 Welcome to the beautiful North Shore of Minnesota. The North Shore of Lake Superior is one of America's best scenic drives. The North Shore Drive is 154 miles from Duluth to Grand Portage State Park at the border with Canada. The shore is home to eight states park with some of the most incredible natural resources in the area. Rocky cliffs, beaches, waterfalls, quaint harbor towns and much more. This makes for an incredible road trip. In this episode I will share with you some of the best places to see on this drive if you have only one day to explore. Our first stop is Duluth, the land where the water meets the sky. Duluth is the largest city along the North Shore and a beautiful port city that you shouldn't miss. One of the best sites in the city is the Lift Bridge at Canal Park. The bridge raises for ships entering from Lake Superior, ships of all sizes. If you are there at the right time you can even see 1,000 foot ships pass under which is incredible. There is a schedule on canalpark.com that you can check and time your visit accordingly. Duluth also has a maritime museum if you have more time to spend in the town. We just stopped by the North Shore Visitor Center. It's a small tiny blue building right outside of Duluth where you can stop by, ask your questions, ask for recommendations. They have so many maps that you can pick for free but I really like their mile by mile guide here in the North Shore in case you have more than one day to spare. Next stop is Two Harbors. Two harbors is located 30 minutes from Duluth and it's a beautiful town to stop by. It's known for being an iron ore shipping town and it was the state's first iron ore port in 1884. You can even walk to the waterfront to see one of their six dogs used for shipping iron ore. If you have time you can visit Two Harbors life station and tour the lighthouse. We just stopped by the lighthouse here in Two Harbors and apparently in order for you to go and tour it you will have to pay so we're going to skip for right now because regardless we're going in a little bit here to split rock lighthouse to check it out. But before that we had to stop at Luz Fish House to try some of their incredible word famous smoked fish. They have a variety of fish to choose from. I tried their smoked Alaska salmon and smoked shrimp and they both were so delicious. Next stop Gooseberry Falls State Park. The park is located in Silver Creek Township about 30 miles northeast of Two Harbors. The park surrounds the mouth of Gooseberry River and it has some really fun hiking trails for all levels but it's most known for its waterfalls. Here we are at Gooseberry Waterfalls in this state park along the North Shore. When you start at the visitor center there are a few trails that you can take and either go with the lower waterfall trail or the upper waterfall trail. Obviously if you want to have a complete full view of Gooseberry Waterfalls going to the lower waterfall is the way to go but this is a beautiful state park and I highly recommend stopping here. Split Rock Lighthouse. Split Rock Lighthouse is one of the most iconic landmarks in Minnesota. This lighthouse was built in 1910 as a response to the tragic storm of 1905, the Metafa storm during which 29 ships were lost or damaged on Lake Superior. The lighthouse operated for 36 years and was closed in 1969. Now it's one of the most photographed lighthouses in the country and it's open for visitors to tour and learn about its history. The views of Lake Superior from the lighthouse are breathtaking to say the least. It was fun to see locals and tourists alike enjoying water activities on a sunny day on the Great Lakes. There is also a museum next to the lighthouse where you can tour houses of families who lived around the lighthouse to operate it and maintain it. Take a walk and make your way to the bottom of the lighthouse for some incredible views. There it is, that's the Split Rock Lighthouse right behind me. Moly, these steps, they got me sweating. They're pretty steep and this is where the old trauma used to be so it was pretty neat to go down this path but I'm glad I had some water. Black Beach. This is a popular sandy beach on the shore of Lake Superior. This beach was formed from the mining facility next to it that kept dumping Takanai tailings into Lake Superior. Takanai is a low grade of iron ore. This formed the beautiful beach that's now open to the public and safe to swim in. This is a great place to go for a swim if you don't mind the cold waters of the Great Lakes. It is very cold. Oh my God, the sand here is amazing. It's all black. Alex is going for it. Now my friends, wraps up our adventure here in the North Shore. I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, give this video a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, this is Habiba, Alex is behind me and we are Reckon Girls.