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Waterfall hikes in the Upper Midwest

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Kawishiwi Falls near Ely, MN in May 2009 (photo by Florence Hedeen)
Kawishiwi Falls near Ely, MN in May 2009 (photo by Florence Hedeen)

Do you like to hike into waterfalls?  I do.  There’s something captivating about being close to roaring water…especially in the spring when even our smallest rivers and streams run fast and deep.

Recently, I gave a presentation entitled “Best Waterfall Hikes in the Upper Midwest” at the 49th Outdoor Adventure Expo hosted by Midwest Mountaineering in Minneapolis, MN.   Since it was so well received, I decided to post the waterfall-presentation as a PDF file here (704k).

Some notes and cautions:

1) The hikes are limited to North Dakota (Yes, there is a waterfall in North Dakota and it’s on the NCT!), Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Western U.P.  There are lots more in other places (the rest of the U.P. and Ontario in particular) but I had to  limit my focus somehow.

2) The information in this presentation is based upon web research but not upon visiting all the waterfalls.  As such, some of the information may be missing or incorrect.

3) There are mistakes in the presentation that were pointed out by session attendees that I have not fixed.  I would strongly consider you do some more research before visiting any of these sites.  Here are a couple of good places to start…

On the web:

Books:
Minnesota Waterfalls by Steve Johnson and Kenneth Belanger
Other: