I am visiting Marquette, Michigan right now, and have visited a number of times before. I forgot my Michigan waterfall book at home, so did a quick search, and found out there was an easy-to-visit waterfall right on the outskirts of Marquette. I decided to check it out today.
The waterfall, creatively named Wright Street Falls is right off of…wait for it…Wright Street. I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to find, and it ended up being very easy to find. Parking was more abundant than I expected, and the few tips I found online led me to the falls pretty quickly. It’s not a particularly tall waterfall, but it is actually wide. There is something that carries water right in front of the falls, so at first it may seem like you might not be able to get a great view, but you can get a better view. The directions I found suggested following the right side of the river, but I found that the left side of the river had better views of the falls.
Directions:
- Wright Street starts off of US-41 right after a Target, but you can get to the parking area by turning on Wright Street at any point.
- If you start on US-41, turn right onto Wright Street after the Target. The website I found suggested the parking area was 1.5 miles from the Target. If you follow this step, the parking area will be to your left. It is a surprisingly large dirt parking area. There is a yellow sign there, and if you look to your left, you will see a bridge crossing a river. Pedestrians and bikers are allowed on the bridge. There is another parking area that seems to follow the same description a few hundred feet further east, and you could park there also, but it would require a longer hike to the falls. If you’ve reached the Marquette Board of Power and Light, you’ve passed the parking area, so you should turn around and head back.
- Once you reach the parking area, there are two options. You can cross the bridge, and then veer left. There is a clear path that crosses under a large pipe that is carrying water, and you’ll end up on the right side of the falls. I found that viewpoint wasn’t as great, though still got most of the falls. Instead of crossing the bridge, there is a trail to the left of the river that heads downhill. It is a bit steep, but once you’ve conquered that, the rest of the trail on the left side is pretty level. The trail on the left side of the river leads to a more complete view of the falls.
Accessibility: 9/10 (easy, for right side of the river), 8/10 (easy/moderate, for the left side of the river)
Height: 9′
Length of Hike: 0.2 miles round-trip
Wright Street Falls in July 2019
Where in the World is Wright Street Falls?
