About Lower Tahquamenon Falls
Lower Tahquamenon Falls was the other of two major waterfalls featured along the Tahquamenon River in Tahquamenon Falls State Park.
While the Upper Tahquamenon Falls dazzled us with its size and classical block appearance, the Lower Falls was really a series of five disjoint cascades.
Each of the cascades were roughly no more than 10ft while being split by an island.
Therefore, the overall drop was said to be roughly 20ft give or take.
Some of these tiers might have felt more like rapids than waterfalls, but I guess when you combine the width with the combination of all of these drops together, I could see why there was infrastructure centered around these falls.
Experiencing the Lower Tahquamenon Falls – The Distant Lookouts
From the well-signed and developed parking area for the Lower Tahquamenon Falls (see directions below), we followed the trail and boardwalk which went by a concession area before continuing on.
The trail took us by some lookouts with distant views of the pair of segments belonging to the Lower Tahquamenon Falls to the left side of the island (see picture at the top of this page).
These views were about 0.2 miles from the nearest parking lot.
We saw that there were partial views hinting at the remaining waterfalls on the opposite side of the island to the right, but we had to walk further on the boardwalk to improve the experience.
As we continued walking along the boardwalk, we reached a fork where the steps to the left led down to a dock containing a bunch of row boats.
Apparently, we could have rented these boats to get across the Tahquamenon River and wind up at the island splitting the Lower Tahquamenon Falls.
It would be from the island that we would’ve been able to get close to all five of the waterfalls comprising the Lower Falls.
However, during our visit, the row boat rentals were closed for the season so it must have been a Summer only activity.
Shortly beyond this row boat dock, the trail continued skirting a wide part of the Tahquamenon River.
It then reached another lookout with interpretive signs providing a more frontal view of the distant pair of waterfalls to the left of the island.
Experiencing the Lower Tahquamenon Falls – The River Trail
At this point, the trail continued along the river on a boardwalk (called the “River Trail”), and it did this for the next 0.3 miles (roughly 0.5 miles from the trailhead).
The walkway was flanked by trees as well as a few interpretive signs waxing poetic about this place as well as some information regarding various aspects of the Nature here.
Once we got to the first of the River Trail Viewing Platforms, we managed to get a real up-close and frontal view of the upper two drops of the Lower Tahquamenon Falls to the right side of the island.
The viewing platform was also wide enough to walk over to its end where we also got to peer over the top of the bottommost drop.
From this vantage point, we also got a nice view of the calm part of the river just below the last of the Lower Falls.
Continuing along the River Trail boardwalk for the next 0.1 miles, we then made it to the last of the viewing decks besides the Lower Falls.
This time, it was of the uppermost drop, which was probably on the order of 5ft.
What stood out about this drop was its width, but I could easily see under higher flow that this drop might be hidden as rapids.
In any case, this was our turnaround point.
That said, the River Trail boardwalk would ultimately continue as a primitive trail hugging the Tahquamenon River for the next 4 miles or so before reaching the familiar trails at the Upper Tahquamenon Falls.
Apparently, the park would run shuttle services to make it possible to do this entire hike from the one waterfall to the next and then shuttle back to the original trailhead.
This service was also closed for the season upon our visit as it would only run during the Summer months.
So overall, our visit to take in as much as we could without being able to hike on the island was roughly an hour.
More Infrastructure at the Lower Tahquamenon Falls
Julie and I noticed that there was a lot of infrastructure at the Lower Tahquamenon Falls in the form of multiple parking lots, large picnic areas and shelters, concession buildings, and several campgrounds.
Even the kiosk at the turnoff leaving the M-128 road for the Lower Falls was manned ($10 for non-resident vehicles for the day as of early October 2015) while the Upper Falls was not.
We were kind of scratching our heads as to why the more impressive Upper Tahquamenon Falls lacked the same kind of infrastructure as the Lower Falls.
So we concluded that it must be for popularity of having cheap accommodations in the form of campgrounds and RV sites that must’ve been the main reason for all the developments here.
Authorities
The Lower Tahquamenon Falls resides in the Tahquamenon Falls State Park near Paradise in Luce County, Michigan. It is administered by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
The Lower Tahquamenon Falls was accessed from its very built-up and dedicated parking lot in the state park.
From Paradise, Michigan, we drove about 10.5 miles west on the M-123 to the well-signed turnoff on the left for “Lower Falls”.
This was about 3.5 miles east of the turnoff for the “Upper Falls”.
Overall, this drive took us less than 20 minutes. At the car park, there was an entrance kiosk that was manned so we had to pay $10 non-resident fee for the Michigan Recreation Passport for the day of our visit.
The pass was also good for the Upper Falls on the same day.
For directions on getting here from Munising or Newberry instead of Paradise, see the directions to the Upper Falls page.
For additional reference, Newberry, Michigan was 69 miles (90 minutes drive) northwest of Mackinaw City, 428 miles (7 hours drive) north of Chicago, Illinois (via Green Bay, Wisconsin), 479 miles (8 hours drive) east of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and 357 miles (5.5 hours drive) northwest of Detroit, Michigan.
Find A Place To Stay
Showing the lower falls from perhaps the entrance of the lookout before walking towards the end of the lookout showing the downstream scenery from above the last tier of the closest series of falls
Movie showing the profile of part of the main section of the lower falls before walking further upstream on the boardwalk towards the brink of the uppermost drop
Movie showing the other side of the lower falls from a couple of different angles at the same lookout before zooming out to show the context of the calm river and falls together
Related Trip Reports
Related Top 10 Lists
No Posts Found
Related Itineraries
Trip Planning Resources
Nearby Accommodations
Featured Images and Nearby Attractions
Visitor Comments:
Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...No users have replied to the content on this page
Visitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...No users have submitted a write-up/review of this waterfall
Nearest Waterfalls
