From Chatham, our odometer showed 3.3 miles
from the corner of M94 and Rock River Road (FR 2279) to FR 2276. We
turned left on FR 2276 immediately after crossing the Rock River.
We followed FR 2276 for 3.7 miles to FR
2293. The sign for FR 2293 is pretty beat-up from bored hunters
doing target practice, but you can still kind of make out the numbers on
the sign.
We turned left onto FR 2293 and followed it
for approximately .7 miles to a parking area of the left side of the
road. Review the slide show pictures
to see what the "parking area" looks like. There are also
some signs at the parking area marking the trail as a Wilderness
Area. That means that motorized vehicles, including ATVs, ORVs,
snowmobiles and motorcycles are NOT ALLOWED! You will find evidence
that some visitors can't read the signs or have elected to ignore the
signs.
The map and directions we obtained from the
the joint U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service Visitor Information Center
in Munising claim that there are blue diamond markers for the trail, but
we found no blue markers at all.
There were a few marshy sections on the
trail, but nothing to worry about. They're probably more of an issue
during spring hikes.
After approximately 25 minutes of hiking we
reached the base of the falls. Contrary to what the map and
directions say, we found the trail takes you to the base of the
falls. From what we could tell, the original trail that went to the
top of the falls has been abandoned.
