Gooseberry is one of Minnesota’s most visited state parks, highlighted by five dramatic waterfalls, camping on Lake Superior’s shore, and nearly 20 miles of hiking, biking, and skiing trails. Access to the falls couldn’t be easier, by means of the visitor center and Gateway Plaza. The striking visitor center, constructed almost entirely with recycled materials, includes a nature store and trail center packed with information about the park and area history. Keep in mind that the park’s popularity, especially the waterfalls, brings lots of people. Summer weekends sees visitors scattered all over the rocks like so many ants at a honeybee picnic, and it can be challenging just to get an unobstructed look at the falls. Take the time to see Upper Falls, too, or leave the crowds behind altogether with a short hike farther upstream to uncrowded Fifth Falls.

The beautiful Middle and Lower falls live up to their billing as the park’s main attraction. The river roars over rugged cliffs of billion-year-old volcanic bedrock in two giant stairsteps. The first tier, Middle Falls, drops in a wide curtain and eddies in small pools around giant lumps of stone. Lower Falls splits at a large island of rock and trees, plunging in two separate cascades to a large pool below. From here it meanders a short distance to Lake Superior. The river ultimately drops 60 feet over these two steps, sometimes in a frothy rage after spring snowmelt or heavy rain, other times in just a pleasant shower. Trails lead right to the falls, and when water level obliges you can walk out onto the rocks for an up-close experience not typically available at large waterfalls like this. The Falls Loop Trail follows the river to a footbridge crossing the river and a stellar view of both waterfalls in the gorge upstream. The River View Trail takes off from here and makes a short journey through lowland foliage to Agate Beach and fantastic views of Lake Superior. Look for herring gulls, loons, and bald eagles; spring and fall bring many species of migratory birds along this portion of the North Shore Flyway. Unique species of arctic-alpine plants live here as well, thriving in the distinct climate inspired by the big lake.

The main loop continues on a climb up the Gitchi Gummi Trail to the top of the ridge and shows off Middle Falls from a high overlook. At the highway footbridge, hike back across and take a right turn to Upper Falls, a made-to-order postcard setting. The falls thunder 30 feet in twin cascades over a shallow crescent of rock ledges nestled in a grove of emerald green cedar and pine dappled with birch and aspen. The main overlook offers a superb head-on view. A trail through the cedars, damp with mist from the falls, leads right to the crest where you can feel the water’s roar at your feet. Several ancient lava flows form the ledge here, the result of an unfathomable split in the earth along the present-day North Shore. On the return to the trailhead, hike past the distinctive masonry of the 300-foot-long Castle in the Park stone wall, built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps

Why this place matters

Despite its trampling and reshaping by humans, Gooseberry Falls State Park and adjacent regions provide home to the Arnica lonchophylla, a yellow-flowered member of the Aster species. Listed as a Minnesota threatened species, the flower grows nowhere else in the United States.