Marquette to Sault Ste. Marie Michigan - Waterfalls, Hiking & Camping - South Shore Lake Superior Circle Tour

From Marquette to Munising, there are two alternate routes. Michigan 28 is the most direct and runs largely along the lakeshore. Waterfall seekers may want to take the longer route, via US Highway 41 and Michigan 94, to stop at Laughing Whitefish State Park to see the water fall. This route also takes you past the waterfalls located to the south of Munising.

From Munising to Whitefish Point on Whitefish Bay, traveling becomes more complex. The road that stays the closest to the lake (Highway H58) is 90% a sand forest road, with occasional spur sand roads to get to the lake or campgrounds. So plan of collecting some dust if you elect this route. The bonuses are more lake views and some very nice rustic campsites that can only be reached via this route. One we really liked was right on the lake between Grand Marais and Deer Park. Otherwise you'll be traveling on Michigan 28 and then taking paved spur roads north to selected on-the-lake locations - like Grand Marais, Muskallonge State Park, and Tahquamenon State Park. One traveling bonus of taking the longer, paved route is you travel close to the Seney National Wildlife Refuge. Only a few miles south of Higfhway 28 at Seney, it has hiking trails plus an "automobile" nature trail, a decent size visitor center-educational exhibit, and even canoeing opportunities.

From Tahquamenon Falls east - Whitefish Point, Paradise, Bay Mills, to Sault Sainte Marie - you have paved roads that run largely along the lake.

Marquette Michigan

Marquette's early settlement was due to the discovery of large masses of iron ore nearby in the 1840s. It was officially incorporated as a village in 1859 and a city in 1871. The city and its residents have done a great job preserving the old historic brownstone buildings.

Downtown is well elevated over the lake with trees, benches, and old-fashioned street lamps.

While mining remains part of the economic picture, the city is clean, with lots of big trees, well maintained residentail neighborhoods, and nice wooded parks.

< < < The city is full of classic, well maintained brownstone buildings like this church

The Marquette Harbor and park is just a few blocks walk from downtown.

< < < In the Harbor Park parking lot we found this great example of "Yooper Ingenuity" in this Bulk Milk Hauling truck turned into a muscular Motor Home-RV Camper.

Presque Isle Park a 323 acre forested oval shaped headland/peninsula which juts into Lake Superior in the northern tip of the City. While the park has every other amenity you'd expect, it has no camping. It is a nice place to stop for a picnic or catch a concert at the Band Shell if you are staying in the area.

The city does operate a campground at the Dead River Basin and we came close to staying there. But while I was waiting in line at the office to make inquiries, it became obvious the park was over-run with high school and college age kids having a blast. (Northern Michigan University is at Marquette) So we headed up the road towards Big Bay hoping to find something in the Escanaba State Forest. While we saw some nice wayside parks and what looked like some great hiking trails, no campgrounds. We turned around before we got to Big Bay* as night was falling on us and we didn't want to lose other options.

Visitor Information - Marquette Country Convention & Visitors Bureau

Da Yooper Tourist Trap - An entertaining and educational visit in nearby Ishpeming

Big Bay, Michigan

* A Note on Big Bay. In 2005 we traveled in our new Rialta mini motor home, rather than tent camping as we have done for many years. Since this mode allows us to overnight practically anywhere, we decided to go all the way north of Marquette to visit Big Bay and see what it had to offer. Conclusion. Unless you are hiker, kayaker, mountain biker or fisherman who plans to spend a few days there, I recommend taking a pass on the trip. The road, while paved, has several miles of potholes and broken pavement. And most of the stretch is too far from the lake for any scenic compensations. It was a long and boring trip that we had to repeat on the return trip since Big Bay is at the end of the road. But if Big Bay is your destination because of the aforementioned interests, then what it has to offer is worth the price of traveling the road (which I guess serves to keep the riff-raff out, eh?).

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Pictured Rocks is backpacker and backcountry hiking paradise. In addition to back country camping, there are 3 drive in campgrounds as well as some accessible day hiking trails.

Get More Pictured Rocks Information Here . . .

Miner's Falls

Once you've explored Munising and the west end of Pictured Rocks, there are options to consider for routes to continue your journey east. If you want to sample more of Pictured Rocks, forest highway H58 runs northwest along the southern perimeter of the park. From that road, spur roads lead into the park, either to hiking trailheads or campgrounds. Eventually you'll arrive at Grand Marais, the town that bookends the east terminus of Pictured Rocks. The downsides of this route are: the road changes to sand/unpaved, it meanders around quite abit, and it will take twice a long to get to a destination than you might guess.

Sable Falls

If spending time on a winding, dusty road is unappealing, option 2 is to get back on Michigan 28 and continue east. At Seney you intersect with Highway 77. Take that north to Grand Marais and explore the east end of Pictured Rocks (Grand Sable Dunes, Sable Falls, and more).

Here's a national park service map (Adobe PDF file) on the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore Park that gives you an idea of these two route options.

Your next destination should be Tahquamenon Falls. Here again, you have the choice of a shorter route near the lake (H58) that again morphs into a sand road a few miles out of Grand Marais - or - the longer route back south to ole' M28, then north on M123 near Newberry.

Tahquamenon Falls State Park

Tahquamenon is a large (40,000 acres, 13 miles long) state park with two widely separated camping areas (download a pdf map file of the park). The highlight of the park is the Upper Falls, almost a 50 foot drop and stretching across 200 feet. At times as much as 50,000 gallons of water per second cascade down. > > >

There are handicap accessible paths leading to the falls and adjacent to the river. After you've hiked around the Upper Falls area, you might enjoy stopping in the Tahquamenon Falls Brew Pub & Restaurant. While it might seem the state is operating this fancy establishment, it is actually a private concession on private property that just happens to be adjacent to the path leading to the Upper Falls. How this came about was the land immediately adjacent to the falls was in private hands for several years and existed side by side with the then existing state park. The deal that brought the falls into the park included the right of the owner to operate his enterprise and have ingress and egress through the park lands. After a hot day of hiking, this is a welcome amenity!

Lower Falls

We found the Lower Falls area quite enchanting. There are several falls that cascade around a large island. You can rent rowboats and canoes here too, paddle over to the island or get a closer view of some of the falls. > > >

Whitefish Point, Whitefish Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

If you have time, take the trip north of Paradise to Whitefish Point before continuing south and east around Whitefish Bay. The route to Sault Ste. Marie largely runs adjacent to the Lake.

< < < Hans relaxes on the beach at a wayside stop along Lake Shore Drive (Pendills Bay). Another nice rest stop along this drive is the Point Iroquois Lighthouse.

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