Wildcat Falls – Scenic Hike Leads to Small Upper Peninsula Waterfall

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is home to hundreds of waterfalls, and while many visitors don’t make it past the well-known ones at Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, or Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, there are plenty of others worth checking out. We recently made our first-ever visit to Wildcat Falls near Watersmeet and this small waterfall in a beautiful setting was easy to reach after a short hike. This waterfall is located on a 200-acre property called the Wildcat Falls Community Forest, owned and managed by the Northwoods Alliance.

Our visit came on a warm June day. After following the directions we found online, we parked near the sign welcoming visitors to the community forest and hit the trail. The trail was fairly easy to follow as it makes its way through the cedar and hemlock trees, though there were many roots that required us keeping an eye on where we were walking. The mosquitos were also everywhere during our visit, leading to a speedy walk to the waterfall and a shorter visit once we reached it.

The waterfall here is formed as Scott and Howe Creek gets squeezed and dropped over rock ledges. The best time to visit this waterfall is after spring melt or a heavy rain – as you can see in our photos there wasn’t much in the way of water flow during our visit.

Most of the drops here are just a few feet in height. This is a wild and remote area so watch your footing as you climb over fallen trees and on top of rocks for better views.

This video gives a good idea of how quiet it is in the woods here. A large tree that fell cuts across this upper drop.

A middle drop as the creek makes its way over the rocks in several sections is next.

Finally, a look at the lower drop. You can see how the creek immediately calms back down after it has completed its total drop of around 20 feet.

This was a great “new to us” waterfall that wasn’t hard to get to. We loved the peace and quiet here as well as everything there was to see: the water, the trees, the rocks, and more!

Our GPS tried to take us off course a few times on the way here, so we recommend having printed out directions as a backup. From the Northwoods Alliance site: From Watersmeet, Michigan, drive north on US Highway 45 to County Road 206 (Sucker Lake Road) located on left. Go west to County Line Lake Road, where you will turn north. To visit the waterfall segment of the forest, proceed north on County Line Lake Road 6/10s of a mile past McGinty Lane. As you reach a small hilltop, look for the trail sign on the left that marks the head of the waterfall trail segment.