Photo Gallery Friday: Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

Nawadha Falls

Photo Gallery Friday is a regular feature on Travel the Mitten that will help showcase photos from places where one post just isn’t enough to show off everything.

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park has received a great deal of national attention lately, as it fights for a chance to be voted Best State Park in the U.S. by 10best.com and USA Today. Stunning waterfalls and scenic vistas atop the mountains draw visitors in each year, as they enjoy the chance to get away from big cities and experience the wilderness from a more rustic perspective. The Lake Superior shoreline forms the park’s northern edge and offers quiet beaches and hiking trails. It’s easy to see why Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park has become a state and national favorite, so today we share some of our favorite photographs from our visits there over the years.

The Michigan historical marker near the Carp Lake mine bat cave reads “From Lake Superior the main range of mountains looks like a crouching porcupine, thus their name. Machinery, rock dumps, and old adits are ghostly reminders of forty mining ventures from 1846 to 1928, none of which succeeded. Some logging took place around 1916. As late as 1930 a few trappers eked out a living here. Finally in 1945 the area was made a state park to preserve its virgin splendor.”

Some of our favorite attractions at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park are Lake of the CLouds Overlook, the Union Mine Trail, the waterfalls at the Presque Isle Unit, Nonesuch Mine ruins and waterfall, Overlooked Falls and Greenstone Falls, and the Summit Peak Overlook. There’s so much to see and do here that you’ll need a couple days to really experience the park. The park is beautiful in all seasons, especially fall (winter visits require a bit of extra effort).