 | | Wayne Premo | Four miles downstream, the Lower Falls is smaller but in its own serene way, equally impressive. Here the Tahquamenon River drops 22 feet in a series of cascades that surround a sizable island and a series of boulders. You can view the series of falls from a high bluff, but for around $3 a person you can rent a rowboat from the concession – highly recommended. That takes you much closer, over to the island, where a footpath goes right up to the falls. Below the Lower Falls, the Tahquamenon River offers the park's best fishing: perch, northern pike, muskies, and walleye. Fishing pressure is considerable, however.
Spectacular fall color peaks here well into October, later than in much of the U.P. A mix of maple, birch, and conifer makes for rich yellows and reds contrasted with dark green. An easy, flat trail into the forest is the four-mile Giant Pine Loop that begins at the brink of the Upper Falls and passes by some very old white pines. This trail cuts through the fourth-largest old-growth forest in Michigan, a never-harvested community of American beech, sugar maple, yellow birch, and Eastern hemlock, interspersed with some white pine. This forest is undergoing a transition. Sadly, beech bark disease has infected most of the Americna beech trees in our northern hardwood forests. Many of these trees have become hazardous and have been removed. Signs of tree-cutting are evident.
The four-mile trail connecting the Upper and Lower Falls (a section of the North Country Trail) now has boardwalks, bridges, and steps on slippery hills.
Tahquamenon Falls State Park
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