The 5 Must-Hike Lake Superior Trails With Unbelievable Views Of America's Cleanest Lake

Of all the exemplary geographical wonders across North America, few live up to their name more than the mighty Lake Superior. Not only is Lake Superior the largest (and, arguably, "greatest") of North America's Great Lakes, but its 31,700 square mile expanse and roughly 2,800 mile coastline make it the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area. As if these weren't enough superlatives, Lake Superior's crystal clear waters also top the list of America's cleanest lakes, with recent scientific analysis revealing that the lake's waters contain "virtually zero pollution."  All of this means that Lake Superior is an unsurpassed water destination for both the United States and Canada. However, the lake's extensive shoreline also means plenty of land-based adventures to accompany its opportunities for recreation on the water. 

Both the American and Canadian sides of Lake Superior have plenty of amazing parks, nature preserves, and public lands that are ideal for lakeside hiking. On the American side, Lake Superior provides an epic backdrop to many of the best parks in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. While views of Lake Superior would be enough to make a hike worthwhile, many of these national and state parks also feature other extraordinary lakeside features that only add to the amazing scenery. Though any hike along Lake Superior's shores will be an unforgettable sightseeing adventure, these five trails on the American side of the lake showcase some of the best Great Lakes views found anywhere in North America, with a plethora of other picturesque features (both natural and human-made) waiting for your camera. 

As far as water features go, Lake Superior is more than magnificent enough to stand alone. However, if you add an exceptional waterfall to the mix, you get a natural setting that almost defies imagination. This is very much the case with Minnesota's Gooseberry Falls State Park. Sitting along the picture-perfect North Shore of Lake Superior, about 13 miles northeast of the lakeside community of Two Harbors and 39 miles from Duluth, Gooseberry Falls State Park protects the intersection of the Great Lake and the Gooseberry River.

As the river's water empties into Lake Superior, it flows down a deep, rocky gorge in a spectacular series of waterfalls. The rocks underneath these falls are actually the remnants of ancient lava flows (bearing the deceptively placid name of "the Picnic Flow") that forged much of Lake Superior's northern coastline. All around the river's Upper, Middle, and Lower Falls, you'll find divine forests of cedar, aspen, spruce, and pine trees. Add the ocean-like expanse of Lake Superior right next door, and you get one of the most picturesque settings in the entire country. 

A natural backdrop like this makes each of Gooseberry Falls State Park's many trails a worthy destination for sightseeing. However, the top-ranked Gitchi Gummi Trail offers the best combination of waterfall and Lake Superior scenery. The trail (whose name comes from a derivation of Gitchi-Gami, the Ojibwe name for Lake Superior) follows an easy 2.2-mile loop from a convenient parking lot, along scenic viewing areas of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Gooseberry Falls. After passing the Gooseberry River gorge, the trail hits the serene Agate Beach along Lake Superior.  As the trail sticks to higher sections of the gorge's cliffs, it provides plenty of scenic observation points of the gorge, falls, and lake. 

With their size and geographic importance, the Great Lakes have over 200 lighthouses. Lake Superior, as the biggest of all, has earned some of North America's most beautiful lighthouses — not just along the Great Lakes but around the entire continent. One of them, Minnesota's landmark Split Rock Lighthouse, has the well-deserved reputation of being one of the nation's most scenic. Completed in 1910, Split Rock Lighthouse sits atop a towering, 130-foot vertical cliff overlooking Lake Superior's dramatic North Shore, the same area that forged Gooseberry Falls. Though it is now retired as a "working" lighthouse, Split Rock Lighthouse remains an enduring historical landmark and museum, while its eye-catching location atop a forest-lined cliff makes it one of the most photographed sights in all of Lake Superior. Today, Minnesota's Split Rock Lighthouse State Park offers a perfect Lake Superior day trip with historic lighthouse views, cobbled beaches, and scenic trails. One of these trails, the unmissable Day Hill Loop, provides some of the best shots of Lake Superior anywhere along the lake's nearly 3,000-mile coastline. 

The Day Hill Loop starts from the parking lot near Little Two Harbors and the lively Pebble Beach, both of which have picture-perfect views of Lake Superior. From there, the 3.5-mile trail begins its ascent up the namesake Day Hill. Day Hill's elevation of around 250 feet above the lake is high enough to provide amazing views, while not too high to make the hike excessively strenuous. On Day Hill, the trail offers panoramic views of Lake Superior, Split Rock Lighthouse, and the park's enchanting lakeside forest. However, with frequent fogs and a somewhat creepy abandoned stone fireplace, Day Hill also forges a somewhat eerie atmosphere that only adds to its many charms. 

Michigan's esteemed Upper Peninsula protects some of the wildest and most pristine features in the Upper Midwest. One of these features, the magnificent Porcupine Mountains (also known as "the Porkies"), features stunning forest peaks that transport you to the ancient summits of Appalachia — without leaving Lake Superior. Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park has long been one of Michigan's most acclaimed natural wonders, thanks in no small part to its extensive waterfalls, rare Midwestern wilderness areas, and roughly 60,000 acres of old-growth forest. The park's acclaimed Lake of the Clouds is a stunning sapphire-blue lake tucked deep within the Porcupine Mountains, and a popular spot for fishing, kayaking, and (obviously) sightseeing. However, Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park's West River Trail and East River Trail Loop showcases a much, much larger lake right next door. 

