A centerpiece of the North Country Trail, the Copper Falls State Park segment is among the most essential hikes in the state of Wisconsin. The river gorge where the Tyler Forks meets the Bad River is a fantastical gash in the world, exposing a tumultuous and vibrant northern forest ecology rooted in some of the oldest exposed bedrock in the world. The trail descends on hand laid stone steps into this deep and ancient river gorge between the thunder of twin waterfalls. Most visitors will never venture beyond this centerpiece to the longer lengths of the NCT in the northern reaches of the park. This length and its connection to other NCT segments opens experiential opportunities for long distance and overnight hiking that compliments the breathtaking views in the waterfall gorge.
Since its initial founding the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT) has featured a segment at Copper Falls State Park in Ashland County Wisconsin. In recent years the trail has grown within the park itself to 10.5-miles in length where it connects directly to the Mellen segment in the southwest corner of the park and to the Porcupine Hill Segment in the northwest corner. These certified NCT tails form long distance backpacking footpath extending uninterrupted from the Potato River in Iron County to the St. Croix River in Douglas County.
The NCT Copper Falls Segment provides modern campgrounds with water, showers, and electricity, a more primitive remote campsite, a free dispersed camping area and countless scenic overlooks in a genuine north woods forest that majestic white tailed deer and black bears call home.
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Trail Photos
Stone stairs descend through dense greenery on the North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
The Doughboys Trail tread is stone pavers hand cut and laid on site by CCC crews at Copper Falls Park.
A winding boardwalk snakes between towering trees on the North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
Copper Falls North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
Brownstone Falls on the North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
The Waterfall gorge as seen from a viewing platform by Brownstone Falls on the North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
Cascades above Brownstone Falls on the Tyler Forks on the North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
The North Country Trail in Copper Falls State Park navigates through the upland area of Copper Falls State Natural Area.
The treetops glow under pastel evening light on the North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
The North Hikers Remote Campsite on the North Country Trail in Copper Falls State Park.
The Bad River flows past the Remote Hikers Campsite on the North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
The CCC Trail observation tower on the North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
The treetops glow under pastel evening light on the North Country Trail at Copper Falls Park.
Trail Guide
North Country Trail: Loon Lake to Highway 169 TrailheadDistance: ~7 miles one-way (with optional side loops) | Difficulty: Moderate | Trail Type: Footpath (no bikes/horses)
0.0 mi | Loon Lake Beach TrailheadBegin at the Loon Lake Beach parking area near the southwest entrance of Copper Falls State Park. The trail kicks off along the pine-framed shoreline of the reflective Loon Lake. Loon Lake is a favorite stop for swimmers and boaters by day and stargazers by night. Its open sky and still water make for gorgeous sunsets and a clear view of the night sky.
Nearby amenities: potable water, flush restrooms, picnic shelter, playground, and ball field within the entrance complex.
0.3–1.3 mi | Campground & Forest Approach to the GorgeThe NCT eases into a northern mesic forest of sugar maple, birch, hemlock, and white pine. The tread is soft and forgiving. Grade changes are gentle and rolling. Hikers are crossing through the main campground and beside park roads. Campfire smoke gathers in the canopy and the sound of kids biking and shouting echo across the woods. At roughly a mile in you’ll reach the Picnic and Concession Area, a starting point for the Doughboys Nature Trail loop which overlaps the NCT route.
1.3–2.2 mi | Doughboys Overlap: The Gorge CoreHere the NCT shares tread with the Doughboys Trail, a loop paved with hand laid stone steps and wood decks that encircles the confluence of the Bad River and Tyler Forks. This is the scenic heart of the park and its most popular stretch. You will need to pause as you approach slower groups and be aware of faster hikers coming up behind you. Two scenic highlights define this section, and they can be observed from multiple overlooks and platforms. Copper Falls, where the Bad River drops through dark volcanic rock streaked with reddish brownstone. And, Brownstone Falls, where the Tyler Forks plunges into the gorge with a deep, echoing rush. Morning light often hangs in the mist, and ravens are common overhead, riding the updrafts along the canyon walls. The trail crosses over a wood bridge over the Tyler Forks where a view of cascading rapids preceeds Brownstone Falls.
2.2–4.0 mi | Bad River Terraces and Tall Pines (State Natural Area)Beyond the overlooks, foot traffic drops off quickly as the NCT turns off the Doughboys Trail and enters the Copper Falls State Natural Area. The trail moves through dry to dry-mesic forest on river terraces with steep slopes shaded by towering white pine and mature sugar maple. The understory includes hazelnut, fly honeysuckle, wintergreen, and dense fern patches.
