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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…
Nestled north of Red Road and between Mulligan Plains and the Clark Creek Valley, the numbered lakes are perched almost 300' above within thick and wild highlands. Lake 8, 2, and 3 (going from west to east) are each around 10 acres in size with shorelines ranging from deep rocky outcroppings to…
Katie and I woke up at a small Ishpeming motel to find the ground covered in snow. This was more than a little surprising, as it was the second week of May, but the Upper Peninsula likes to misbehave in the late spring. We packed up the car with Logan and headed west on US-41 towards the Peshekee…
Cliffs have quickly become one of my more recent hiking interests. Like mountains, they offer some excellent views of the area, and the sharp relief can make for some interesting routes and rock outcroppings. Good cliffs are hard to find in the Upper Peninsula, thanks to the millennia of erosion…
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…
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…
Due to the rugged nature of the Peshekee Highlands, the Dead River's upper reaches are quite unique. From its headwaters in the McCormick Tract, it drops over 400 feet before reaching Silver Lake Basin, the first of five reservoirs along the Dead River. The surrounding land doesn't drop as quickly…
Located north of Champion, the McCormick Tract is a 16,850 acre wilderness in the Peshekee Grade. Originally owned by Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaping machine, the land was donated to the USDA Forest Service in 1967 and is now available for the public to enjoy. In July of 2009 I visited the…
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…
Winding through Baraga and Houghton County, the Sturgeon River is a large, well-known river system. Driving from Marquette to Houghton on US-41 brings drivers over the river twice, first at Canyon River Falls and then at the Sturgeon River Sloughs. These two spots, combined with the Sturgeon River…