One of my favorite places I’ve visited in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is Horseshoe Falls in Munising. It’s the prettiest waterfall I’ve seen, though it does cost money to go see. There are carp that you can feed in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, and it has a lovely giftshop. I visited this place unexpectedly on my Midwest road trip at the end of August in 2023, seeing a sign for it and immediately following the sign. I love horses, so of course I had to go see Horseshoe Falls!
The waterfall itself is beautiful, and when I visited, there was a fun little scavenger hunt going on as well. The parking lot was quite full when I arrived there, though it’s a small parking lot, and the place was by no means overrun with visitors. You have to check in through the gift shop to go see the waterfall, and I had a meander through the gift shop first before going to look at the waterfall, finding a few things to purchase (and carry around outside) before I went to see it. A word of advice: if you have the option, wait until you’re leaving to purchase things. You don’t want to have to carry a magnet or T-shirt around while you’re looking at things.
I went slowly along the trail up to the waterfall, keeping a close eye out for the gnomes I was meant to find in the scavenger hunt. I wasn’t in any rush (Well. That’s not true, I was, I just have no sense of time management), so I wasn’t hurrying my way up to the waterfall. I had just been at Tahquamenon Falls earlier that day, and I was able to determine that I much prefer smaller waterfalls to larger ones. Smaller waterfalls feel much more elegant, as opposed to big waterfalls that are just… a bunch of water thundering over a cliff. Though large waterfalls do still feel very powerful.
After I’d gotten my fill of the waterfall, I went back down the path, again keeping an eye out for any little gnomes, and found my way over to the pool that the waterfall feeds in to, where I was able to scrounge up a quarter to use to get something with which to feed the carp. As I left, they had cute shirts going for clearance outside right before you reenter the gift shop, so I bought one more thing, and headed back onto the road. I still wear the shirt quite regularly, it’s one of my favorite shirts I have!
I don’t have any photos from Horseshoe Falls, as I was living in the moment with no knowledge that I’d be starting a travel blog that I would want photos for, but I do intend to stop by again next summer either on my way to or back from the trip I have planned to go to Copper Harbor, so when that post goes up, it’ll definitely contain pictures of the waterfall!