Black River waterfalls & Black River Scenic Byway

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Five beautiful and distinctive waterfalls are clustered within three miles of the Black River's mouth on Ottawa National Forest land. They are among the most visited in the western Upper Peninsula. The Black River and County Road 513/Black River Scenic Byway parallel each other for some 15 miles from U.S. 2 in Bessemer to Lake Superior. Passing Copper Peak, CR 513 winds through a high, rolling countryside of old farms and forests. Some hills here are very high. In fact, these are worn-down mountains, the westward extension of the Porcupine Mountains.

Photography by James Marvin Phelps

Potawatomi Falls, the most beautiful of the chain of Black River waterfalls.

The trailhead to a completed 140-mile segment of the North Country Trail begins just north of Copper Peak and goes through the Porcupine Mountains and Trap Hills. It ends at U.S. 41 south of L'Anse at Canyon Falls Roadside Park. The trail goes along the Black River five miles to Black River Harbor, passing two additional waterfalls—really more like rapids—CHIPPEWA FALLS and ALGONQUIN FALLS. They are not easily accessible from the road. Check the Ottawa National Forest web site, fs.usda.gov/ottawa for a more detailed map and current info. Click on "special places," then look for Black River Harbor. A map of the North Country Trail from Ironwood to near Bergland can be purchased at the Ottawa Visitor Center, or call 866-HIKE-NCT. Or see http//Xnorthcountrytrail.org for it and other mapped NCT sections.

The local Ni-Miiknaake Chapter of the North Country Trail has adopted the Black River Falls trails. Trail maintenance is now much better than when the overextended National Forest was responsible. Roots have been grubbed out, the trail re-contoured and re-routed. The trail will stay where it is despite the coming copper mine. The forest service made the mining company re-route its access because, it said, the North Country Trail was here first.

Mixed hardwoods and conifers make for outstanding fall color in the national forest land by the waterfalls. Most waterfalls here require a substantial walk from a parking area off County Road 513 to the waterfall and back again—a distance of 1/2 mile to 1 1/2 miles for each of the four falls.

Winter snowshoeing along the trails by the falls is popular. The Forest Service plows a few parking spots by Conglomerate, Gorge, and Potawatomi falls, but so many snowshoers seek out this area that many have to park along the road, which is permitted.

Here are the waterfalls arranged as they are reached from Bessemer or U.S. 2. Conglomerate, Potawatomi, Gorge, and Sandstone falls are connected via 1.4 miles of the North Country Trail.

Wayne Premo

Great Conglomerate Falls

■ GREAT CONGLOMERATE FALLS is the southernmost of the well-publicized waterfalls near Black River Harbor. Here, over an extended stretch of river, water rushes around huge boulders and tears at trunks, constantly felling trees. It's a wild, unsettling, dramatic landscape. The falls can be reached via a wide, smooth 3/4 mile trail from the Conglomerate Falls parking area on CR 513. Or, choose to take the west riverbank path from Potawatomi Falls, half a mile downstream. The drive to its parking area reduces the distance to walk.
     It is a 45-minute trek from Potawatomi Falls to the very beginning of Great Conglomerate Falls and back. First-time visitors might want to postpone Great Conglomerate Falls until a later trip, and save their time and energy to enjoy fewer falls in a more leisurely way.

■ Striking POTAWATOMI FALLS can be easily reached from a parking lot off Black River Road about 13 miles from U.S. 2. The National Forest's wheelchair-accessible path leads to a picnic area, chemical toilet, and to the unusually beautiful falls. Seen in August, the falls' beauty relies on pattern and complexity rather than on volume, drop, or force. According to Laurie Penrose's subtle description in A Guide to 199 Michigan Waterfalls, "The water passed over the rock in small tendrils of white angel hair, which separated and joined in complicated patterns before reaching the base of the gorge. The delicate picture of this falls—nestled in the gorge and surrounded by the deep greens of high summer—is extraordinary." Wheelchair-accessible.

■ A quarter mile downstream is the very different GORGE FALLS, reached from the same parking area, or trail, as Potawatomi Falls. Here the water, constricted in a narrow gorge, has pounded on the volcanic conglomerate rock, some billion years old, to create a deep, smooth slide that ends in a mass of foam. The great, rounded stone, unsoftened by vegetation of any kind, is striking testimony to the power of water. This wall of red stone confronts you as you descend to the final platform.

■ At SANDSTONE FALLS, the least unusual waterfall here, the river makes leaps, first five feet. Then, passing between huge conglomerate rocks, it drops 20 feet. A relatively easy 1/4 mile trail goes from CR 513 to the falls.

Wayne Premo

Rainbow Falls

■ RAINBOW FALLS, the northernmost of the five falls, is named for the rainbows often seen in its mists. In early afternoon before the sun sinks too low, Rainbow Falls' light effects can be enchanting, as light on the mist rising above the pool creates a rainbow. Nearby the river has exposed layered sandstone, alternating gold and rose, for another colorful effect.
     To reach Rainbow Falls from CR 513, you go down (and back up!) 198 stairs. The more beautiful view of Rainbow Falls is reached by parking at the very end of CR 513 at Black River Harbor. Take the swinging footbridge across the river mouth. Look for the North Country Trail's three blue diamonds in about 50 feet and turn right. (The NCT loops back around the river's east bank.) Follow the river upstream and up along the river wall on an earthen embankment made by the forest service. This trail reaches a plateau, then goes south past some massive old-growth hemlocks in the mixed old-growth stand on the way to the Rainbow Falls. (Rainbow Falls can also be reached by hiking upstream on the west side of the river from the parking lot at Black River Harbor.)

CR 513/Black River Road turns north from U.S. 2 at the car dealership and high school in Bessemer. The scenic byway part of CR 513 can also be reached from U.S. 2 by turning north onto Powderhorn Road at the giant skier west of Bessemer. (906) 932-1330. Wheelchair accessible: beautiful Potawatomi Falls. Not a fee area.
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