Superior National Forest — Attraction in Stony River Township

Under the administration of the United States Forest Service, the Superior National Forest comprises over 3,900,000 acres (6,100 mi2 or 16,000 km2) of woods and waters. The majority of the forest is multiple-use, including both logging and recreational activities such as camping, boating, and fishing. Slightly over a quarter of the forest is set aside as a wilderness reserve known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), where canoers can travel along interconnected fresh waters near land as well as over historic portages once used by Native American tribes and First Nations people, but later by European explorers and traders.

The forest is located in Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis counties in northeastern Minnesota. Forest headquarters are located in Duluth, Minnesota, outside the boundaries of the forest. There are local ranger district offices in Aurora, Cook, Ely

The forest covers 3.9 million acres (6,100 mi2 or 16,000 km2), and has over 445,000 acres (1,800 km2) of water.[4] Its waters include some 2,000 lakes and rivers,[5] more than 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of cold water streams, and 950 miles (1,530 km) of warm water streams.[6] Many of the lakes are located in depressions formed by the differential erosion of tilted layers of bedded rock; these depressions were given their final form by glacial scouring during recent ice ages.

The forest is located on part of the Canadian Shield. The area is on a low plateau which is part of the Superior Upland. High points include the Sawtooth Mountains, a range of hills along the shore of Lake Superior, the Misquah Hills including Eagle Mountain, the state's highest point, and other uplands along the Laurentian Divide separating the watershed of the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean from that of Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean. Despite the presence of dramatic cliffs and other local differences in elevation, the area is essentially flat, as it is part of an old peneplain eroded by weathering, water, and especially glaciers.

The principal surficial result of recent glaciation is not the deposition of glacial drift (unlike most of the rest of Minnesota), but the remodeling of the landscape by the scraping away of softer surfaces down to bare hard rock. The land therefore is raw, with many outcroppings of ancient bedrock, overlain in places by thin layers of gravelly soil and, in the west, silts deposited by Glacial...

Superior National Forest is simply one of the best blue water canoe areas on earth. Over the forty years I've canoed in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and the Superior National Forest there have been many changes: fire and wind have reshaped the landscape, visitor traffic has increased, new hassles have reduced cross-border travel into Quetico, many more houses have appeared at the end of the Gunflint Trail. But the overall experience of traveling deep into the wilderness by canoe is pretty much as it was at the beginning. The water is pure. We drink straight from the lakes as we always have (they tell you not to but we have never come down with anything). The bear and moose are still present. Camp sites seem less spectacular than in the past--the Forest Service closes and replaces sites and I wonder if there is a deliberate policy of going with less exposed sites. But get these lakes in your blood and you will return again and again. Nothing...

Spent a week here canoeing around BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) and it was majestic. Best to spend a long vacation here to make the most of the remoteness and beauty. Nearby Ely is also lots of fun, so spend some time there if you're heading in or out of the woods. The outfitters in Ely can also help you get geared up and routes mapped for your trip. For what the trip is, outfitting is pretty cheap: our group of 5 spent under $1000 for a 5 day trip.

Visit soon or🤞the immaculate waters of this national forest aren't destroyed in the next decade by the newly reopened mining permits. It was great when the government took its responsibility of protecting the environment for future generations seriously.

Anyways, seriously, visit this place, it's...