Hiking by the Hungarian Falls with friends

Lake just above the dam at Hungarian Falls

Lake just above the dam at Hungarian Falls

Last Saturday evening we traveled with friends to the Hungarian Falls, just north of Hancock, near Dollar Bay.

We aimed to hike by the falls before eating dinner in Calumet at Carmelitas, a Mexican restaurant, where you buy chips and  delicious pico de gallo for a buck.  If you want, you can buy a Thimbleberry Margarita, not that we did.

Beginnings of autumn colors

Beginnings of autumn colors

One might wish for a sunny evening, the kind where light reflects against early autumn leaves.  Alas, the skies remained gray and overcast.

Oh well.  I took out the camera anyway and opted to take pictures.

Our friends Deb and Chuck

Our friends Deb and Chuck

Deb and Chuck, as some of you might remember, went to our son’s wedding in San Diego last fall.  Almost a year ago already, can you believe it?

After the hoop-la and festivities died down out there beside the Pacific Ocean, the four of us ate dinner together at a lovely restaurant, not that I can recall a single detail of the meal.  I do remember how we sat half-outside half-inside and sighed as we realized the impossibility of eating outside back in the Upper Peninsula for many months to come.

Flush of autumn color

Flush of autumn color

We said, “This is lovely.  Why don’t we go out together AT HOME?”

Thus began our monthly date.  Every single month since last October we’ve gone somewhere.  Out to Carla’s Restaurant, over to our house, over to their house, once to Club Indigo up at the Calumet Theater.

Beside the lake

Beside the lake

This month we opted for a hike at the Hungarian Falls.

Barry insisted we had been there before, back in the Dark Ages of our relative youth.

“I was never there,” I swore.

“You were,” he said.

“No, YOU were!” I insisted.

Trail side mountain ash berries

Trail side mountain ash berries

He’s not here to defend his memory, and mine is usually more faulty than his, but not always, so I’m going to insist I’m right.  (Writer’s prerogative!)

He finally remembered going with friends.

I was probably downstate with the kids, visiting the grandparents.

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it.

Watch your step.  Roots everywhere.

Watch your step. Roots everywhere.

Gosh, it’s funny how as one ages it gets harder and harder to climb cliffs and trip over roots.  Deb and Chuck, our elders by a teeny tiny bit, seemed to do better.  But maybe that’s because I was in precarious positions trying to get pictures to show YOU.

River meander

River meander

At one point, attempting to climb up a shelf of rock, I hissed to Barry, “HELP ME!” and he graciously arrived to pull up his decrepit wife.

Gosh, our knees and backs and bodies aren’t quite as agile as they were in our 20’s are they?  The knee-replacement husband did amazingly, I was so happy to see!

Look at the layers of shale in that red rock

Look at the layers of shale in that red rock

The Hungarian Falls were beautiful.

Signs existed that many a party–some with campfires–occurred along the trail. It was not a remote out-of-the-way hidden falls.

We pondered how many people without common sense or apt facilities had plunged to the falls or river over the years?  We hoped none.

I watched my step closely and hoped my companions did the same.

Majestic Hungarian Falls

Majestic Hungarian Falls

Don’t the falls look beautiful?

I wondered, as I always do, why it’s easier to stay in our routines and not go outside and enjoy more of the natural wonders that surround us in nature.

Have you been out hiking lately?  Where might you have gone?

Coming soon...

Coming soon…

A lovely evening for a hike...

A lovely evening for a hike…

About Kathy

I live in the middle of the woods in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Next to Lake Superior's cold shores. I love to blog.
This entry was posted in September 2013 and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

30 Responses to Hiking by the Hungarian Falls with friends

  1. lisaspiral says:

    You may inspire me to get out yet! Beautiful pictures. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a walk to any falls that didn’t have wheelchair access. Hmmm I wonder if I have time for a road trip?

  2. Shades of Opening the Door, Walking Outside, the blog that started it all.

  3. I Am Jasmine Kyle says:

    Those red Oak Leaves are getting me SOOOOO excited for FALL!!! I just love oak!

  4. Munira says:

    I went for a hike last month in Sri Lanka, 2100 metres above sea level…in a cloud forest! It was the most sublime 4 and a half hours ever spent. My knees were ready to give out by the end, but it was worth every second 🙂
    Lovely photos Kathy, thanks for taking us along !

  5. john says:

    What a fine way to spend the day. It sounds like an excerpt from a Hemingway novel, only he would have brought a bota filled with wine along. From the sound of things it was better that you didn’t. Navigating the rocks and roots would have been much more difficult. 🙂

  6. Brenda Hardie says:

    Good Morning Kathy,
    These pictures are so lovely!!! They really make me wish I could go hiking in the woods this fall but sadly my painful knees won’t allow me. So, whenever I see such beautiful pictures it is a blessing coming from others. Thank you for sharing them. I hope you have a wonderful day ♥ Love and hugs are coming your way ♥

  7. The Falls are so pretty and even in the gray, the colors show themselves. My hikes have been short lately, but so fortunate to have beautiful pockets within a short walk, bike or ride from our house, and still feel that magical nature escape in the woods.

  8. Elisa says:

    I like these very simple photos! I like them very much. The hissing part was very funny, though I probably wasn’t supposed to laugh. I am hissing more often these days. No wonder the children laugh at me after I do it. 😀

  9. Janet says:

    Beautiful area and fall colors already!? I doubt that you are decrepit! But I have to agree with you, were are NOT as agile as when in our 20s. I’ve been out helping split and stack firewood. Boy am I achey.

