fourpointedstar

When people ask, I tell them that I “collect waterfalls”.
I guess that it could be more accurate to say that I visit waterfalls; after all, I rarely stay at them for any length of time… but I say “collect” since I only count waterfalls where I can take a photo and where the water is running (even if I can only hear the water running, like a recent waterfall in Southern Illinois.)

I visited this segment of the Montreal River back in 2022 to see Interstate Falls. As you walk to Interstate Falls, you can hear the water rumbling from Petersen Falls, but if you walk upstream from Interstate Falls, you’ll see this small rapids, cascade, and falls that you miss on the path from Peterson to Interstate.

I absolutely love the look of this photo, and it may well be my second favorite photo from this trip.

Honestly, I don’t visit waterfalls twice very often; there are a few local waterfalls that I’ve visited more than once, but most locations I take photos of and then move onward to the next spot where the water and the land had a disagreement.

Rainbow Falls’ east vantage point is spectacular; you stand on an outcrop of land about six or eight meters above the downstream portion and roughly eye level with the upstream portion. The Black River has carved two paths down the falls, equally treacherous, and from that vantage point, you really need a wide angle lens to capture the scene and stream. If you walk a bit further south on the trail, you can see where the Black River is slowly carving out a new falls and a new path.

If you visit Bond Falls and you only view it from downstream it can be a little … boring? But, if you take the time to climb up beside the falls on either side (don’t worry, the falls has concrete barriers to hold the water in), you’re greeted by these beautiful vignettes. Viewing the entire falls is … just a bunch of water flowing over a hillside, but walking along the side or even walking downstream will bring you closer to nature and the forest.

A Good Story
I always love a good story; stories are what binds friendships and culture, and stories are what draw us to interesting people. As I walk through the woods on a new trail, I wonder where the trail will take me; what story will it tell?

The streams and rivers that I hike to are similar; they wander through the landscape carving out a path that meanders and reveals the area around it, much like a good story or a good trail. As you explore their journey, you find out so much about their story – the hills and valleys, the ancient stone and rock, the detours – much like life.

I absolutely loved this scene of the small stand of birch covered in moss. The fog was low that morning, and the grass was damp from an overnight rain. As our group walked through the woods, it felt like a forest in Washington State; damp air, big trees, uneven terrain – and then we encountered this neighborhood of white bark.

In between the large trees, the path was wide and somewhat straight; the path through the birch wandered almost lazily. I’ve taken photos of paths in woods many times, but many times the photo never gets shared. But this was a wonderful photo, and it pushed me to start looking for other paths on that three day trip.

The first week of October last year, I took an epic trip to visit waterfalls in Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; over the course of the week, I visited and photographed around 60 waterfalls (depending on how you segment certain falls). I’ve wanted to make it up there for years but had never taken the time to plan that trip; then Rich from Chicago Streets and Beyond photography group announced that he would be hosting a waterfall trip over the first week of October which coincides with my birthday … what a perfect birthday present to me!

Over the next 4 months, I’ll be posting a photo from each waterfall in the order that I visited them as well as a video of the falls, and I hope you enjoy taking the trip with me.