Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is home to hundreds of waterfalls, and many of them don’t require much work to visit. Silver River Falls is a roadside waterfall between Copper Harbor and Eagle Harbor in the Keweenaw Peninsula that you can view from a recently reconstructed bridge or from the short trail that leads down to the river from a roadside parking area. We had visited this waterfall many times over the years, but our visit in June of this year was the first time since the historic bridge and culvert here had a retaining wall failure and needed to be replaced. Here’s everything you need to know about visiting Silver River Falls and the new M-26 bridge that opened to traffic last summer.

Silver River Falls has multiple drops over conglomerate rock as the river moves downhill to Lake Superior. The upper section has the biggest drop (around 20 feet) at a point where the river is about 15 feet wide. Lower drops are 10 feet or less before the river eventually narrows and bends.

A well-worn footpath leads downhill across from the parking area, offering many different spots where you can turn out to the river for different views.

The new M-26 bridge seems to have tried to keep some of the aesthetics of the original bridge, and it was nice to see a sign in the parking area that has some information about both the old and new bridges. “The historic culvert, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, was noted for the native sandstone and basalt retaining walls and railings that flanked the ends of the earth-filled single-barrel corrugated metal pipe culvert. The stones were set in an irregular pattern with grapevine mortar joints. The retaining walls were built as free-standing units and ultimately became unstable. In addition, several of the sandstone pieces became significantly weathered and deteriorated over time. restoration was determined to be technically infeasible. Salvaged stones from the original bridge were used to construct the base for this sign. Most of the remaining stone was returned to the Keweenaw  County Road Commission to be used in maintaining other roadside walls and park features throughout Keweenaw County.” A similar bridge can still be found north of here at Fort Wilkins Historic State Park where the road crosses Fanny Hooe Creek. This new bridge looks like it was built to survive for many years, which is important as this is one of only two main routes to and from Copper Harbor.

You can find the Silver River Falls roadside park on the south side of the road just south of the Brockway Mountain entrance. Enjoy this beautiful waterfall and check out the new M-26 bridge the next time you drive through the Keweenaw Peninsula. We saw this beautiful argent and sable moth waiting for us by our car after visiting the waterfall.