Lake Superior Circle Tour
If you’re in Minnesota or the Lake Superior/Great Lakes region and looking for a nearby, fun roadtrip (or just looking for a fun road trip outside of the area) - this is for you.
Last summer, I went on a spin around Lake Superior with my sister and parents for our annual family trip. Since life is busyyy and neither of us live super close to home (I’m the closest at 2.5 hours away), our trips are always a great time for us to spend some quality time together!
This isn’t a recipe blog where the intro is 8 paragraphs, so let’s get into it.
First off - a few things to keep in mind before you take off on your adventure:
You will need a passport or enhanced drivers’ license to go on the full tour as part of it goes through Canada. You will also need to be able to get into Canada, unless you wanna do more of a Line Tour vs Circle Tour.
There is a lot of nature, and camping might be the only lodging option at some points depending on how you’d like to time your trip. If you’re not really in to either of those things, you can road trip vicariously through this blog instead :)
Some of the businesses or sites along the Tour are seasonal. Make sure if you want to make a stop that you check their website/hours/online pages so you don’t show up somewhere just to be disappointed that they closed at 4pm or don’t do tours past the first week of September.
(Above) Some favorite campsite images from where we stayed along the road. Also I’m a huge fan of hammock camping - I would exclusively hammock camp if it was always possible!
Now that you are mentally prepared for the journey, here’s my thoughts on why the Circle Tour is great:
-You can choose how much time to take. Like to do a bunch of sight seeing? There’s plenty of stops along the way for (I would say) at least two weeks. Just need to drive and take a nature break? You can probably be done in about 3ish days.
-Easy driving. There’s plenty of signage to keep you on track and the roads are pretty smooth. There are also little detours you can take off the “main” road to go around peninsulas (worth it imo). There are some hills, but you won’t be driving through any mountain passes on the edge of a cliff.
-Lots of nature (as mentioned above). You will go through a few cities, nothing massive, but for the most part it’s a lovely scenic drive. I was especially a fan of the Canadian shore.
-Did I mention sight seeing? Landmarks, waterfalls, museums, hiking, mines, beaches, oh my! SO much cool stuff to do, and great for varying ages. I give you the Emily guarantee that there is something for everyone from kiddo to g-parent.
Okay, that was a lot of reading. Let’s get some more pictures in here! We did a bunch of stops along the way (we love playing tourist) and took a couple detours, but here are some of my favorites that we ended up at:
Delaware Copper Mine
A fun detour that we took and it was well worth it! Take a self-guided mining tour at the Delaware Copper Mine. My sister and I snagged some scavenger hunt pamphlets (they’re for kids but anyone can do this and it was fun!) and got a cute badge back at the main office. Going down into the mine is a huge staircase, so it isn’t accessible, but the grounds have pretty smooth and wide unpaved trails and there’s several old ruins to see out there. We got to chat a bit with the family that owned the property and they were so sweet!
Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
Plan PLENTY of time for this one!! There’s a lot to take in, plenty to read, and a short movie to see. Some of it can be emotional since it’s about, you know, shipwrecks on the Great Lakes (I am also an easy crier so some things just made me sad feeling). They also have special events to honor the families of some of the shipwrecks (my parents ended up coming back here later in the year for the 50th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck and found the experience incredibly moving) so make sure to check out their calendar. Parking here can fill up quick so plan to walk or arrive early!
AgAwa rock, lake superior provincial park
I did not take a single good picture of the actual pictographs which is a huge bummer. But! Here is a picture of one of the trails in the park which was so beautiful! There is a decent amount of hiking you can do out here. Beware the trail to the pictographs is very thin, involves some ropes/chains to hang on to, and is on slats of rock right next to the lake. I wouldn’t say it’s scary, but I proceeded close to the ground with a lot of caution. They are very cool to see and there’s some nice signage about the Anishinaabe and the history of the area. Special reminder - don’t put your own drawings next to the pictographs or on any rocks/trees/surfaces in the park. It’s not as cool as you think it is, damages nature, and ruins the experience for everyone else.
Pebble Beach
This was such a neat natural phenomenon to see! Not exactly the place where you would come stretch out on a towel (unless it was made of some THICK memory foam), but very cool to check out. You may have seen the image in the top gallery of me holding one up for size! The beach is pretty long so you can wander up and down it to your hearts content. Just make sure you stretch your ankles out first so you don’t accidentally roll one! Another reminder here to take only pictures and leave the rocks with their friends and family on the beach (don't make them sad and scared by taking them away).
Diamond Willow Amethyst Mine
This was one of the stops we made in Canada and there are a few other amethyst mines too! At Diamond Willow, there are several pits in varying locations and you can rent additional equipment for digging if you really want to get into it (we did not and still got a bunch of amazing pieces). Grounds are easy to walk around on, and the owners were so sweet and we got to chat with them to learn more about the history of the mine and the family! Definitely a highlight activity of our trip - I have a picture of the cleaning station in the top gallery and one of my haul in the bottom gallery!
This is not inclusive of every single place we went (a girl can only write so much), but you can see some more snippets in the gallery below! (Like the Wawa Goose!) Is this a road trip you’ve taken (or would take)? Let me know your favorite spot!
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you in the next one.
