We woke up early eager to get to the park and see Lake Superior and the waterfalls. After a quick breakfast of some awesome “mountain bars” I had made before the trip, we were off into the woods.
The lake and park were a short 15 minutes ride. The Black River scenic byway is a quiet wooded road with great views of trees. There are numerous parking lots along the way with hiking trails leading off in all directions. The waterfalls are all clearly marked. Some are easier to get to than others.
We rode to Lake Superior at the end of the road first. After crossing the bridge above over the black river, we were on the beach (above).
The first waterfall we visited was Rainbow Falls. From the photos on the Internet, it looked great. The view from this trail wasn’t the best. After walking 1/2 mile and walking down what felt like 500 stairs, we arrived at the view below.
It was still impressive, but it was hard to see the full view of the falls since we were at the top. Hiking around to the other side would have been nicer. The shot below is the view further down the river towards Superior. After a rest, we hiked back up the huge amount of stairs.
Gratuitous motorcycle shot. It was awesome how green and peaceful it was in the forest. It had rained hard the night before, so all of the falls were full strength and there was a cool humidity in the air. The air felt very fresh and clean.
A short ride and hike later, it was time for another waterfall which meant more stairs. Thanks to Laura for this shot of me walking down stairs. lol. My motorcycle boots made for good hiking boots.
The next set of falls were much more open. Not nearly as tall as Rainbow.
A shot of Laura to get a sense of scale of the place. We had it mostly to ourselves. We only saw two other couples the whole time we were exploring the different waterfalls.
I think this one was called Sandstone falls.
Another mini-falls further up along another trail. This one didn’t seem to have a name.
The trails were great. Other than the massive amount of stairs, it was easy to walk around and check out the waterfalls.
I really liked this stump for some reason. I still can’t explain it, but it just looked nice.
The last waterfall we visited was Potawatomi falls which was the easiest to get to with only ten stairs! By this time my legs felt like jelly at the thought of more stairs. The view was totally worth it. We met a couple at this lookout point who said they were here the day before and the falls were only half full. The rain last night made a huge difference. We picked the right day!
Much too early, it was time to start heading back home. We stopped several times along the way to pick up some treasures from the trip. We bought some local crabapple jelly and some plum jam. Both were delicious. The walnut oil is for a roasted carrot recipe I’m playing with. The flat stones came from the beach on Lake Superior. I hope to use them in my mason jar fermentation projects to hold the veggies below the brine. I haven’t been able to find such rocks near my house easily. Two of the four were perfectly sized. The other two don’t quite fit into the jars.
It was a nice weekend away! We rode almost 550 miles over two days most of which was on small two lane roads in heavily wooded areas. It was relaxing. I am looking forward to our next adventure.
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