  10. So kind of you to risk life and limb to get these wonderful photos to show us, Kathy! Now you should plan to take that hike – or one like it – at least once every year, so you will never be surprised again by changing joints and abilities! Thanks for sharing this lovely trip!

  11. Kathy – Oh how fun to have a monthly date with friends! Your photographs are so crisp and vivid — I’m glad you didn’t tumble into the falls getting them. I love them all, but I think my favorite is second to the last, titled “coming soon.”

  12. Heather says:

    The monthly date is a great idea. All relationships take work – not just the married kind – even if it’s the fun kind of work.
    I admire you sticking to your writer’s prerogative memory 😉 (And your likely aha! feeling when finding out you were probably right.) It’s so cool that Barry’s knees are doing well enough to tackle a hike – and to help you out of a precarious position. Thanks for risking yourself for our photos 😉

  13. Lori D says:

    Nice photos despite the gray skies. Are these falls very far from you? I love to hike, but I too, noticed age is making it more difficult. So much so that I’m not doing it like I used to anymore. Sigh. You asked if anyone else has done hiking lately. Well, I was just looking through some pictures I took on a walk in Tennessee (on our way to Chicago) for a future post. Thanks for sharing your lovely day. Good you’re getting out on these last days before the cold returns.

  14. That sounds like such a great time, Kathy! Love your blush of autumn pictures too. I did a double-take on the mountain ash–I remember a gorgeous mountain ash tree we had in our front yard when I lived in Michigan as a girl and I don’t think I’ve seen one since I left there! Thank you for the glimpse.

  15. Kathy, these are extra special photos siince they are of an area not far from where you live. So much beauty is within a resonable disrtance so I think you could certainly find more places to hike or walk with your husband and friends. It would be so easy to tell somebody to “go take a hike” and it not be an insult or maybe or not. 🙂 It is difficult for me to imagine that fall is on your doorstep and here we still have 90 degree or maybe in the 80’s if we’re lucky.

    ~yvonne

  16. Carol says:

    A very nice hike it was, and your wonderful pictures have captured it for all time. Today is the day Shasta and I are to go for a walk, but right now the rain is pouring down. We’ll see.

    >

  17. Susan Derozier says:

    Kathy – These photos are so beautiful and brought me such excitement. I visited those falls back in my youth when we had come north to visit my great aunts in Hancock one fall. I took movie shots of those falls and got teased later by family about it. There is truly nothing more beautiful than autumn in the north. Thank you for this wonderful journey. How lucky you and your friends are to have each other.

  18. Lovely photos! and oh to run with the wind again, however, this only happens in my dreams of youth and naivety.
    A marvelous hike for you youngsters.

  19. What a beautiful place, Kathy! Ironically, my post tomorrow is going to be about a visit to an amazing waterfall here in Ecuador. I kid you not!

    Hugs from Ecuador,
    Kathy

  20. lucindalines says:

    Such a beautiful area. Thank you for sharing, and by the way, it isn’t harder to walk when we get older, it is that the hills get steeper and the rocks taller and such. I know it is true, I read about it in a story with my students some years back. The author who had spent a life time climbing and hiking swore by it.

  21. Is this the one that is now private and you have to PAY to see it? I am personally trying to photograph every waterfall that I can hike to in the entire U.P. and have gotten to many already, but not in Keweenaw or Houghton Counties yet…could you let me know if this is the one you pay to see? Thanks!

  22. Dawn says:

    We used to go to Hungarian Falls all the time! Then, years after moving away, husband and I were up visiting and tried to visit as many of the waterfalls as we could over a weekend. Was lots of fun. I don’t think we went to Hungarian because we had been there before. But it would be fun to go back now, more than 20 years later.

  23. sonali says:

    Lovely walk. Look at the fabulous colours around! So dreamy…Life is beautiful! Thank you Kathy for sharing the pictures, else I would have never known the beauty 🙂

  24. bonnie says:

    Beautiful pictures. The one of the falls is breathtaking. It is so wonderful to be able to take a hike like that, enjoying friends and nature. I doiesn’t get much better than that.

  25. sandiwhite says:

    Beautiful X 100! Thanks so much for the hike, I loved it from my cozy chair. Please do it again, photograph it and show it to us, I don’t mind one bit living vicariously through the lens of your camera!

  26. bearyweather says:

    Gray skies could not dampen your Fall colors … what a very pretty hike! I wish the Northshore of Lake Superior was a bit closer to me .. I love the numerous water fall hikes there … Although, those hikes sort of ruined my “hiking” attitude for other places … they are so gorgeous and at the end of the climb there is always a waterfall reward. Every hike for me now needs a “reward” of a spectacular view at the destination 😉
    Do you know why they are called “Hungarian Falls”?

  27. Sartenada says:

    I love hiking. Your photos are lovely and I love especially those with fall colors.

  28. That’s a lovely story!

    I was through your area this past week, I missed those falls, but then, I’m sure that I missed many of them up there.

  29. Stacy says:

    I’m envious of those fall colors, Kathy.

    Good friends are a god-send. That once-a-month thing is a great idea. Wish I lived close enough to my bff to do that. ❤

  30. Colleen says:

    Beautiful photos Kathy! Hiking together is one of my favorite ways to spend time with friends or to get to know new friends.

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