Split Rock River TH — Attraction in Beaver Bay Township

This is my favorite trail on the North Shore of Lake Superior. If you can, take the spur trails which are short but a steep scramble down a slope to get to. The views are worth it, but be careful. No overnight parking at the trailhead but there is a wayside rest nearby which has no facilities.

The majority of the trail is fairly safe, there are some sections where a particularly uncoordinated fall would have no real ledge or enough foliage to arrest your descent onto rocks--it is potentially dangerous.

After you reach the first bridge and waterfall, you have about 1.8 miles further to the old bridgeheads (and roughly that far to the two large obelisks which probably give their name to the river.) If you do the left-half only, it's "only" about 4.6 miles round trip, but it will feel like more with the elevation gained and lost.

A few muddy sections were easy to walk around this July, and it rained the day before I arrived. There is a large tree which spans the river exactly where the old bridge is out, by coincidence it floated there. It is directly above a waterfall and I strongly advise that you do not attempt to cross there, even with a...

Gorgeous hike in late August!

The hubs and I are getting close to 40, but are decently active (3-5 mile walks daily along with strength training). So this trail didn't feel strenuous, but you will want to be careful for surface roots. It is clearly marked and well maintained, but there are lots of tripping opportunities. My husband wore his knee brace to help support an old injury and he said it was a life saver!

Pack some snacks and water and take your time.

There are many places you can pop out and see the river. The colors of the forest are fantastic with all the shades of green mixed with the red rock, dark soil, and vibrant pops of wild flowers. The final vista of lake Superior is breathtaking! The day we hiked it was misty and foggy so we couldn't see the split rock light house, but we still loved the view.

If you want to extend the hike by just about .5 miles walk down to the superior lake point down the "hiking club" trail. If you walk out on the rocks you really get a sense for how huge lake Superior is.

I hope to make it back to this hike sometime when autumn colors are all it's peak. I bet that is the only way it is...

We heard good things about this trail, we've done all the other popular ones on the north shore so it was time to go here. We prefer loops, and thought about waiting until the bridge was replaced, but we were anxious to check this one out so we went anyway Jan 1, new years day, basically no snow in the area but recently about half an inch fell and with some ice flows it was a little tricky in spots. We found it to be a bit of a billy goat ride, constant up & down more so than your typical moderate trail. The trail initially was set back from the stream so we weren't impressed with views, we got to the second waterfall and couldn't even see it, unimpressed, we turned back. I really want to see the rest in case we were missing something, as most describe. But the other side of me says why force it, there's many other trails. A month ago we walked the lake side of 61, a nice walk but nothing special there either. The corundum mine was interesting to learn about, but...