Two Harbors & Lake Superior North Shore, Minnesota

We camped in Two Harbors, Minnesota and explored the North Shore area of Lake Superior.  Our first visit to one of the Great Lakes.   

Split Rock Lighthouse

As usual, we stopped by the local visitor center in Two Harbors when we got there and got great information of the area.  I loved it when the lady helping us,  after pointing out a page in a tour book, said to me "I'm not a librarian anymore, so I can dog-ear this page for you" - Priceless!!

Two Harbor's Lighthouse is Minnesota's only operating lighthouse, as well as a beacon light still in service at the end of the breakwater into the harbor.

We watched the ships with taconite come into Agate Bay in Two Harbors to be offloaded/loaded.  Lake Superior used to have huge numbers of ships in many different harbors each day when the steel industry was booming.

Other Stops/Sights we explored along the Superior North Shore:

Gooseberry Falls State Park
Water falls formed by lava over a billion years ago.. hiked trails to see the upper, middle & lower falls

Split Rock Lighthouse
This was our favorite stop - great guided tour & history of the lighthouse.

This lighthouse was put into service in 1910, the federal government built & funded many lighthouses during that time after a 1905 storm sank or damaged 29 ships in Lake Superior.

There were 3 keepers that kept the lighthouse running during the shipping season, and were provided with three identical/very nice houses for them and their families to live in.  The guide told of a story about when it was so foggy  the ships could not see the light house, the fog signal would blast every 18 seconds, however the fog signal bounced over the ship and they did not hear it, so the light keeper ran down to the shore and heard voices of the crew on the ship and so he used a hand crank fog horn that the crew could hear and steer clear of the shore!  The lighthouse keepers did whatever it took to avoid ship crashes on their watch. 

While not used today, the Split Rock lighthouse is still fully functional and every November 10 the lighthouse emits a light in memory of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald which sank on that date in 1975. 

Tettegouche State Park
High Falls - The highest waterfall within the boundaries of Minnesota, crossing a swinging bridge over the river to get there (eek!)

Two-Step Falls – really nice, more secluded falls off the trail to high falls where we enjoyed sitting for a while before we hiked back up all those stairs we walked down!

Palisade Head cliffs

Part of Tettegouche State Park, hard volcanic rock that has resisted a billion years of erosion unlike the areas surrounding it. 

Cascade River State Park
Walked along trails to see a series of cascading waterfalls through the rivers deep gorge that flows into Lake Superior.

The water isn’t clear – described as rootbeer with foam!  But it’s not polluted, as the color comes from the water that drains out of the swamps & bogs into the river, plus some iron deposits along the river’s course. 

We followed the trail to where river flowed into Lake Superior.

Grand Marais

85 miles from Two Harbors is the town of Grand Marais – the furthest town we drove up to on the North shore.  There we had a great meal at the "The Angry Trout” before we drove back. 

Gitchi-Gami State Trail

Had to walk this trail  just cause I liked the name - LOL.  Gitchi-Gami means great water/sea.  A total of 29 miles of trails so far, and eventually the trails will connect all of the state parks on the North shore (80+ miles!).  

The trail had the one and only selfie station we saw, so we had to try it out! 

We loved our campsite overlooking Lake Superior at Burlington Bay Campground in Two Harbors. Even when it was rainy outside, it wasn't so bad sitting in the coach with a view of the lake.

This was our last stop in Minnesota.  

We are glad we decided to buy the annual Minnesota State Park Pass at our first State Park stop, as we had used it a lot before we got to the North Shore and here we found 6 more state parks along the shore we could visit.

Where2Next?

We continue exploring Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.