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Viewing 1 - 6 of 6 posts tagged with 'mulligan plains'.

27 Jun '10

Cliffs of Mulligan Plains

The -15ºF air hit me like a brick wall as I stepped outside of my car at Mulligan Plains. Unaccustomed to the cold Upper Peninsula mornings I quickly covered my nose and mouth with a warm scarf before heading down the plowed two-track. The sun's early rays had only just begun showing over the eastern cliffs and I didn't have time to wait for the valley to warm up; there was a long, hard hike before me.

Last summer marked the first time I visited Mulligan Plains without stopping by Mulligan Falls. I had always known that there were other attractions in the narrow valley but had never made a direct effort to see them until then. The main goal of today's trip was to revisit one of these sights: Rocking Chair Lakes. My route wouldn't be an easy one but did a promise some awesome views of the plains. I planned to start near the bridge over lower Mulligan Creek, follow the top of eastern cliffs to Rocking Chair Lakes before looping back to the car, resulting in a 6 mile hike with plenty of vertical distance change.

The first climb of the day was a familiar rock cliff directly southeast of the bridge over Mulligan Creek. Having seen this hill on every one of my visits to Mulligan, I had often thought about climbing it and the potential views it would offer of the...

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16 Dec '09

Katie and I at Mulligan

It's no secret - I really like Mulligan Plains. This remote section of Marquette County is off the beaten path and contains many hiking adventures, including waterfalls, cliffs, and lakes. So when Katie and I headed up north on a cool fall day before hunting season I made it a point to take her to Mulligan and show her one of my favorite Upper Peninsula destinations.

Even though we slept in at the Ishpeming hotel quite a bit, we managed to make it to the creek before noon. The easiest place to visit at Mulligan are the falls north of Silver Lake Basin, so we took the county roads up along the western edge of the plains and parked at the foot bridge over Mulligan Creek. Faith and I had visited this area a year ago and had taken a convoluted route to the falls that involved crossing the creek over a beaver dam and bushwhacking through some terribly thick pine trees. A four-wheeler had given us this route before, but I didn't want to follow it today.

Katie and I crossed the narrow, shaky bridge over the creek and headed up the narrow two-track. Instead of cutting across the creek, like I did last time, we cut off the trail (which bends northwards) and continued along the side of the creek. The trees weren't thick on this side of the creek, but we did have to go up...

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24 Nov '09

The Last Waterfall Hike

My last hike for the waterfall project was on April 29, 2009. For the last two months I had been on a crazy schedule re-visiting all of the waterfalls I found last summer and collecting accurate coordinates with a new GPS unit as well as finding new falls within my radius to add to my site. Since I was leaving for Wisconsin the very next day, I decided to make this adventure legendary and visit Mulligan Falls.

Mulligan Falls is located northeast of the Silver Lake Basin outside of the remote Mulligan Plains. There are no trails or roads within a mile of the lowermost waterfall, which Faith and I had found last October. I had heard rumors of upper waterfalls, so I set an ambitious route that would take me several miles upstream. The area around Mulligan Creek is cluttered, rocky, and swampy, so I planned on the hike taking several hours.

Bridge over Mulligan Creek

Bridge over Mulligan Creek

I left early in the morning and made it to Ishpeming around 7:30 in the morning. After stopping for gas and some snacks, I headed north along Teal Lake Road, driving over the Dead River bridge...

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23 Sep '09

Red Road Cliffs

Most visitors to the Keweenaw Peninsula will remember The Cliffs by their name alone. A sudden up thrust of stark rocky cliffs stretching from Mohawk past Phoenix along US-41 with towering trees and large piles of poor rock is hard to miss, and for those adventurous enough, rewarding to climb. A variety of waterfalls and old mine ruins are located near this area, and an easy climb yields views from several hundred feet of rolling hills to the south. Far away to the southwest near Marquette is a similar treasure, much less known to tourists and adventurers: the Cliffs of Red Road.

I first got interested in Red Road during a hiking adventure in mid-July 2009. I was driving from Clark Creek to Mulligan Plains along the Dead River Basin (north of Ishpeming) when I glanced to the north and saw dark, towering cliffs. It was far too wet that morning for a side trek, so I pushed off this adventure to late August.

Cliffs of Red Road

Cliffs of Red Road

There's not much historical information regarding the highlands north of the Dead River Basin. It was heavily logged at one time, but...

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9 Sep '09

Rocking Chair Lakes

Perched high above Mulligan Plains are the two small Rocking Chair Lakes. A rustic camping site of the Escanaba River State Forest, these lakes offer scenic views and a peaceful escape for the adventurous. Ever since I first visited Mulligan Plains in the October of 2008, I hoped to have the chance to visit the lakes, and I got my chance almost a full year later.

It was a cool, rainy July morning in 2009 when Logan and I headed to Mulligan Plains after a night of camping on the Yellow Dog Plains. While the official route to the lakes involves driving up County Road AKC, I doubted my vehicle could make it more than half a mile on the poorly maintained route. I headed up the unnamed but well-kept county road on the west side of Mulligan Plains and cut over on a convenient driveway near the lakes. As the plains are only two thousand feet wide or so, this route got me close to the start of the trail without damaging my car more than necessary.

Fog rising off the eastern cliffs

Fog rising off the eastern cliffs

I had to double back to find the remains of County Road AKC as...

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5 May '09

The Mulligan Area

There are several important pieces to the 'Mulligan Area' of Marquette County. Mulligan Plains is a long, narrow valley pointing from the western end of the Dead River north to Pinnacle Falls on the Yellow Dog Plains. Emptying the large and wild Mulligan Swamp into the Dead River is Mulligan Creek. Along the creek is a series of relatively unheard of waterfalls collectively called Mulligan Falls. All of these are wrapped around Silver Lake Basin, the uppermost dammed basin along the Dead River, located on the edge of the Peshekee Highlands.

The Peshekee Highlands are a large, expansive, and rugged plateau just south of the Yellow Dog Plains. The elevation here is surprisingly high, usually around 1600 feet above sea level. Much of the plateau is swampy and sprinkled with lakes; the hard rocky outcroppings make it difficult for the water to drain out regularly. This area also has mineral wealth, with numerous abandoned gold and silver mines throughout the plateau. Almost two-thirds of the highlands are located within the McCormick Tract and Craig Lake state parks, and the remaining portion is too rugged for regular traffic, making it the whole area exceedingly difficult to visit.

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Viewing 1 - 6 of 6 posts tagged with 'mulligan plains'.