Other stories in "Scenic byways"

• Great fall drives
  It's time to chase the colors through glorious autumn landscapes.
• Digging the Keweenaw
  On Lake Superior, an isolated peninsula yields up all sorts of riches.
• Otter trail country
  Giant surprises pop up along a scenic byway in western Minnesota.
• Seeking the old North Shore
  On Minnesota's beloved vacation spot, change is coming fast.
• Introducing Minnesota's North Shore
  For stressed-out city folks, it's hallowed ground.
• River with a past
  On the lush Minnesota, bicyclists find that beautiful scenery comes with harsh history.
• Wisconsin's Rustic Roads
  On quiet lanes, motorists ramble into the heart of the countryside.
• Waters of the dancing sky
  In far northern Minnesota, a scenic byway is a showcase for the outdoors.
• Duluth's Skyline Parkway
  High above Lake Superior, a scenic boulevard was city's first playground.
• Outdoors in Door County
  Beaches, bays and forests are keys to this lovely peninsula.

Minnesota's scenic byways

Hit the road for a glimpse of state's most engaging spots.

The corner of Third Avenue and U.S. 2 in Grand Rapids doesn’t exactly look like the edge of the wilderness.

The Blandin Co. paper mill is across the highway, its flat roof studded by smokestacks that send plumes of white smoke into the air. Trucks rumble past, en route to North Dakota or Duluth.

But this is the beginning of the 47-mile Edge of the Wilderness scenic route, Minnesota’s first National Scenic Byway. Just 10 blocks from U.S. 2, it leaves the city center and begins to skirt McKinney Lake. Then it winds northward, past pristine forests, undeveloped lakes and the occasional quiet village.

This landscape wasn't always pristine, and it certainly wasn’t quiet. Once, these woods rang with the shouts of lumberjacks, the snorts of draft horses and the whistles of 40 different railways, whose locomotives hauled off the white pine.

This was a busy place in the last decades of the 19th century, when the forests yielded not only timber but iron ore, discovered at a spot that became the westernmost tip of the Mesabi Range.

The Lind-Greenway Mine, which closed in 1976, is marked by the first of many interpretive displays along this ribbon of asphalt, which locals called "Highway Loop-de-Loop.'' Others mark a black spruce and tamarack bog and the birch stand at Pughole Lake, a good place to slip in a canoe. There’s one in Suomi Hills, site of a Civilian Conservation Corps work camp in 1933 and, a decade later, a prisoner of war camp. Named by its earliest settlers — Suomi is Finnish for “homeland’’ — it’s now a Chippewa National Forest recreation area, known for its 21 miles of challenging ski trails.

A rest area marks the Laurentian Divide, a worn-away mountain range that now divides Minnesota's rivers, sending them north to Hudson Bay or south to the Gulf of Mexico. Farther along, motorists are directed to a scenic overlook on North Star Lake, in which weathered timbers from an old rail trestle provide shelter for muskie.

The villages have settled into middle age, having survived the logging era. Marcell still is a logging town; after the first growth was gone, in 1911-12, it was moved from Turtle Lake to the railroad tracks. In Bigfork, on the Big Fork River, a wooden river pig stands with hook in hand outside city hall; river pigs, dancing from log to log, averted logjams as the timber floated to the sawmill. Effie is at the end of the road, known for its giant mosquito and annual rodeo.

Edge of the Wilderness was Minnesota’s first to be designated a National Scenic Byway, but there are three others: the North Shore, the Great River Road and the Grand Rounds in Minneapolis. All four also are among the 18 Minnesota Scenic Byways, chosen for their scenic, cultural and historical value. A handy new guide from the Minnesota Office of Tourism provides maps of the routes.

Not all of them are as well known as the North Shore and Great River Road. Yet tucked along some of these lesser-known routes are some of Minnesota’s most delightful spots — Vining, for example, a tiny village that a local sculptor has furnished with a whole set of quirky scrap-metal pieces: a foot with an oversized big toe, a square knot, a 20-foot clothespin, a pliers gripping a cockroach and, my favorite, a coffee mug held up by a stream of molten java.

Vining is one of the stops on the Otter Trail, a 150-mile loop through a western Minnesota region that has Minnesota’s densest concentration of giant mascots, as well as two state parks, a picture-postcard mill and Inspiration Peak, the state’s second-highest point (see Otter trail country). It’s an area overlooked by many Minnesotans, even though Otter Tail County has more lakes — 1,048  — than another other county.

The Minnesota River Valley byway starts on fairly familiar territory — St. Peter, Mankato, New Ulm — but dips into more isolated parts of the lush river plain as it passes spots made prominent by the Dakota Conflict of 1862  — Fort Ridgely, Birch Coulee, the Lower Sioux Agency. Upstream, the river widens into Lac Qui Parle Lake, the sloughs of Big Stone Lake Wildlife Refuge and 26-mile-long Big Stone Lake, a tourist favorite in the days when tourists came by rail.

The Paul Bunyan byway jumps off from busy Minnesota 371, but then follows County Road 16, a pleasantly isolated road along the underbelly of the Whitefish Chain. The Glacial Ridge Trail is never far from I-94, but winds through three state parks and a lakes region often overlooked by those whose compass always is set on north.

