Porch Notes
Laughing Whitefish Falls
Outdoors
It has one of the best names in Michigan, and a shape to match.
Laughing Whitefish Falls, in western Alger County near the tiny community of Sundell, isn’t a single plunge — it’s a fan. The Laughing Whitefish River meets an abrupt limestone escarpment and spreads out as it falls, fanning into a wide, lacy wall of water roughly a hundred feet from top to bottom. That fan shape, draped over pale stepped rock, makes it look different from almost any other falls in the state.
It’s protected in a small state park (set aside back in 1946) within the Escanaba River State Forest, and reaching it is a pleasant half-mile walk through a beech-and-maple woods to a viewing platform and stairs. Quiet, uncrowded, and well off the main tourist track, it rewards the people who seek it out.
Where to see it
Laughing Whitefish Falls State Park is north of M-94 near Sundell, between Munising and Marquette; it's about a half-mile hike in from the parking area.