Miners Falls

Munising / Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan, USA

About Miners Falls

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Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Miners Falls (I’ve also seen it referred to as Miner’s Falls) was a well-flowing 40ft waterfall in a pretty well-protected part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

I’ve seen inconsistent numbers from the NPS (National Parks Service) literature claiming that it was 50ft as well as 60ft tall.

Miners_Falls_030_09292015 - Miners Falls
Miners Falls

Nevertheless, this waterfall had nice flow because it belonged to the Miners River, and its watershed was protected for the most part under the care of the National Parks System.

This was really our waterfalling excuse to get a preview of the scenery from the famed Pictured Rocks Cruise as this hike was done as a stopover on our way over to the nearby Miner’s Castle.

The Miner’s Castle was an impressive rock formation jutting out onto the choppy Lake Superior.

It turned out to be a “preview” because all cruises were cancelled on the day we did this hike due to high winds and turbulent waters.

Miners_Castle_014_09292015 - Miners Castle was that rock formation jutting out into Lake Superior, but given the choppy conditions of our visit, the cliffs were producing blowholes!
Miners Castle was that rock formation jutting out into Lake Superior, but given the choppy conditions of our visit, the cliffs were producing blowholes!

So that kind of made the trail for the Miners Falls very busy with other visitors looking for stuff to do while waiting out an opportunity to do the cruise like we were.

Hiking to Miners Falls

The trail to Miners Falls was said to be 1.2 miles round trip.

Leaving the trailhead (see directions below), we went on a pretty much virtually flat gravel surface under a nearly constant canopy of tall trees (said to be a combination of beech, maple, birch, and pine trees).

Along the trail, there were numbered posts, which helped to keep our daughter occupied on the hike.

Miners_Falls_005_09292015 - Tahia walking towards the interpretive sign board at the Miners Falls Trailhead, which had the key to the numerical posts explaining what we were seeing along the hike
Tahia walking towards the interpretive sign board at the Miners Falls Trailhead, which had the key to the numerical posts explaining what we were seeing along the hike

These numbers were keyed to an interpretive guide posted at a sign board by the trailhead as well as in a PDF file on the National Park Service website for Pictured Rocks.

In order to follow along while hiking when there’s no hard copy available, it’s possible to take a photo of the interpretive sign at the trailhead then refer to that photo as you go.

Otherwise, you’d have to do some pre-hike research and either save the guide on your phone to follow along offline or just print out a copy.

Anyways, the pleasant hike remained on its wide gravel surface for almost its entire length.

Miners_Falls_012_09292015 - Julie and Tahia on the pleasant forested trail leading to Miners Falls
Julie and Tahia on the pleasant forested trail leading to Miners Falls

It made me wonder if this trail used to be an unpaved road at one point.

Eventually, we reached a split in the trail near its end.

Keeping right at the split quickly led us to a dead-end with a partial view of Miners Falls.

However, going left at the split led us down some 77-80 steps to a small lookout platform directly peering down towards the front of the attractive falls.

Miners_Falls_039_09292015 - Looking down at a partial view of Miners Falls from the lookout at the end of the trail (not taking the step down)
Looking down at a partial view of Miners Falls from the lookout at the end of the trail (not taking the step down)

There wasn’t a whole lot of room at this lookout, and it didn’t take long before it became crowded (again, probably due to the cruise cancellations on the day of our visit).

So we didn’t linger here for as long as we would’ve liked.

Then again, we saw some younger visitors hop the wooden railings and scramble further down below the lookout deck to get closer to the base of the falls.

It actually looked like the trail used to continue down to the base as there were remnants of stairs immediately below the viewing platform.

Miners_Falls_020_09292015 - Julie and Tahia taking the steps down to the main lookout in front of the Miners Falls
Julie and Tahia taking the steps down to the main lookout in front of the Miners Falls

We didn’t do as the younger folks did, but it didn’t seem that difficult nor excessively risky to do so.

Now whether we’d be cited if we were caught or tattled on might be a different story…

Anyways, this hike took us about 50 minutes away from the car, which included the stops and the picture-taking.

Authorities

Miners Falls resides in the Pictured Rocks National Seashore near Munising in Alger County, Michigan. It is administered by the National Park Service. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.

Maps and Routing Content are for annual subscribers. See Membership Options.
Content is for subscribers. See Membership Options.
Tagged with: munising, pictured rocks, national lakeshore, alger county, marquette, michigan, waterfall, lake superior, upper peninsula, up, great lakes, miners castle



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About Johnny Cheng

Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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