Four Nights in Northern Minnesota

Recently for July 4th weekend, my family and I traveled to Northern Minnesota. Before this I had never been past Duluth, but for some reason my parents have become more adventurous since I left the house. They now actually explore Minnesota but never did when I was around....so great!!! The past couple of years they've told me how beautiful Grand Marais is and well we felt safest doing a roadtrip during this time, so we went! The beauty of Grand Marias and the surrounding areas are so much more beautiful than Duluth. Everyday since I've been asking myself...how did I not know this existed?? Well this is what we did:

Day 1 - Driving Up

Our first stop while driving up was Scenic Cafe. The cafe's food was really good and the outside was so beautiful. They had lots of flowers and places to sit.

Scenic Cafe

From there we went to Black Beach Park. If you go to Black Beach Park make sure you don't just stop at the beach by the parking lot. There's this trail on the right side (if facing the water). The trail will take you to another part of the beach that is much more beautiful.

Black Beach Park

From there we drove to Grand Marias and ate lunch at Hungry Hippie Tacos. The food was SO GOOD. I had the vegetarian one and I highly recommend. After lunch we walked towards Artists' Point and stopped at World's Best Donuts. It was a pretty good donut! The place is right next to Artists' Point which is where we went next. It's a beautiful walkway into the lake, with amazing views! Artists' Point is a must!

Artists' Point

From there we checked into our hotel (Lutsen Resort) and ate dinner at Papa Charlie's.

Day 2 - The Big Hike (for us)

Today we did the Superior Hiking Trail from Pincushion Mountain. We started from the parking lot on County Rd. 58 (not what All Trails says) and it made the hike a lot shorter. I highly recommend doing the same. The hike is beautiful. You go past a river and end with a beautiful view of Lake Superior. It does go up and down a lot so I wouldn't call this an easy hike. Highly recommend if you can hike 7 - 8 miles!

Views from the Pincushion Mountain Hike

After we showered, we drove back to Grand Marias and had lunch at Angry Trout. It's along the lake and the food is good! From there we randomly decided to drive up to Grand Portage which is right by the Minnesota and Canada border. It's not far from Grand Marais. While there we went to go see the Grand Portage Waterfall which is the tallest Waterfall in Minnesota. It was pretty! Not anything special, but if you have time, why not!

Grand Portage Falls & Minnesota Border

Day 3 - Exploring!

We started the morning by getting breakfast at Lockport Marketplace and from there we went to go do the Oberg Mountain Loop. This was a much more manageable hike and I actually recommend this to everyone. It's not too long and the views are stunning! It is known for wildflowers, but I think we came a little too late to see them.

Oberg Mountain Loop

From there we went to North Shore Winery and did some wine tasting. We aren't huge wine people, but it was fun! After that we headed towards Palisade Head because we heard it had gorgeous views. We stopped at Coho's Cafe on the way to get some food, and the food was really good! Palisade Head had AMAZING views, and you literally drive to the top, so there was no hiking involved. I highly recommend to everyone to go here.

Views from Palisade Head

From there we drove back to Grand Marias to catch the fireworks. While in Grand Marias we got some custard from Sydney's Custard and we had pizza at Sven and Ole's. Both were delicious!

Day 4 - State Parks

For this day we decided to drive south from Lutsen and hit some state parks. We first went to Split Rock State Park which has a lighthouse. Honestly, it was very okay. It was also extremely hot (low 90s) which might have ruined the experience. There are some nice views but you can also get the same views at other places (without paying).

View from Split Rock

The better park that we went to was Tettegouche State Park. We did the Highfalls Trail which was awesome! You can go down these stairs to get to the base of the waterfall and swim. I would definitely recommend this trail. We then also did Shovel Point which again had great views! There were a lot of bugs so it wasn't as enjoyable but it was decent. I think hitting Tettegouche State Park is a must, there were so many different hikes and you get to see many different landscapes!

High Falls View from Shovel Point

And this was the last of what we did. The next morning, we drove back home. The whole trip was extremely beautiful. I still can't believe I've never seen all of this before even though I've lived in this state for most of my life. I can't wait to go back and explore more! Below is a list of everything we hit/saw.

Day 1 -

• Scenic Cafe

• Black Beach

• Hungry Hippie Tacos [must do]

• World's Best Donuts

• Artist Point [must do]

• Papa Charlie's

Day 2-

• Pincushion Mountain Loop (Start at the parking lot on county rd 58)

• Angry Trout Cafe

• Grand Portage Falls

Day 3-

• Lockport Marketplace

• Oberg Mountain Loop [must do]

• Northshore Winery

• Coho's Cafe

• Palisade Head [must do]

• Sydney's Custard

• Sven and Ole's

Day 4 -

• Fika Coffee

• Split Rock State Park

• Tettegouche State Park (Highfalls Trail & Shovel Point) [must do]

• Papa Charlie's