The morning has already been productive and the perfect weather is putting wind in my sails. Next stop is just upstream still on the Peshtigo River to check out a location referenced as Governor Peshtigo Falls on my friend Bob’s excellent waterfall website. It’s not a very large falls but I was “in the neighborhood” so to speak so why not take a look? I rolled down Farm Dam Lane to the boat landing and parked in the grassy turnaround area. It’s early afternoon and I’m the only person around.
The gravelly landing at the Peshtigo River is only about 100 yards away and easy to walk. Waters here are as still as mirrored glass, and views of the changing foliage are quite nice.
From the landing you can see some rapids or a falls downstream but it’s very hard to make out at this distance, even with a zoom lens. Again, still very pleasant scenery even if this is as far as you go. Judging by the evidence I see on the shoreline this is a popular fishing spot.
Walking back to the parking area there is another trail leading southeast paralleling the river. From the maps I have this looks to be public land so I took a short hike.
There is only a tiny bit of slope as the trail leads down to the river and it’s not difficult coming back uphill later. Very easy and passable trail, seems relatively popular with the locals.
As you reach the river and the rapids you’ll find a large pile of stones, driftwood, and other miscellaneous brush and detritus. Be careful if you decide to cross the stones, it is very easy to break through and unstable in many spots.
Pieces of old dock timbers are submerged here, and there are large sections of the docks lodged further up the banks. I wonder what this used to be in the past? Someone’s home and personal dock, maybe a public area? No idea, it’s just scattered trash at this point.
Once out on the rocks as far as I could reach whilst staying dry I peeked back upstream – the waters are still perfectly calm and picturesque.
Turning my head 90 degrees the stillness ends abruptly and the rapids thrash and ramble across a large boulder garden in the river. Water levels do in fact drop several feet here over the course of maybe 30-40 yards but it may not show very well in still photos.
Here’s another angle from downstream looking back up towards the largest rapids. Again, the camera plays tricks on your perception from still photos. The camera is about 5 feet high at my eye level as I snap this image, and upstream the water levels are only a touch below that. It’s not a drastic drop, instead it’s more gradual and rolling like a large ramp.
Here’s one last look downstream as I stand at the rapids. It is a beautiful area but alas there is nothing here I would call a “waterfall”. River levels are about a foot low right now so it’s possible this looks drastically different in springtime. Part of the fun in chasing waterfalls is the subjective nature of what things are called and why. For me personally, I’m just callling these Farm Dam Landing Rapids.
Video
Here’s a short video of the scenery around this area and the rapids in motion. I wasn’t 100% sure about using the drone here at that time so I erred on the side of caution and left it in the truck (but now I know it would have been fine). Might try to get some aerial footage if I’m back around these parts in the future.
Hiking Data
Very easy and short hike. The hardest part is climbing out onto that mess of a rock pile (if you choose to go that far).
Again, the stats are nothing special here as it is a very short little walk down the hill. 60 feet of elevation change likely won’t even get your heart beating.
Wow