The trail courses alongside the meandering Bad River which is sometimes visible through the trees from a low ridge, other times nearly at foot level among mossy roots and flood-sculpted banks. This is an excellent bird habitat for ovenbirds, American redstarts, Canada warblers, and raven. Deer tracks are common, and occasional black bear sign reinforces the remoteness of this stretch.
Camping: about 2 miles past the gorge area is a remote backpack campsite on a wooded bluff; reservations open up to 11 months in advance.
4.0–5.5 mi | Oxbows and HollowsKeeping the river on your left, the trail bends north through a series of oxbows carved by seasonal flooding, then arcs east. Forest composition shifts as white cedar and balsam fir appear in cooler hollows with lush fern benches and richer damp soil underfoot. Short boardwalks cross wet spots, while upland knolls offer dry places to pause beneath pine crowns.
A few miles beyond the reservable remote campsite you’ll reach a dispersed camping Area (DCA). This free, dispersed site is primitive and meant as a single night layover for long-distance backpackers. The site is always open to all-comers and does not offer typical campsite amenities like a fire circle, privy, and drinking water may only be available seasonally in small streams in the deep ravines nearby.
5.5–10.5 mi | Rolling Uplands to Highway 169The trail gradually pulls away from the Bad River. The terrain rolls gently, passing small wetlands and intermittent stream crossings. Forest openings and closures alternate as you near the park boundary. You’ll hear the rush of highway traffic and lawnmowers from nearby homes.
The hike ends at the Highway 169 Trailhead, a convenient access point for shuttles and section hikes. From here the North Country Trail continues east into the Iron County Forest onto the Porcupine Hill Segment which ends at the spectacular Wren Falls.
Overview: North Country National Scenic Trail - Copper Falls Segment
COUNTY: Ashland
COMMUNITIES: Mellen
TOTAL MILES: 10.5 Linear -
DIFFICULTY: Easy-Moderate
POINTS OF INTEREST: Brownstone Falls, Copper Falls, Loon Lake, Bad River, Tyler Forks River, Copper Falls State Park, Copper Falls State Natural Area
NEXT NCT SEGMENT EASTBOUND
PORCUPINE HILL SEGMENT
NEXT NCT SEGMENT WESTBOUND
MELLEN SEGMENT
DOUGHBOY'S TRAIL
TOTAL MILES: 1.7 Loop
DIFFICULTY: Easy
CCC 692 TRAIL
TOTAL MILES: 1 Mile linear (makes a loop with Doughboy's Trail
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
Directions and Trail Map
Address for your GPS: 36764 Copper Falls Rd, Mellen, WI 54546
| coordinates: 46.371717, -90.643002 |
| From Milwaukee | 5.5 Hours |
| From Madison | 4.5 Hours |
| From Green Bay | 4 Hours |
| From Wausau | 2.5 Hours |
| From Minneapolis | 3.5 Hours |
| From Chicago | 6.5 Hours |
Camping Overview (Copper Falls NCT Segment)
Main Campground (Reservable, Drive-In + Walk-In)
Near Loon Lake with showers, potable water, flush toilets, and some electric sites. Best option for hikers wanting comfort and easy trail access.
Remote Backpack Campsite (Reservable, ~2 miles past the Gorge)
Backcountry-style site on a bluff near the Bad River. Quiet and scenic, but must be reserved up to 11 months in advance. No services.
Designated Camping Area (DCA) – Free / Shared / Primitive (~2 miles west of Hwy 169)
Available to NCT hikers only. Not first-come-first-served, it is a shared overnight space for anyone arriving on foot. No water, no toilets, no amenities.
If busy, continue east to the Porcupine Hill primitive campsite on the next NCT segment.
Backcountry Notes:
Dispersed camping and boondocking are not allowed anywhere in Copper Falls State Park. Dispersed/boondock camping means setting up outside designated campsites along the trail, in pull-offs, or “just finding a spot.” Because the entire segment of this trail lies within state park boundaries, camping is only allowed in marked, designated sites.
Practice Leave No Trace: pack out all trash, minimize fire impacts, respect quiet, and protect vegetation. Store food securely with a bear hang, cannister, or ursack, this is black bear country.
Lodging Near Copper Falls (For Non-Campers)
For travelers who prefer a real bed and a hot shower after a day on the trail, the closest city with lodging is about 25 minutes north in Ashland, you’ll find several comfortable hotels overlooking Lake Superior, including The AmericInn by Wyndham Ashland, which has pool access and a shoreline walking path, and the Best Western The Hotel Chequamegon, a historic lakeside hotel with large porches and sunset views over the bay. Travelers who enjoy boutique hospitality often choose Second Wind Country Inn on the south side of Ashland, a farm-style bed-and-breakfast with quiet rooms, friendly hosts, and country views.
