Wagner Falls and Munising: Gateway to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has many beautiful waterfalls, and Wagner Falls near Munising is one of my favorite falls.

Alger County is home to 17 waterfalls, ranging from small unnamed falls to much larger falls along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Some Alger waterfalls, like Chapel Falls, are a long walk in from a trailhead.

Some of Alger’s waterfalls are quite readily visible, although the roadside Alger Falls on M-28 at the M-94 junction is a little tricky to access because of its location along a busy highway with little parking along the road’s shoulder.

Once you’re at Alger Falls, the access point for Wagner Falls is about a ¼ mile away.

Wagner Falls is a classic cascade and easily accessible via a half-mile long boardwalk trail leading in from a small parking area on M-94 and just off M-28.

There are some staircases along the walk to Wagner Falls, but short length of the walk and the level surfaces of some of the wider spots in the trail make it easier to pack in a tripod if you want to spend a little time and experiment with slower shutter speeds while taking photos of the falls.

One of my favorite memories of visiting Wagner Falls is a time we spent nearly an hour at the falls with no other visitors around. The end of the trail had a few benches, which made it a nice place to just sit, meditate and listen to the roar of the waterfalls.

The Munising area is also home to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, the Hiawatha National Forest, the Alger Underwater Preserve where divers can view remains of over a dozen shipwrecks and Grand Island National Recreation Area.

While we were able to stop by Wagner Falls and Alger Falls the last time we visited the Upper Peninsula, it’s been quite a few years since we’ve been able to see a lot of other attractions around the area.

We especially enjoyed traveling the nearly 70 miles of H-58 from Munising through large swaths of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, past the access point for the isolated Au Sable Point Lighthouse, through Grand Marais into more forests in Luce County. The road, which is the main access for Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, was mostly gravel or sand when we last drove it at least five years ago. Driving the road in some sections was a bit of an adventure as the sandy soil threatened so slide off into Lake Superior at a few points, but the lightly traveled road offered a beautiful view of some of the most wild and isolated areas in the eastern Upper Peninsula.

We’ve watched anxiously from afar as a huge paving project along this route continues through at least 2010. It will probably be a couple of years before we can drive H-58 again, so I’m very curious to see the finished road. I also wonder how much of the sense of adventure and closeness to nature along H-58 will remain at the paving project’s completion.

© Dominique King 2009

Comments

[Andrew]

Beautiful photos and a great post. Thanks for all the information. It's been quite a few years since I have been on H-58, but I still remember how you really felt like you were off the beaten path - I didn't know it was being paved.

[Dominique]

Andrew-the paving plan was the subject of much debate, and I remember @photowanderer ordering the reports from the parks as the discussion was taking place. We both wondered how the project would affect the drive, as it's one we really enjoyed when we drove it quite a few years back.
I'm hoping it won't be too many years before we spend a little time in the Munising area again...beyond the quick stop we had at Wagner Falls last time through the U.P.
Thanks for stopping by!