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As the Panorama Hills head east to the lake, away from the lofty Yellow Dog Plains, they lose much of their commanding height. The tallest of the eastern peaks is just a bit above 1100, fairly low in comparison to the surrounding area. After visiting the taller central and western hills I was still…
A year had passed since I first found the Panorama Hills, located off of County Road 510 just north of the Yellow Dog Falls. My initial visit was a brief excursion, mostly exploratory in nature. I was more ambitious this time around with plans to hit up the far western peaks.
Parking once again…
Finding good hikes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is not always easy. I prefer to stick to remote areas that, by their very nature, don't get a lot of traffic. Reading history articles or essays can sometimes uncover mentions of interesting features worth exploring, and it was while researching…
Several years had gone by since I last drove through Dodge City on the Northwestern Road up past the Yellow Dog Plains. Back then I had been hunting for Hogsback Falls, the only named drop on the Salmon Trout River that is not on Huron Mountain Club property. There is a logging road that extends…
Standing on the shore of the Yellow Dog River I took a deep breath, letting the cool fall air fill my chest. This was a familiar spot, where a remote USGS station measured the river a few miles upstream from Pinnacle Falls. The two-track had taken me from the AAA road to here, the southern edge of…
Boise Creek Valley is an awkward, sand-filled depression just north of the Dead River Basin. There are four main creeks that flow through the valley: Clark Creek flows in from the highlands to the west, Wilson Creek seeps along the towering eastern cliffs, Deer Creek drains a large swamp to the…
Rising up like a large, gnarly growth, Mt Benison stretches from Mountain Lake to Little Huron River and from Howe to Cliff Lake. Similar to Ives Hill far to the east and Superior Mountain just to the west, Mt Benison is not a simple peak with a distinct shape or defined outcroppings but a whole…
Both Alder Hills are located in a prime area for promising views. Being near the northeast corner of the Huron Mountains lends potential for vistas of Big Bay and Lake Independence with enough elevation to glimpse the edge of the Yellow Dog Plains. One could easily expect grand views and…
County Roads 550 and 510 stretch northwest from Marquette, roughly parallel and never more than five miles apart, eventually meeting near Big Bay. Between the two roads lie a number of public and private peaks of the Huron Mountains. There are a few that spill out of the road's embracing circle, but…
The cliffs along the southeast wall of Mulligan Plains is one of the most rugged and tempting hikes I've found since I first viewed them in late 2008. Towering hundreds of feet above Mulligan Creek, often with sheer rock faces that are rare in the Upper Peninsula, they promise of awesome views of…