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The stops around Lake Superior offer both natural and man-made wonders.
"It’s not a journey,” my husband Steve exclaims for the umpteenth time from the passenger seat. “It’s a trip.”
The way I look at it, I’ve waited more than a decade to travel all the way around Lake Superior — the Circle Tour, as it’s known — and if I want to call it a journey, I get to call it a journey. Over the next eight days, we plan to put our life on pause, hop in the car, and explore the magnificent and diverse beauty of this natural wonder we so often take for granted. If that’s not a journey, I don’t know what is.
It was filled with awe-inspiring sights and experiences — more than can fit in these pages — but I’ve picked out some highlights to share with you.
Driving east from our starting point in Iron River, Wisconsin, we pull our packed-to-the-brim Forester into our first stop, Munising, Michigan, as evening falls upon us. We’re headed out on a Sunset Cruise of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Over the next few hours, we’ll experience 37 miles of the 2,726 miles of Lake Superior shoreline, up close. It’s a jaw-dropping sight as we drift past the towering cliffs that seem to change color as the sun sets.
We knew we’d find beauty on the shoreline, but we also found it in unexpected places. Take for example, our pit stop at a local bar in Calumet. It turns out Shute’s is one of the oldest known taverns in Michigan, built initially in 1890. Behind the bar, a wall-mounted stained glass tiffany canopy shipped from Chicago in 1902 tells a rich story of the Copper Country’s booming mining industry. Ten years ago, someone offered more than $1 million for the piece but insurance companies refused to insure the transport, stating it was priceless. Today, it is publicly owned to be preserved in perpetuity.
Near Taquemenon Falls, we learn about a nearby river that was made famous after Ernest Hemingway visited the area and wrote the novel Big Two Hearted River. The story is actually based off the Fox River, which is also along the Circle Tour, but Hemingway felt the name Two Hearted River was more poetic. The Taquemenon Falls are a spectacular sight. An added bonus—the on-site brewery located in literally the middle of nowhere. The endless inappropriate moose shirts (the area is the Moose Capital of the world, after all) and memorabilia we find almost make up for the fact that we never see a single moose on this leg of our journey.
At Whitefish Point, the driftwood graveyard seems appropriate next to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Here, we pay tribute to the men who sacrificed their lives to the waters of Gitchee Gumee. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald plays quietly in the background, next to the bell recovered from the Fitz.
In Sault Ste. Marie, we visit the working port and the Soo Locks. Dining on burgers at Clyde’s Drive-In, we watch the ships make their way up the river. Soon afterwards, we are on the observation platform watching the same ships drop or raise through the Soo Locks. Built on the blood, sweat and tears of many men, this man-made wonder plays a key role in the success of the Twin Ports.
The next day, we cross the border and head to Ontario where dozens of Inukshuks — little piles of Lake Superior stones signifying that someone had gone this way — guide our way around the lake. In the dense Ontario forest, we spot our first moose! Finally, a sighting of this majestic creature. We camp at Rainbow Provincial Park near Rossport. A local pottery artist named Tim Alexander sells me the perfect oversized coffee mug from his spectacular home and gallery called Island Pottery on Lake Superior.
Adventures abound—both manufactured and natural. In Agawa Bay, we hesitantly tiptoe out on the sloped rock ledge to catch a glimpse of Native Pictographs. The extreme caution signs, life vests, and ropes slapping against the water’s edge in case you fall in are real, as are the multi-century old stories engraved within the ledge. Further along our journey, north of Thunder Bay, we experience Canada’s longest suspension bridge at Eagle Canyon Adventures. At more than 600 feet long, the bridge is a man-made heart stopper. Next to it, a quarter-mile long zip line descends along the canyon edge to the lake down below.
And the food! We delight in the sinful goodness of the cholesterol-ridden poutine, also known as gravy cheese fries. My Finnish taste buds savor the infamous, plate-sized pancakes at Hoito in Thunder Bay. The restaurant, which dates back to 1918, is one of the few remaining cooperative restaurants in the world. We enjoy squeaky fresh cheese curds at Canada’s only Gouda cheese farm, Thunder Oak, before crossing the border and heading home.
As we pull into our driveway, tired and happy, I think to myself how lucky I am to live here. Where else in the world would an adventure as diverse and majestic as the Big Lake’s shoreline exist out your back door?
Beth Probst is a freelance writer in Iron River, Wisconsin. Read more about her Lake Superior Circle Tour Adventure at: www.lakesuperioradventures.wordpress.com
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