Sable Falls is a 30-foot tiered waterfall on Sable Creek in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Alger County, Michigan, just west of Grand Marais. A staircase of 168 steps leads down to the falls, and the trail continues past them to the mouth of the creek on Lake Superior, beneath the Grand Sable Dunes.
The falls
Sable Creek steps down over ledges of Munising and Jacobsville sandstone on its way to the lake. The Jacobsville sandstone exposed at the base dates to at least one billion years. The World Waterfall Database, working from lidar data, puts the drop at about 30 feet in three distinct steps; Park Service signs and pages give 75 feet.
Getting there
The parking area is on H-58 just west of Grand Marais, with room for buses and RVs. From the orientation wayside, the Sable Falls Trail heads right: it's 0.1 mile to the bottom viewing platform and a quarter mile to Lake Superior, with benches along the stairs. Past the platforms the trail runs another 800 feet to a rocky beach, sharing the route with the North Country National Scenic Trail.
Pictured Rocks charges $25 per vehicle for seven days, $20 per motorcycle and $15 per person aged 16 and older arriving on foot, by bike or by boat; the park's annual pass is $45, and America the Beautiful passes are accepted. The park doesn't take cash.
When to go
Flush toilets and drinking water at the trailhead are seasonal. In winter the Sable Falls parking area can be reached only by snowmobile; drivers use the Grand Sable Visitor Center lot instead, reached via Newberg Road, where a vault toilet stays open all year though the visitor center itself is closed.
On site
The lower platform at the foot of the stairs gives the best view of the falls; the decking gets slippery when wet. Leashed pets are allowed on the route to the beach, which is part rock and part sand with the dunes rising above it. Collecting beach stones is not permitted anywhere in the lakeshore. The separate Grand Sable Dunes Trail, a 1-mile round trip from the same wayside, doesn't allow pets and has plenty of poison ivy.
Nearby
Carpenter Creek Falls is about 2 miles away and Chipmunk Falls about 2.8 miles. Farther west in the lakeshore, Spray Falls is about 20.3 miles away and Chapel Falls about 22.6 miles.
Distances are straight-line.