In southeast Minnesota, the Historic Bluff Country byway follows the Root River Valley past Lanesboro, a beloved spot of those who have been there and, increasingly, a magnet for people from all over the nation. The Apple Blossom byway pulls drivers off the River Road and up to a ridge, where they’re rewarded with panoramic views of the river and, in May, of orchards engulfed in clouds of pink and white.

In the northwest, Waters of the Dancing Sky passes sunflower fields and Lake of the Woods on its way to the Rainy River on the Ontario border. And Veterans Evergreen Memorial, from Banning State Park to Duluth, is a peaceful alternative to Interstate 35.

All of these byways give motorists a good excuse to get off the beaten path.

“Minnesotans do have their familiar favorites they return to, but so much of the rest of the state is so beautiful,’’ says Joan Hummel of the Minnesota Office of Tourism, who edited the Minnesota Scenic Byways guide. “People are surprised when they get out and find these undiscovered places.’’

Trip Tips: Minnesota’s Scenic Byways

Minnesota has 22 scenic byways, and they provide enough scenery and historical interest for any Sunday driver.

For maps, see Minnesota's Scenic Byways. For a guide, call 651-296-5029, 888-868-7476.

The America’s Byways site, www.byways.org, provides information about byways in other states, including 10 in Iowa, two in Wisconsin, six in Michigan and seven in Illinois, including Historic Route 66.

In Minnesota, five of the routes also are national byways:

Historic Bluff Country: 88 miles from I-90 to from La Crescent to Dexter; the stretch east of Wykoff is most scenic. 800-428-2030, www.bluffcountry.com.

Edge of the Wilderness: 47 miles between Grand Rapids to Effie through Chippewa National Forest.

Minnesota River Valley: 300 miles from Belle Plaine to Browns Valley, on the South Dakota border. For a map of the byway and information on Dakota Conflict sites, call 888-463-9856, www.mnrivervalley.com. A bus tour of the byway is held every September.

Great River Road: 562 miles along the Mississippi, from its headwaters in Itasca State Park to the Iowa border, www.mnmississippiriver.com.

Grand Rounds: 53 miles in Minneapolis, along the chain of lakes and Mississippi River. It’s also great for bicycling; see Grand Rounds. 612-370-4969, www.minneapolisparks.org.

Three routes are national-forest scenic byways:

Avenue of the Pines: 46 miles from Deer River to Northome on Minnesota 46, through Chippewa National Forest, 218-335-8600.

Ladyslipper Scenic Highway: 28 miles from Cass Lake to Blackduck on county roads 10 and 39, through Chippewa National Forest, 218-335-8600.

Superior National Forest: 54 miles from Aurora to Silver Bay on county roads 110, 16, 16, 4 and 5.

One is an All-America Road:

North Shore: 154 miles, from Duluth to the Canadian border, 800-438-5884.

And the rest are state byways:

Apple Blossom: 17 miles along a ridge south of Winona, past Great River Bluffs State Park to La Crescent, 800-926-9480.

Otter Trail: 150-mile loop past Fergus Falls, Pelican Rapids, Battle Lake and Maplewood and Glendalough state parks; don’t miss Vining or Phelps Mill. For more, see Otter trail country.

Paul Bunyan: 54 miles on two loops through lake country north of Brainerd, through Crosslake and Crow Wing State Forest. 800-950-0291, www.paulbunyanscenicbyway.org

Glacial Ridge Trail: 245 miles around central Minnesota lakes country, passing four state parks on the route from Willmar to New London, Glenwood, Sauk Centre and Alexandria. 800-845-8747, www.glacialridgebyway.org. A Model T Tour of the byway is held in September.

Waters of the Dancing Sky: 229 miles from Hallock through Roseau, Warroad and Baudette to International Falls and Voyageurs National Park, passing Zippel Bay and Lake Bronson state parks. The parks and the stretch between Greenbush and Baudette are famous for June displays of orchids, including yellow moccasins and showy lady’s slippers. 800-382-3474, www.watersofthedancingsky.org. For more, see the story Waters of the dancing sky.

Veterans Evergreen Memorial: 50 miles from Banning State Park to Duluth along Minnesota 23.

Rushing Rapids: 9 very scenic miles from Carlton to Fond du Lac on Duluth’s west edge, through Jay Cooke State Park. This is an excellent alternate route into Duluth.

Shooting Star: 31 miles along Minnesota 56 in southern Minnesota, between I-90 to Le Roy past Lake Louise State Park. It’s known for its prairie wildflowers. 

Gunflint Trail: 57 miles from Grand Marais to road’s end at the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 800-338-6932, www.gunflint-trail.com.

Skyline Parkway: 25 miles on the ridgeline above Duluth, from Spirit Mountain to Hawk Ridge and the Lester River. Parts are hard to follow, so take a city map. See Duluth's Skyline Parkway.

Lake Country: 88 miles along busy Minnesota 34 from Detroit Lakes to Walker, with a spur on U.S. 71 from Park Rapids to Itasca State Park. Highways 29 and 26 through Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge, or the smaller roads east of U.S. 71, would be more scenic. 800-247-0054, www.lakecountryscenicbyway.com.

Highway 75, King of Trails: 414 miles for the stretch down Minnesota’s western flank; the route continues to the Gulf of Mexico. Minnesota towns on the highway hold their Fall Marketplace the second weekend of September, www.highway75.com.

St. Croix: 123 miles from Cottage Grove past St. Croix State Park.

Last updated on September 13, 2008