Gooseberry Falls nominated for USA Today best state park contest, fans urged to vote

Gooseberry Falls State Park has landed in USA TODAY 10Best’s reader-voted contest for best state park, putting one of Lake County’s biggest tourism draws back in the national spotlight just as voting stays open through May 11 at noon ET.

For people in and around Two Harbors, the nomination is more than a popularity contest. Gooseberry sits just north of town, borders Lake Superior on about 1,700 acres, and has long served as a gateway to the North Shore. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says it was the most visited state park in Minnesota for seven of the last 10 years and drew 758,417 visitors in 2024.

That kind of traffic is already a major force for the area, and a national win could amplify it. Even a modest 5% jump from the current visitation level would mean nearly 38,000 more visits, a surge that would ripple through parking lots, trailheads, shoreline access points and nearby businesses that depend on summer and fall travel. For Lake County, the upside of a national boost is obvious, but so is the strain on a park that already sees crowds year after year.

Park supervisor Nathan Springer said the appeal comes from Gooseberry’s shoreline setting, its five waterfalls and the way families keep returning across generations. The landscape, he said, feels unusually dramatic for Minnesota, with views that can resemble the West Coast or a mountain shoreline more than the Upper Midwest. Trails lead past the Upper, Middle and Lower Falls of the Gooseberry River, and the park remains a destination for hiking, skiing and biking as well as camping and visiting the interpretive center.

Gooseberry’s modern popularity is tied to a deeper history. The park opened in 1937, but development began in May 1934 when Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees, supervised by the National Park Service, started building the site. As many as 200 young men lived in the CCC camp behind the Upper Falls, and more than 80 handcrafted stone and log buildings, structures and objects still stand in the historic district. The visitor center adds displays and videos about the park, the Lake Superior watershed and the CCC legacy.

The contest is part of USA TODAY 10Best’s 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards, with winners set to be announced May 20. For Gooseberry Falls, the vote is also a test of how to promote a beloved North Shore landmark without losing sight of the wear that comes when the rest of the country is reminded just how popular it already is.