Falls River Trail: two waterfalls in one walk

Choose your start

Downtown trailhead: best for both drops

Drive south on L’Anse Main Street. Baraga County Trails describes the public riverside parking area on the right beside a small park; the trail begins on the opposite side adjacent to the L’Anse Warden Electric power plant and follows the river upstream. Follow posted trail signs, not any industrial driveway or gated bridge. No parking coordinates are invented here.

US-41 upstream trailhead

A second public trailhead/lot is described near the US-41 bridge just before the Falls River crossing. It reaches the same public corridor, but is not a license to cross the highway on foot at an undesignated point or walk on the railway tracks. Choose the actual signed trail entrance.

Lower Falls first

From the downtown entrance, walk upstream beside the Falls River. Baraga County's waterfall visitor brochure identifies Lower Falls as a natural cascading drop reached from the bank trail. The old cement dam downstream is not the same natural waterfall. Don't climb utility works or try to descend rock slabs into fast water.

Continue to Middle Falls

Continue upstream from Lower Falls. The county brochure places Middle Falls beside the high-bluff trail. Watch from stable trail surfaces above the slide and cascade, not from the lip. Independent waterfall geographic accounts distinguish these two drops from Upper Falls beyond the bridge corridor.

Walking effort

The public trail guide lists 1.4 miles out and back, easy, singletrack, with slight elevation change. That describes the whole trail. It is not a surveyed distance from parking to Lower Falls or Middle Falls individually. Allow roughly 35–75 minutes depending on photo stops and footing.

Winter and high water

The trail organization mentions snowshoe use, but not a guarantee of plowed parking, groomed tread or a safe winter waterfall viewpoint. Spring runoff and heavy rain can change water level quickly. River ice and wet slate ledges are unsafe shortcuts.

What to look for

Lower Falls is a slide and uneven tumble through the riverbed. Middle Falls climbs the scale with a longer series of closely spaced drops. From a high bank it is easy to see why these aren't one single waterfall. Keep your eyes on how the bedrock steers the river: the stream turns, narrows and spreads around dark slabs before continuing toward the bay. You can spend the whole visit within earshot of traffic and still find quiet among the cedars.

Not part of this walk

Upper Falls, the Power House Falls property and any rail bridge crossing are separate identities with separate access questions. We do not direct visitors through private residences, across an active or abandoned railway, beneath US-41, into old industrial works or across Falls River. Several older independent travel accounts describe exploratory paths that should not be confused with today's maintained, officially described public route.