• Monday-What'sUP September 14 - 03:56 pm

On Porcupine Moutains State Park's far western edge, you'll find the Presque Isle River and number of waterfalls along the way. Melanie Hakala Rossi was recently there and snapped a couple photos, including the top one showing the Manabezho Falls. It spans the 150 foot wide river and drops about 20 feet over a rocky ledge. I bet it's more impressive in the spring when the river is really rushing over the shelf, but it's still a beautiful spot this time of year, too.

Melanie's second photo gives us a look at the unique carvings the swift-running river has cut in the rock along the river bed. Kind of looks like someone went in there with a chisel and cut out all those nooks and crannies. Pretty amazing what nature can do.

This area is also beautiful in winter to see by snowmobile. Nice trails there.

Nice and very nice! I wanted to go to Porcupine Mountains this year, but it did not work out. However, like the Lions, there is always next year.

Good Morning one and all!!

The second photo is a perfect example of a pothole; no, not the pothole that appears on roads, but the ones in river beds. These potholes are caused by whirlpools in the stream that bore a hole into rock. The abrasion that actually creates the pothole is caused by small sediments such as sand and small stones in the river that get caught up in the whirlpool, slowly scouring away the rock.

While these ones are about average size, the largest ones I have seen (100+ meters across) are the result of the ice dam break of Lake Missoula in the Pleistocene that created the Channeled Scablands in central Washington state.

Gorgeous water fall pictures! I also love the water falls on the Black River over in that neck of the woods. Thank you, Melanie & Mary!

Beautiful pictures! Great way to start the week...thank you!

Wow, thanks Capt. Paul, I spent time in the Willamette Valley and later in the Grand Coulee region this spring and wondered about the landscape I was looking at. I just did a search and read up on the "ice dam break of Lake Missoula in the Pleistocene" from your post and am somewhat enlightened as to what I was looking at. Will be going back to that area to visit our son and his family and taste the wines of course. Have to continue reading on the geology of the area, any recommendations for a folks not geologists? 9.5 to 15 cubic miles of water an hour is an unimaginable flood.

Thanks for the photos! I have some similar photos of the waterfalls in the Porkies. A very, very dear special friend and I spent two days just in the Porkies the last week in July; we both drove long distances to get back to our favorite place. When we both had to return back to our residences elsewhere, due to work, we both left with our souls in such deep anguish. When we both lived in the Copper Range, we took the people, life style and the awesome beauty that surrounded us for granted. Those of you who are home in the UP, you are indeed blessed!

Those rocks in the second picture look like huge puzzle pieces!

Excellent pics Mel!

I love waterfalls, too!

Please remember to continue to vote for Copper Harbor's ambulance barn. Thanks to you, we are moving up steadily in the rankings. We have a chance!

http://www.refresheverything.com/copperharborambulancebarn?utm_source=em

I voted! Thank you for the daily reminder, Sharon. I need the reminder ... while my intentions are good, my mind is on other things and I would not remember to vote without the reminder. Thanks!

Vote cast.

Beautiful. Waterfalls are very scenic.

Pasty Power is working!! We are moving down the list almost into the 80s. See Sharon's post above and please vote.

Let's astound the experts and show them what Pasty Power is all about!

Richard,
Two book that might be of interest if your heading back to WA state are from Mountain Press Publishing. The titles are:

Roadside Geology of Washington
Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods

Both of these books are written by geologists for people without a geologic background. I have both of these books and they are great for describing that particular area and how it formed. I would assume that both would be less expensive if purchased through Amazon.

To give everyone an idea of what the release of Lake Missoula did to the landscape, I attached a photo of a pothole on the Channeled Scablands. To give perspective; the potholes above are at a guess 4-6 ft. across.



This particular pothole is about 75 yds. across; there are much larger ones. Whereas the potholes in today's CamNotes were scoured by sand grains and small rocks, these potholes are thought to have been scoured out by boulders the size of cars!! It's the same process, just on a much larger scale.....

Thanks for the great pictures of one of my favorite places!

As usual Capt Paul, your additional insight was interesting and informative. Thanks!

Just had a wonderful week in Copper Harbor
and really enjoyed everything that the U.P has
to offer. I stopped on the way home in the Porkies and saw the waterfalls. Never get tired of any of it. The meals at everyplace I ate were
wonderful and the people so nice. Even at the end
of the season they are still polite! I got some advice on this blog before the trip and used it all to advantage. And thanks to Pasty.com for the WiFi in some restaurants. It was very FAST!