From waterfalls to a remote national park, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula serves up scenic outdoor adventure

The sun sets at Isle Royale National Park in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Pam LeBlanc photo

Peering out the window of a floatplane carrying six passengers, I see dozens of small islands, some of them bristling with pines and others studded with grey boulders, scattered against the cobalt blue of Lake Superior.

On those spits of land beneath me, scientists have been studying wolves and moose since 1958. After years of dreaming about visiting the site of the country’s longest continuously running wildlife study, I’m about to land at Isle Royale National Park. 

An overnight visit to the park stood out as the highlight of a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where towering trees, waterfalls and chilly lakes are everywhere, but crowds are sparse. 

I flew into Marquette and spent two nights in the largest city in the Upper Peninsula (population about 21,000), zipped over to Isle Royale National Park for one night (not nearly enough!),  then wrapped up with two more nights in Houghton, at the base of the Keweenaw Peninsula.  

The forests, the colors, the water – it all reminded me of my earliest years in Michigan, where I lived for 4 years before moving to Texas.  

Two days in Marquette 

Minerals stain rocky cliffs at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Pam LeBlanc photo

From the airport, where we arrived just after noon, we beelined it to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which runs for 42 miles along the Lake Superior coastline. For 15 miles of that, cliffs streaked in red, yellow, blue and green rise from 50 to 200 feet from the shoreline.  

A steady rain was falling during our visit, but in good weather, visitors can take a guided kayak tour along the cliffs with Pictured Rocks Kayaking. The company loads kayaks and passengers onto a “launching boat,” drops them alongside the colorful rock formations, then follows along to pick them up. Park officials say the cliffs themselves, with caves, arches and spires sculpted by wind and waves, are best seen in the evening light. Pictured Rocks Cruises offers boat tours, no paddling required. 

We skipped the kayaking because of the storm, but walked the beach in the rain, admiring a stone outcropping called Miners Castle, then hiking to Miners Waterfall farther inland. The falls are spectacular – crashing as they drop 50 feet over a sandstone lip. It was the first of half a dozen waterfalls we saw during our trip. 

From the park, we made the 45-minute drive to Marquette and checked in at the Hampton Inn Marquette, right on the waterfront. Dinner was at the amazing Delft Bistro, housed in a historic movie theater that opened in 1914.  

Read more: When in Northern Michigan, hit the pasty trail 

Waterfalls and bike rides in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Water spills over Miners Falls at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Pam LeBlanc photo

We wanted to see more waterfalls and put two on our list for the next morning – Yellow Dog Falls and Pinnacle Falls. In all, more than 300 waterfalls splash down slabs of rock and through rocky gorges in the Upper Peninsula, also known as UP. This website shows some of the best. 

It took a while to find Yellow Dog Falls, but once we found the trailhead at the end of a dirt road, we loved the slightly soggy walk through the woods. I found a toad the size of my clenched fist, and a couple of anglers were flyfishing in pools along the way. It’s a .75-mile walk to the first falls, where water cascades 20 feet down water worn rock. Keep going and you’ll find two more scenic spillways. 

From Yellow Dog Falls, it took about 20 minutes to reach Pinnacle Falls, where we followed a partly overgrown trail that led through the forest to the bottom of the falls. I kicked off my shoes and waded right in. 

After lunch, we rented a couple of bikes from Lakeshore Bikes and started pedaling north, toward Presque Isle Park. We rode the 2-mile perimeter of the 323-acre peninsula, stopped to scamper down to a few rocky beaches and got ice cream from a stand.  

Read more: Discover the seasonal charms of Southwestern Michigan 

Off to Isle Royale in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Chris LeBlanc hikes at Isle Royale National Park in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Pam LeBlanc photo

We set the alarm early the next day so we could make the two-hour drive to Hubbell, where we checked in for our 10 a.m. seaplane flight to Isle Royale National Park. If you don’t want to fork out $360 for the roundtrip flight, you can take the less expensive six-hour ferry ride from Houghton or the three-hour ferry from Copper Harbor. We landed at Rock Harbor about an hour after takeoff. 

Isle Royale ranked as the fifth least visited national park in the United States in 2023. Most of the traffic – and I use the term loosely – – is centered around Rock Harbor, where visitors can stay in a lodge or cabin or pitch a tent in the campground.  

Moose and wolves are the stars here, and scientists have been studying their interactions for more than six decades. At the Visitors Center, rangers told us a wolf had trotted through just an hour before our arrival. 

Isle Royale’s wolves 

The wolves arrived in the 1940s, when they crossed an ice bridge from the Canadian mainland. Their population has fluctuated from a low of 2 in 2016 to a high of 50 in 1980. Genetic inbreeding, disease and the availability of food all impact the population. According to the 2023-2024 annual report, an estimated 30 gray wolves currently live on the main island, in three separate packs (plus a single lone wolf.)  

We dropped our packs in Cabin No. 206, perfectly perched on a hillside above the seaplane dock, then headed out on the Scoville Point Trail. The trail leads out along a main finger of the biggest island, and we walked right past a bald eagle nest where two adults were guarding their family. At the end, the trail opens onto wide slabs of stone, and looking out you’ll feel like you’re at the ocean. It’s a 4.2-mile, mostly flat round trip. 

We booked the last flight off the island at 5 p.m., which gave us the entire next day to explore, too. We rented a canoe, paddled over to Hidden Lake in search of moose (none, rats!) and hiked up to Louise’s Lookout for a different perspective and a picnic. Moose are frequently spotted swimming from channel to channel in the area. We didn’t see any, but we did find tons of birds, including sandhill cranes. 

You should at least dip a toe in the water while you’re at the park. We went for a swim off the dock. You thought Barton Springs was cold? Try taking a flying leap into the largest freshwater lake in the world (by surface area). It’ll take your breath away – in a good way. 

Exploring Keweenaw Peninsula 

Hiking trails weave through a grove of 400-year-old white pines in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Pam LeBlanc photo

Back on the mainland that evening, we headed to Houghton and checked into the Vault Hotel, housed in an old sandstone building. Inside, the décor is “bank circa the early 1900s,” complete with teller windows, bank boxes and a downstairs bar called the Counting Room (try their old fashioned.). 

We spent the next day exploring the Keweenaw Peninsula. Highlights? A stop at the Jampot in Eagle Harbor for pastries baked by monks, hiking at Estivant Pines Wilderness Nature Preserve, an old growth forest where shafts of light filter through 125-foot trees, some lighthouse spotting and another dip in Lake Superior at a roadside park. 

Cornish miners who worked in Northern Michigan in the 1850s imported the tradition of meat and vegetable-filled pies called pasties (that’s pronounced “PAST-ees”), and we stopped in Mohawk to try some. They made the fist-sized pies with wide crimped edges so if they ate them with dirty hands down in the mines, they could just toss the crusts away. We ate ours. 

Bringing a bit of Michigan home 

I left the next day feeling like I’d reconnected with a piece of my early childhood, one that had faded away with time. It’s funny how visiting a place can dredge up memories, and this trip did that for me. 

I headed home feeling awash in the blues, greens, golds and browns of the outdoors. I’ll carry those colors, along with memories of tall trees and sandy beaches, with me until I get there again.