This vibrant 2.7-mile scenic loop largely follows the banks of the park's gorgeous Presque Isle River as it descends from its spring-fed headwaters into Lake Superior. Just before it empties into the lake, the Presque Isle River passes through a complex network of deep, rocky ravines that thread it into a series of rapids and mini waterfalls. The West River Trail and East River Trail Loop includes convenient boardwalks, wooden stairs, and a suspension bridge, where you can stop and get outstanding pictures of the river and its surrounding forest setting.

Eventually, the trail circles past the mighty Lake Superior itself, providing one-of-a-kind shots of the lake and the brilliant Presque Isle River. If you want even more expansive pics of Lake Superior, you can also head over to Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park's Summit Peak Observation Tower Trail, which ascends 230 feet to the park's best lake-view observation point. 

Alongside its mainland parks and scenic areas, Lake Superior also has several island chains that offer more distinctive perspectives on the acclaimed lake. Of these, few stand out more than the dream-like Apostle Islands. Sitting just offshore of northern Wisconsin, the Apostle Islands represent such a vibrant palette of colors and shapes that viewers can be forgiven for thinking they're imagining things. The Apostle Islands are very real, of course. With a foundation of orange-red sandstone eroded into alluring lakeside cliffs, and topped by a thick canopy of deep green trees (and several photogenic lighthouses), the Apostle Islands are among the most colorful natural wonders to contrast with Lake Superior's heavenly blue waters. A collection of 21 islands forms the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, one of the National Park Service's brightest hidden gems, and a can't-miss stop on any Lake Superior tour. 

The park's 21 islands all have amazing hiking trails that are well worth the effort in getting there. If you're looking for the premier Apostle Islands experience, however, the 4.1-mile hike to the Meyers Beach Sea Caves via the Lakeshore Trail lets you explore one of the park's most beautiful natural treasures without having to leave the mainland! Located on the park's mainland section in Wisconsin's Bayfield Peninsula, the Lakeshore Trail offers seemingly unlimited views of Lake Superior. And even though you'll only have a glimpse of islands in the distance, the Lakeshore Trail is worth it just for its passage along the sublime Meyers Beach and its unforgettable sea caves. With a kaleidoscopic display of bright shades of red and orange, these sea caves (or, rather, lake caves) are among the most underrated geological masterpieces in any American national park. 

Lake Superior protects two of America's three "national lakeshores." Alongside the aforementioned Apostle Islands, the equally priceless Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore sits farther east along the shores of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Similar to the Apostle Islands, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore features remarkable lakeside cliffs with bright, eye-catching color patterns juxtaposed against the blue water below. The cliffs that put the "picture" in "Pictured Rocks" contain large reserves of iron, copper, and manganese. When combined with ever-flowing groundwater and lake spray, these minerals dye the cliffs into polychromatic shades of red, orange, blue, green, and black. Lake Superior's ever-constant erosion has likewise carved these multi-colored cliffs into an intricate network of cloistered sea caves, which only add to the park's unparalleled beauty. The park also contains pristine beaches, dunes, inland lakes, forests, and even waterfalls (some cascading directly into Lake Superior). 

Of all Pictured Rocks' many prestigious trails, the Chapel Beach Loop draws some of the most consistently rave reviews from hikers. This moderately challenging trail combines many of Pictured Rocks' top scenic sites into one 6.5-mile sightseeing loop. Starting from a parking area just off Chapel Road, the trail heads towards the lake via a lush stretch of Upper Peninsula forests and inland waterways. During this section of the hike, you'll pass excellent viewpoints of Chapel Lake and the 60-foot Chapel Falls. Eventually, the trail hits the dream-like Chapel Beach, where you can stop to sink your feet into the cool, white sand while taking in unlimited views of Lake Superior and the magnificent lakeside cliffs nearby. The trail also provides excellent shots of the iconic Chapel Rock, a prominent sandstone column eroded into an intricate shape, perched right alongside the lake and bearing a single white pine tree. 

Compiling a list of "top scenic trails along Lake Superior" can be as easy as picking any five trails along Lake Superior at random and throwing them together on a list. After all, Lake Superior rarely looks bad. However, we tried to be comprehensive in our rankings. So, we decided on a bit more coherent methodology in identifying specific Lake Superior trails that deserve a particular shout-out for their remarkable scenery. 

First, in the interest of space, we decided to limit this particular list to hiking trails on the American side of Lake Superior. Roughly half of the lake's shores are in Canada, of course, and they are just as rich in amazingly scenic parks and hiking trails as the U.S. portion. To avoid having to favor one country's shoreline over the other, we focused solely on the U.S. for this particular list and saved Canada's top Lake Superior hikes for another day. 

AllTrails.com was an invaluable resource for identifying Lake Superior trails that draw notably positive reviews from hikers. Each of the trails on this list received an average of more than 4.5 stars over several hundred (and in some cases, several thousand) reviews. AllTrails was also helpful in visualizing how much of the trail passes by scenic viewpoints of Lake Superior, and how much passes by other points of interest. On the latter point, we tried to identify highly-reviewed trails that also include other scenic features that can be viewed against Lake Superior as a backdrop. This included both infrastructural developments like the Split Rock Lighthouse and natural wonders like the colorful lakeside cliffs of Pictured Rocks and Apostle Islands National Lakeshores.