking lot, applied bug spray after noting how many gnats were out, then started on the trail. This trail is the starting point for both Morgan Falls and St. Peter’s Dome. We agreed to hike to the falls together, then Curtis would hike up to the dome while I did whatever Charlotte wanted to do. The trail to the falls was flat, wide, and very well maintained, and the bridges over the wetland areas looked brand new.

Bottom Picture: the patterns in the pools beside the waterfall were fascinating

When we reached the trail junction for the falls, we turned and walked the short spur to the waterfall. We had seen pictures of this waterfall, and honestly weren’t expecting much, but it turned out to be much taller and more interesting than the pictures led us to believe it would be. We had definitely enjoyed hiking to lots of different waterfalls during our time in the UP and Northern Wisconsin, but honestly this one might have been our favorite because it just felt different. The others were bigger, wider, with more water falling, but after seeing so many they all started to look the same. This one was unique and unexpected. The mossy rocks and the evergreen trees surrounding almost made it feel more like a PNW waterfall. We spent a good long time here admiring the falls and pools underneath.

Panorama from the top of St. Peter’s Dome

Eventually, Curtis decided to continue on to St. Peter’s Dome, so he handed the van keys to me and started on his way. Charlotte and I stayed at the falls for a while longer, and when she seemed ready to go we began our trek back. I didn’t know how motivated she would be to walk considering Curtis wasn’t there and she could probably tell by the smells that he had gone the other way, but she did quite well and stayed focused the entire walk back. As we started to near the trailhead, we ran into more people; some hiking, some appeared to be there to study the plants along the path. We made it back to the trailhead, and Charlotte took a nap under a picnic table. The longer we waited, the worse the gnats became, so we eventually retreated to the van and I made lunch while we waited for Curtis to return.

Fortunately, the hike to the top of St Peter’s Dome was neither long or strenuous. The lookout from the top offered some views of the surrounding forest and maybe even as far out as the Apostle Islands. Once Curtis made it back and we all had eaten, we drove a short way on the dirt national forest roads to a nearby campground, right on Beaver Lake. There was only one other car there that showed up much later, so we had our pick of lakeside sites. We chose one that had access to the lake, and then decided to bring our kayak out for our first paddle of the year. The gnats were still bad as we set up, but once we got on the water we paddled as fast as we could, and eventually outran them. The lake was empty (besides a few loons) and we enjoyed our quiet paddle around the entire perimeter before returning to our site.

We spent the rest of our evening relaxing, and enjoyed watching the sunset from our lakefront property.

If you’re interested, here is the AllTrails listing for the Morgan Falls & St. Peter’s Dome Trail