Nic and I made a short overnight trip to Ottawa National Forest this past weekend. It has been raining for weeks in the U.P. and we wanted to take advantage of a few dry days and our days off. We met a friend at Sturgeon River Campground, which is about an hour drive from Marquette. We arrived after dark and we saw hundreds of deer along the way. I was driving while Nic was scanning the side of the road for deer. This campground was really cool. We set our tent up 20 feet from the river. It is free to camp there and is pretty rustic. It did have a pit bathroom and the boys said it was very clean. We were the only ones there, so the dogs ran around free and loved it. It was a chilly night and I didn’t get much sleep. I woke up from being cold, or the dogs woke me up because they were cold and needed to be covered up. I am not sure if they were cold because they don’t have much fur, or if they were just spoiled and wanted to be under the blankets…
We woke up early and the morning and drove on the dirt roads to a hiking trail that went down to Sturgeon River Falls. The hike was short but steep. The Sturgeon River Gorge is 300 feet deep which makes it the deepest gorge in Michigan. We saw signs discouraging hang gliding and we found that interesting. The waterfall was awesome. I love discovering new cool places in the Upper Peninsula.
The main purpose of this getaway was for us to go climbing at Silver Mountain, just North of the gorge. It is becoming quite popular with the rock climbers in the U.P. I remember coming here in Middle School to go rappelling during my summer rock climbing course at MTU. Nic has been bugging me all summer to go with him to Silver Mountain and we finally made it out there, but a little later in the season. I only climbed one route, but Nic and our friend, Alex, climbed for hours. The dogs and I relaxed in the sunshine because we were tired from our restless night in the tent and the hike. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday.
I really like the picture above that I took of a log. The designs from bugs looked like ancient hieroglyphs. 
white water rafting west virginia
/ October 30, 2012Normally I do not learn post on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very forced me to check out and do it! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thank you, quite great article.
paddleror03
/ October 30, 2012Thanks! I’m glad you liked it. I would highly advise checking the gorge out. Maybe not suitable for WW rafting, but it would be navigable for an experienced WW kayaker or canoeist. I have heard of people doing the entire Sturgeon River.