Upper Dead River Falls
Dead River Falls was my first waterfall hike in the Upper Peninsula (I do not consider Tahquamenon a hike) and also one of my most memorable. On our first trip to Marquette, we were blessed with 60-degree weather in March. It was sunny, clear, and absolutely beautiful our entire trip. Kira had cliff jumped at Dead River Falls as a kid and really wanted to go back, and I was excited to go to see the falls and hear about her memories from childhood. Although it was very warm, there was still a lot of ice on the fall trails, as it was March. We both had hiking boots on but slipped around quite a bit during the 2-ish mile hike. We were able to see all of the sections of the falls, traversing the gorge by sliding from tree to tree. My favorite part of the falls was standing atop the rocky outcropping above the tallest fall, enjoying the sun and watching the water undercut the ice that was still refusing to give in to the unseasonably warm March weather. On our way back down the gorge to leave, we both struggled to stay on our feet. Eventually, I gave in, just sitting down on the ice and starting a slow soggy butt slide down. My slow slide turned into an out-of-control skid, and I bumped into a tree at the bottom of the gorge. I was fine and turned around to see whether Kira was laughing at me, but as soon as I turned around, she followed suit, crashing into me what seemed like an eternity of sliding later. We were both just fine, and there were a handful of people around, so we all had a laugh. They suffered similar fates to us, but we all agreed that a wet butt was worth viewing the falls. In the summer, it’s a popular place to find cliff jumpers and swimmers.
