Black Beach

Several years ago, a new beach opened up to the public near Silver Bay, Minnesota. It’s called Black Beach.

Black Beach on Lake Superior.

It’s along the shores of Lake Superior and it’s made up of small black pebbles…so it looks like a black sand beach, thus the name. This is unusual for this area of Lake Superior. We’re used to seeing rocky shores and colored rocks, so this is a fun addition.

The icy shoreline of Black Beach.

We’ve never spent a lot of time on Black Beach…we just stop by on our way up the north shore. There is parking lot with vault toilets, the path leading to the beach and some picnic tables set back from the water. It is pretty, so it’s a fun stop. 

Ice boulders.

So, when we were staying up at a cabin near Two Harbors recently, we took a drive one morning, up Scenic Hwy. 61 and decided to stop at Black Beach to see if there was any white snow left on the black beach. 

This shows perspective on the size of these ice drifts.

Wow! Were we surprised! There were humungous ice drifts settled on the beach. 

A path through the ice formations.

As we walked out closer to the lake, we realized how large these ice drifts… ice chunks… ice boulders were.

Are we still in Minnesota? This is another view of the path through the ice formations

It was fun and amazing to walk up to the ice formations, and walk through a row of them. I can only imagine what it was like earlier this winter. This is March and they were melting in the 38* weather…icicles were forming on the bottoms of the masses, dripping water back into the lake. 

The icicles forming as they drip back into the lake.

In a small way, it reminded me of the sea caves we walked to several years ago near Bayfield, Wisconsin, when the DNR created a path on the frozen Lake Superior so folks could walk out to see the sea caves, usually only seen by kayakers on the open water. 

Gary walking towards the lake. The photo is deceiving. There is a big drop off to the beach at the edge of the ice, with ice packs below, lining the shore.

We are continually amazed at the variety of adventures we find on our trips to the north shore of Lake Superior…my happy place!

9 thoughts on “Black Beach”

    1. It was fun to discover the ice formations.
      We are grateful for our time on the north shore. We had a wonderful time, as usual, but we don’t take it for granted.
      The sky was blue and the temperatures were above average. 😉

    1. You can see Black Beach next time you go up to the north shore. It’s worth seeing.
      But you won’t see the ice formations in the summer! HA 😉

    1. They are huge, melting every day. I wonder how long it will take them to melt down.
      Remember the sea caves?

Comments are closed.