North Country Trail Section

The North Country National Scenic Trail is the longest National Scenic Trail in the United States at nearly 4,800 miles, stretching from North Dakota to Vermont, and its passage through Tahquamenon Falls State Park offers a quiet counterpoint to the waterfalls crowds. The section beginning at the Clark Lake trailhead heads north through unbroken Upper Peninsula boreal forest, alternating between upland jack pine and red pine stands and low-lying black spruce bogs crossed on weathered log puncheons. Clark Lake itself, glimpsed through the trees at the outset, is a classic Upper Peninsula bog lake rimmed with leatherleaf, bog laurel, and scattered black spruce, its dark water reflecting the pale sky. Moose frequent the bog margins at dawn and dusk, and wolf tracks appear regularly in muddy trail sections. The path rolls over low glacial moraines, never gaining dramatic elevation but accumulating modest vertical change through its many small rises and descents. At the turnaround point the trail drops to the Tahquamenon River floodplain where the river runs wide and slow through alder thickets. The blue diamond blazes of the North Country Trail mark every quarter mile, a reassuring presence in this remote and roadless stretch of the Upper Peninsula.