Tahquamenon Falls State Park

Upper Falls, AKA Root Beer Falls

This September we had the opportunity to go to Michigan to visit family. While we were there we wanted to check out a few of the nearby attractions. During one of the days of our visit, we drove up to Upper Michigan to the Tahquamenon Falls State Park.

Tahquamenon (pronounced “Tuh-KWAHM’-in-uhn) Falls State Park encompasses 46,179 acres stretching over 13 miles, making it Michigan’s second largest state park. Most of this is undeveloped woodland without roads, buildings or power lines. The park is home to both the Upper and Lower Tahquamenon Falls, which is where we visited.

One of the trails between the Upper Falls viewing platforms

Tahquamenon’s Upper Falls are Michigan’s largest waterfalls and one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River. These falls are nearly 200 feet across and 50 feet high. Each second you spend at the viewing platform, up to 50,000 gallons of water flow down the falls right before your eyes!

The local’s nickname for the Upper Falls is “Root Beer Falls” due to the brown, rusty coloring and white foam of the water. As the river flows through cedar and hemlock swamps upriver, the tannins from plants and bark leach into the water, giving it its coloring. The viewing area of the Upper Falls is a 1.5 mile loop with many stairs leading down to the falls.

Upper Falls

The Lower Tahquamenon Falls is a series of five small waterfalls cascading around an island. The walk around the Lower Falls is a very easy ADA-accessible boardwalk, and recently there has been a footbridge to the island added.

Lower Falls

Tahquamenon Falls State Park can be enjoyed year round. In the summer it offers lots of hiking trails and camping. You take a tour of the upper falls with an interpretive ranger, take a riverboat tour, and go kayaking or canoeing. In the winter you can go snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, or snowmobiling. Nearby is the Tahquamenon Logging Museum where you can learn the colorful history of timber in this region, and there’s also a microbrewery at the Upper Falls where you can quench your thirst after a long hike!