If you prefer camping in RV resorts there are several independent campgrounds in the region. Northern Lure Campground and Cabins (just east of Mellen) offers tent sites, RV sites, and rustic cabin camping right near the Bad River and forested ATV/hiking territory. On the lakefront in Ashland, Kreher Park Campground provides tent and RV camping with easy access to Lake Superior.
Travelers looking for cabin-style lodging have many privately-owned options scattered around the Penokee foothills and small kettle lakes. Three of the closest cabins that receive consistently positive guest reviews include:
FIELD GUIDE
History: Land, People, Parks and Trail
Long before the park and trails, the lands around what is now Copper Falls and the Bad River watershed were home to Indigenous peoples. The watershed of the Bad River flows into Lake Superior and has been part of the ancestral lands of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians.THE CREATION OF THE PARK AND CCC ERA
Copper Falls State Park was officially created in 1929 when the State of Wisconsin purchased approximately 520 acres at the falls.
In 1935 a master plan for park development was completed. Then in November 1935 the Civilian Conservation Corps Company D-692 moved into Camp Copper Falls. The CCC was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal established in 1933 to provide the dignity of earned wages for unemployed young men during the Great Depression while also tackling conservation projects. At Copper Falls the camp built the combination lodge, its granite fireplaces, benches, the pump house and water lines, reforested land that had been previously clear cut for logging, established trails, built footbridges and guardrails and laid the stone pavers and steps in the river gorge still in use today— all in only 23 months until the camp closed in 1937.
After the CCC departed, development continued under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) until 1941. With a need for massive manpower and resources dedicated to victory in WWII, the depression era of public works projects came to an end. Copper Falls State Park was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
HISTORY OF THE TRAIL: WISCONSIN ON THE NCT
The North Country National Scenic Trail was designated in 1980 by Congress as one of the National Scenic Trails and is today more than 4,600 miles in length across eight states America’s longest footpath. In Wisconsin it follows some 220 miles through the northwest corner of the state, including in Ashland County and Copper Falls.
For many years the trail existed in isolated segments—with gaps of road-walks and un-built passage. Only in recent years have the segments around Copper Falls and other parts of northern Wisconsin become more continuous and connected to adjacent public lands. The Heritage Chapter of the NCTA has been aggressively building new trail in the last decade, adding dozens of miles, footbridges, and primitive campsites extending on a route from the north end of Copper Falls State Park east to the Potato River and from there north towards Lake Superior. Keep an eye out for new trail segments expected to open every other year through 2030.
FIELD GUIDE
Field Notes | Geology and Ecology Along the Trail
WHY THE WATERFALLS?The gorge of the Bad River and its tributary, the Tyler Forks, cuts through some of America’s oldest exposed rock. 1.1 billion years ago this area looked like a hellscape. A rift tore open the ground and the volcanic flood erupting from it was heavy enough to cause the Earth’s crust to sag. This depression in the crust became the basin of Lake Superior and tilted the rock layers surrounding the lake basin from horizontal to near vertical. These tilted and angled basalt and conglomerate cliffs are seen today in the waterfall gorge at Copper Falls.
Millions of years after the Jurassic age of the dinosaurs and hundreds of thousands of years after the first humans walked the Earth, the Bad River system began cutting downward in cracks and weak lines in the basalt at Copper Falls. Then as the Ice Age began, advances of the Laurentide Ice Sheet stripped soil from the uplands and buried the river valleys under glacial till. Around 11,000 years ago as the glaciers retreated and as the first Paleoindians began to arrive at Copper Falls the glacial meltwater found formerly eroded channels in the bedrock basalt and excavated the ravines and gorges. Copper Falls and Brownstone Falls were formed, slowly continuing the erosion downward.
Basalt (Keweenawan flood basalt)
Fine-grained basalt from the Midcontinent Rift (~1.1 billion years old) forms the dark, erosion-resistant lava layers the Bad River cuts into at Copper Falls. (Image Generated by OpenAI ChatGPT)
Conglomerate (copper-country type)
Pebble-rich conglomerates of Keweenawan age record powerful ancient rivers and, across the Lake Superior district, can host native copper—textures hikers may notice in rounded clasts near the gorge. (Image Generated by OpenAI ChatGPT)
FIELD GUIDE
Flora and Forest Communities
The great northern mesic forests dominate Copper Falls State Park. Hemlock poke up out of the steep rocky waterfall gorge and all along the Bad River as it snakes north through the park. In the river ravine you’ll find a boreal collection of white pine, cedar, white spruce, balsam fir, alder, and aspen providing a thick Canadian-like cover that darkens the forest floor. On top the slopes the luminous forest is a collection of familiar hardwoods like maple, oak, and basswood.
