Lake County's Best Waterfalls and Short Hikes Along the North Shore

Lake County, the stretch of Minnesota's North Shore that takes in state parks like Gooseberry Falls, Temperance River, and Tettegouche alongside iconic sites such as Split Rock Lighthouse, packs more waterfalls and short trails into a single county than almost anywhere else in the state. Whether you have two hours or a full weekend, the options here range from thundering roadside cascades to quiet gorges where you might hike an entire loop without passing another soul.

Gooseberry Falls State Park

Few introductions to the North Shore hit harder than Gooseberry Falls, which is widely described as the gateway to the North Shore for good reason. The park delivers a concentrated burst of everything that makes this stretch of Lake Superior shoreline worth the drive: spectacular waterfalls, a dramatic river gorge, the Lake Superior shoreline itself, Civilian Conservation Corps log and stone structures, and north woods wildlife woven throughout.

The river's Upper, Middle, and Lower Falls are the headliners. Standing near the gorge, you can hear the thunderous roar of the Gooseberry River as it rages through a rocky chasm, a sound that tends to stop first-time visitors mid-sentence. But there is a fourth stop worth the extra effort: the Fifth Falls, reachable by hiking or skiing through a forest of evergreens, aspen, and birch. The park also supports camping with modern campsites, picnicking, and easy access to both the Lake Superior shoreline and the Gooseberry River for those who want to linger after the hike.

Tettegouche State Park

Tettegouche earns its reputation as a hiker's paradise through sheer variety. The park's trail network overlooks the Sawtooth Mountains and winds down to walk-in-only inland lakes, a combination that rewards both the casual walker and the half-day hiker looking for genuine solitude. Above it all, Shovel Point delivers spectacular overlooks framed by rocky, steep cliffs and inland bluffs that drop toward Lake Superior.

The park's signature waterfall is the 60-foot High Falls of the Baptism River, the tallest waterfall fully within Minnesota's borders and a destination in its own right. For those who want to extend the trip into an overnight, the historic Tettegouche Camp is available to visitors who want to stay the night, making this one of the few parks in the region where you can combine a late-afternoon waterfall hike with a morning walk to the Sawtooth Mountain overlooks the following day.

Split Rock River Falls

Split Rock Lighthouse is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the United States, and most visitors stop, take their pictures, and move on. What many miss is that the Split Rock River running nearby holds a genuinely beautiful 20-foot waterfall located along a section of the Superior Hiking Trail. If you want a unique waterfall experience without the foot traffic that clusters near the North Shore's busiest sites, Split Rock River Falls is worth seeking out.

At the state park, the Split Rock River Loop Trail offers a close-up view of the river gorge and the waterfalls. This is not a groomed, flat boardwalk: sturdy hiking boots are recommended to access the cascades on the Split Rock River. The loop qualifies as one of the more satisfying half-day hikes in this part of the county, giving you the lighthouse's scenery on the bluff and the gorge's intimacy below it.

Caribou Falls

A few miles up the shore, Caribou Falls rewards hikers with one of the more photogenic approaches on the entire North Shore. The moderate to easy 1.5-mile hike begins along the Superior Hiking Trail and follows the Caribou River, rolling with mild inclines and declines that give way to scenic views of the river and gorge. The trail eventually arrives at a set of wooden stairs leading down to the falls, where you can position yourself at the water's edge for unobstructed photographs.

After descending to the water, the stairs bring you back up to a junction where you can either continue along the Superior Hiking Trail for views of Crystal Creek or return directly to the parking lot. The hike is short enough for most fitness levels and long enough to feel like a genuine outing rather than a roadside stop.

Kawishiwi Falls

Not every Lake County waterfall sits along Highway 61. Kawishiwi Falls, pronounced Ki-WISH-i-wee, sits within the Superior National Forest near Ely in Fall Lake Township, a corner of the county that draws a different kind of visitor: paddlers, backcountry hikers, and people who come to Ely specifically to disappear into the landscape for a few days.

The falls flow from the dammed Garden Lake into Fall Lake, a hydrological detail that gives the site a slightly different character from the free-running river falls elsewhere in the county. Parking is located six miles east of Ely on the north side of Fernberg Road, and from there, a loop trail just short of one mile winds through the woods to the falls, making this one of the most accessible backcountry-feeling hikes in the region. The Kawishiwi River itself is also a well-known waterway for kayakers, and the surrounding trail network draws hikers who want to extend the day.

Pipestone Falls and the BWCA

Further into northern Lake County, Pipestone Falls and Newton Falls (also called Upper Pipestone) are associated with the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, placing them in a different category from the roadside and trailhead-accessible waterfalls described above. Access to these falls typically requires paddling into the BWCA rather than arriving by trail from a parking lot, which makes them a destination for a canoe trip rather than an afternoon hike. Visitors planning a BWCA route in this part of the county should verify current permit requirements and entry point logistics with the Superior National Forest before setting out.

Practical notes

A few details hold across most of these sites. Hiking boots are explicitly recommended at Split Rock River, and the same logic applies at Caribou Falls and Tettegouche, where trails involve uneven rock and sometimes slick surfaces near the water. Gooseberry Falls and Tettegouche both offer overnight options, whether modern campsites or the historic Tettegouche Camp, for visitors who want more than a day trip. For Kawishiwi Falls, the drive from Two Harbors to Ely adds considerable time, so building that stop into a broader Ely-area visit makes the most sense logistically.

The North Shore's waterfall season peaks with snowmelt in late spring, when the rivers run at full volume, but each of these sites has something to offer across the warmer months. The trails along the Superior Hiking Trail, including the Caribou Falls approach and the Split Rock River Loop, are navigable through fall foliage season as well, when the birch and aspen on the inland stretches rival anything else in the state.