Trap Hills
The Trap Hills are one of my favorite places to go on an adventure in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Seemingly endless forests, rugged lumps of rock, historic mines, and sinuous rivers all await you in this extensive area of natural beauty. There is much to discover out here but few online resources to help you get started. That's what I'm here for.
I've been exploring the Trap Hills for as long as I can remember (15+ years) and have found a gob of cool spots. I've distilled it down into a list of useful information to get you started on finding your next adventure to this amazing place.
Where are the Trap Hills?
Like many geographical features, the Trap Hills doesn't have an exact border one can point to. There are outliers, offshoots, subtle interpretations of geological data, and so on that all conspire to make its boundary somewhat fuzzy. The Trap Hills I and most other people refer to stretches from around Merriweather on the northern edge of Lake Gogebic to a little north of Greenland. The combination of geological processes that created these outcrops also extends into the Porcupine Mountains and up the Keweenaw Peninsula, but those areas have their own distinct identities so I don't discuss them much here. Additionally, much more has been written on those two areas and don't need to be replicated here.
The Trap Hills mainly overlap the Ottawa National Forest, although large portions are outside of its boundaries or on private land. This makes it easy to explore because most of the best parts are on public land and available to visit for free. No worrying about getting permits or permission here!
Chunky Hills, Beautiful Views
The defining feature of the Trap Hills are the hills themselves. Formed by ancient lava flows over a billion years ago, what we see today are the eroded remains of much thicker outcrops which have emerged over the eons. I'm not a geologist and only look at rocks for sport rather than as a culinary activity, so I'll skip the deep dive into the details for now and instead focus on what I know best: what's worth looking at.
There are loads of big views in the Trap Hills. They range in size from small bluff edges buried in the forest to the highest sheer cliff in Michigan. I've hunted down about 95% of the bluffs at this point with the remainder to be found laying on private property so I know what's worth visiting. Let me tell ya, there are some stellar spots that rival the best of what the Keweenaw and Porkies can offer, with far fewer crowds! The downside being that you'll actually have to work to get to them. You can't drive to any of the big views in the Trap Hills which has (fortunately) kept them under the radar from masses of tourists looking to take their shot for social media before moving on to the next flashy thing. Have I mentioned I hate influencers? Nasty hobbitses.
Here are some of the best views in the Trap Hills to check out, from west to east. They're all relatively easy to locate compared to more obscure bluffs that require a lot more bushwhacking through poison ivy to get to. Reach out if you're done with these and need more pointers.
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Gogebic Ledges
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Cookout Mountain
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Hacking Site
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Cascade Falls Bluff
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Norwich Bluff
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Lookout Mountain (Victoria)
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South Bluff
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C Shaft Hill
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Lake Mine Bluffs
Waterfalls Abound
The best part about hills and mountains is that inevitably you're also going to get waterfalls. Streams, creeks, and rivers gotta go somewhere! The waterfalls of the Trap Hills more often than not flow over basalt, a highly resistant rock that changes little from one year to the next. It's likely that these waterfalls have looked more or less the same since the last ice age given how slowly the bedrock is eroding around here.
Most of the waterfalls in the Trap Hills aren't clean, pleasing drops with beautiful splash pools at the bottom to play in. More often, they're blocky cascades with a lot of character. They also often don't have a lot of water in them. Aside from Cascade Falls and the Victoria Dam reservoir overflow when its flowing, the small streams dropping out of the Trap Hills are susceptible to becoming trickles in midsummer. Plan your waterfall hunts accordingly to avoid disappointment. Thunderstorms and spring snowmelt are your friends, trust me.
The following are the best waterfalls to check out in the Trap Hills. There are other much worse (unnamed) waterfalls I've found over the years that require a lot of bushwhacking to get to for almost no payoff. Trust me, you're not missing anything by skipping those.
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Cascade Falls
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Cushman Falls
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Gleason Falls
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Hidden Victoria Falls
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Super Secret Creek with Several Unnamed Waterfalls That I Found
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Victoria Dam Falls
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Whisky Hollow Falls
Dig Deep for Copper Mines
The Trap Hills are FULL of old copper mines! The Keweenaw and its Copper Country label hog all of the spotlight when it comes to the glorification of the region's copper mining history, leaving little for the similarly successful (and just as likely unsuccessful) mines in this neck of the woods. Dozens of small mines are scattered throughout the remotest reaches of the Trap Hills, as well as several larger ones nearer to civilization. Mass City and Rockland are two communities that owe their survival to these mines, the remains of which are easy to find.
Hidden in the Trans-Ontonagon District of the Trap Hills are the real wild goose chases. These small mines never struck it rich and most have faded away into obscurity. Not only has the evidence on the ground been buried under nearly two centuries worth of forest detritus, there's very little written information about them to know they existed in the first place! It's become my mission to track them all down, no matter how big or small. At this point I've found most of them, with just a few really small operations left to discover that conducted little to no underground exploration.
Below is a list of some of the more notable mines (or groupings of mines) that are worth seeking out in the Trap Hills. I won't reveal the exact location of the remotest ones or confirm whether there are any openings for you to uncover. That's for me to know and you to find out.
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Clifton and Sharon Mines
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Derby, Forrest Shepherd, and Waukulla Mines
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Devon and Tremont Mines
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Firesteel Mine
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Lake Mine
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Minesota and Rockland Mines
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National and Peninsula Mines
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Norwich Mine
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Victoria Mine