A popular waterfall trail in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore will close to all visitors this week starting Tuesday, June 23, to undergo soil boring — the process of drilling into the ground to collect soil samples. From June 23-25, Miners Falls Trail located off of Miners Castle Road, northeast of Munising in the central Upper Peninsula, will close for officials to gather soil samples for a future project to the area’s viewing platforms, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore wrote in a June 16 Facebook post.
“Contractors will be conducting soil boring near the upper and lower viewing platforms to inform design plans for a new stair structure, anticipated to be installed in 2027,” park officials said in the post. The temporary closure will not affect visitor access to Miners Castle or Miners Beach, located along the Lake Superior shoreline. The Miners Falls Trail is known to be the most accessible waterfall outlook to the public in the national park. The trail is about six-tenths of a mile long and opens
to two viewing platforms to admire the 50-foot waterfall over sandstone — the park’s most powerful waterfall, according to the National Park Service. There are currently two platforms: an upper and lower level platform with 64 steps to the lower platform. For those venturing to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore this week or anytime this summer, officials recommend staying updated with closures via NPS’s current conditions webpage. Sarah Moore @ smoore@lsj.com
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Miners Falls Trail, soil boring, Miners Castle, Miners Beach, Munising, Upper Peninsula