Yellow Dog Plains Tag | Jacob Emerick's Blog

Driving through the Huron Mountains

The roads in the Huron Mountains are the result of years of logging, recreation, and lack of maintenance. As the only maps of this area show all possible routes as random, haphazard wiggles, it takes time to understand which roads are drivable and which are barely fit for walking. Once you understand the main routes, though, much of the area becomes accessible by normal cars.

County Roads 510 and 550 connect Marquette to Big Bay. Big Bay Road, or Country Road 550, is the eastern one and is paved, more direct, and takes you past Sugarloaf, Hogback, Presque Isle, and other popular destinations. If you're looking for a more scenic route, 510 meanders further west but is gravel and require a respectable low speed. It does pass the Yellow Dog Falls and meets up with Blind 35 and the Triple A, although it doesn't actually go to Big Bay - you need to reconnect with 550 to do that. County Road 510 does have a bit of interesting history, as it was part of the planned route for M-35, the highway that Ford stopped. You can read about this on Michigan Highways.

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• peshekee highlands
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Salmon Trout River

With most of the Salmon Trout River's main branch located in the fabled Huron Mountain Club property, it is hard to visit or enjoy. It has a small watershed and low average water flow, but the location and rugged terrain make this river an amazing and rustic destination for the adventurous hikers.

The Salmon Trout River has two main branches, the East and West Branch. Together, these rivers drain the northern reaches of the Yellow Dog Plains, even sharing some watershed area with the southern Yellow Dog River near Eagle Rock. They, along with Cedar Creek, have hollowed a deep gorge that forms a valley between the Yellow Dog Plains plateau and the Huron Mountains. The upper reaches of the river are easily visited,...

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Yellow Dog River

The Yellow Dog River has recently gained media attention as one of the two waterways endangered by the proposed Eagle Project sulfide mine. This mine would be located on the Yellow Dog Plains near the headwaters of the Salmon Trout River and Yellow Dog River, potentially threatening two pristine rivers of the Huron Mountain area. The river was well known before the proposed mine, though, as it has ample recreational potentials along its length.

Starting with two main branches in the McCormick Tract, southwest of the Yellow Dog Plains, the river begins as a series of lakes and swamps that once hosted the famous island fortress of the Bentleys and McCormicks. Because of these swamps, the river has a yellow/brown color during spring melt or heavy...

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• waterfalls
• huron mountains
• peshekee highlands
• yellow dog plains
• river system

Huron Mountain Range

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan isn't particularly known for its mountains. While the terrain is more rugged than the Lower Peninsula, there are no vistas that compare to the Rocky or Appalachian Mountain states. However, there is one group of peaks collectively known as the Huron Mountains worth mentioning for their height and rural setting.

The Huron Mountains stretch northward from Marquette following the curve of the land toward Skanee before dissipating south near Alberta. They circle the Yellow Dog Plains, a sandy plateau mostly owned by the Mead Paper Corporation, and the Peshekee Highlands just north of US-41. The roads are windy and unmarked, used only by outdoorsmen and logging companies, and is not plowed or maintained for most of the year.

There are three main portions of this range. Starting in the east, near Marquette, is the Sugarloaf range. These mountains are known for their two main peaks, Sugarloaf and Hogback, as well as numerous waterfalls from the Dead River,...

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• waterfalls
• huron mountains
• yellow dog plains