The understory shrub layer is rich in native species: beaked hazelnut, American fly-honeysuckle, wintergreen, partridgeberry, and velvet-leaf blueberry. Between shrubs the ground is clothed in ferns and other herbs.
The spring wildflower display is notable. In April and May the forest floor is carpeted with ephemerals like white trillium, Dutchman’s breeches, spring beauty, and yellow trout lilies. By early summer, herbs like Canada mayflower white baneberry, Solomon’s seal, wild sarsaparilla, twisted stalk and starflower make their appearance. Ferns unfurl throughout the park including: lady fern, maidenhair fern, wood ferns and clubmosses remain lush through summer.
New England Aster
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
— A late-season nectar magnet along openings and trails, lighting up the understory August–October. (Image Generated by OpenAI ChatGPT)
Wild Columbine
Aquilegia canadensis
Hummingbird-friendly bells on rocky slopes and forest edges; usually blooms late May–June. (Image Generated by OpenAI ChatGPT)
Large-flowered Trillium
Trillium grandiflorum
— A signature Northwoods spring wildflower carpeting rich maple–hemlock woods; typically in bloom May–early June. (Image Generated by OpenAI ChatGPT)
FIELD GUIDE
Encountering Wildlife
Hikers along the Copper Falls segment of the North Country Trail are walking through a forest that still supports nearly the full range of Wisconsin’s native wildlife. Black bears, gray wolves, and white-tailed deer all roam this landscape, though sightings of the larger carnivores are uncommon. The thick forests and remote valleys of Ashland and Iron Counties offer ideal habitat, and in fact, Ashland County now has one of the highest densities of black bears in the entire state. Their abundance is a direct result of the same forest regrowth that makes this region so scenic—after widespread logging a century ago, the return of mature mixed hardwood and pine forests has helped both bear and wolf populations rebound from the brink of local extinction.
While bears and wolves generally avoid people, hikers should travel with awareness and respect for these animals’ home territory. Black bears are occasionally seen along the Bad River corridor, especially in spring and early summer when they’re searching for food. Gray wolves roam far larger territories and are rarely spotted, though tracks or distant howls sometimes give them away. Basic precautions are simple: store food securely, make noise while hiking, keep pets leashed, and never leave food or scraps behind. For backpackers venturing into quieter stretches of trail, carrying bear spray is a reasonable safety measure—just check regulations and know how to use it responsibly.
FIELD GUIDE
Calls from the Canopy
Up to 200 bird species either nest in or migrate through Copper Falls State Park each year, making this one of the richest birding areas along the North Country Trail in Wisconsin. The variety of terrain—ranging from dry upland hardwoods to the cool, shaded gorge of the Bad River—creates overlapping habitats that attract both northern conifer specialists and more temperate forest birds. As the trail winds through these transitions, hikers experience an ever-changing mix of movement and sound from the forest above.
Along the gorge rim, many of the park’s tallest trees rise from the valley floor below, placing hikers eye-level with the forest canopy. This unique vantage point gives rare glimpses of birds usually seen from far beneath: Blackburnian and Northern Parula warblers flitting among hemlock tips, Red-eyed vireos pacing the treetops, and ravens cruising the air currents above the gorge. Occasional sightings of turkey vultures circling high overhead add to the sense of wild scale. If you love getting eyelevel with these canopy dwellers then make a short but strenuous side trip up to the top of the park and its observation tower where you can get a real birds eye view.
Common Raven
Corvus corax
The gorge’s acrobat; year-round in the Northwoods with deep croaks and wing-whooshes over the canyon. (Image Generated by OpenAI ChatGPT)
Ovenbird
Seiurus/Parkesia aurocapilla
A ground-nesting warbler of mature hardwoods; listen for the bold teacher-TEACHER-TEACHER song in late May–July. (Image Generated by OpenAI ChatGPT)
Blackburnian Warbler
Setophaga fusca
A spruce–hemlock canopy specialist; the thin, high song is most common in late May–July. (Image Generated by OpenAI ChatGPT)
Links
Further Exploration
North Country Trail
North Country Trail Association official map and updates
Heritage Chapter of the NCTA for local trail news
National Park Service page for the North Country National Scenic Trail
Copper Falls State Park
Wisconsin DNR park information and camping reservations
Friends of Copper Falls State Park group news and events
Geology and Natural History
Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey overview of the Penokee Range and volcanic bedrock
USGS geologic map of the Ashland County region
Wisconsin DNR Natural Areas Program profile for Copper Falls State Natural Area
Cultural and Historical Context
Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa history and environmental stewardship
Wisconsin Historical Society article on Civilian Conservation Corps work in state parks
National Archives overview of CCC and New Deal conservation programs