Our Minnesota Highpointing page

Eagle Mountain, 2301 feet

Introduction

The Minnesota high point is Eagle Mountain, located at 47° 53' 56"N, 90° 33' 42"W, in Cook county. Its elevation is 2301 feet above sea level. I climbed it with my daughter, Krystyn and her dog Shads on May 25, 2002, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

I planned carefully for this trip, learning about the driving directions, the hiking portion, and what to wear. I wore a sweater, a jacket and my thick-soled outdoor tennis shoes. Either the jacket or the sweater would have been enough--with both I sweated too much and felt chilly at the summit when I took them off. I recommend a thick sole because of all the exposed sharp rocks and tree roots. There are also small streams on the steep part of the trail near the summit, which can be easily stepped through. Fortunately for us, there were no mosquitoes out this early in the season. It was an unusually wet spring, which tends to breed more of them, especially in shallow wetlands. Even so, we brought along a can of Off! and two water bottles each, which was just about right, as well as a package of crackers and some fruit treats.

There is another Eagle Mountain, just a couple of miles outside of Lutsen, at 47° 39' 52"N, 90° 42' 25"W, elevation about 1700 feet. In all my reading about trip reports to Minnesota's high point, I've never read that someone went to this peak instead. It could happen, though.

Approaches to Eagle Mountain Trailhead

There are two land routes to the trail head, one out of Grand Marais, the other out of Lutsen. (I got this from the North Shore Visitor page).

From Grand Marais: From Hwy 61 past Cascade State Park,
go northeast on Co. Rd. 7 to Co. Rd. 48,
go north on Co. Rd. 48 to Forest Rd. 158,
drive west on 158 until it intersects with Forest Rd. 153 to parking

From Hwy 61 in Lutsen, go north on the Caribou Trail (co. Rd. 4) 15 miles,
then east on Forest Rd. 153 for 4 miles to the parking area

We were on our way from Duluth to Thunder Bay, so we took the Lutsen route, planning to take the Grand Marais route out.

The road is paved for several miles and then turns to a well-maintained gravel road. This is a shot of County Road 4 a few miles past the end of the pavement. It is partly straight like this, and partly curvy, with some unexpected dips:

This is the sign that tells you you've made it to the parking lot.

Trails to Eagle Mountain

The Eagle Mountain trail is the most popular approach. It is 3.5 miles each way from parking lot to summit.

The lesser used trail is the Brule Lake Landing, access point 2.

Parking

The parking lot can accommodate at least 15 vehicles. It has an outhouse. We got there about 3 PM, and there were about 10 vehicles in the lot.

The Trail Head

At the east end of the parking lot is the information board. It contains a topographical map of the trail and permits to enter the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, a large forested and wetlands area, also including many of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. The permits allow parties of up to 9 people (larger groups make too much noise). I jotted down the information requested, and dropped the copy in the box, and kept the original with me as ordered. Enter the trail to the left of the board. (I snapped the picture of the kiosk after we got back, when it was getting dark )

I got help from another hiker about where to start and about filling out the permit.

The Trail

These signs are placed near the beginning of the trail (pictures taken on the way back):

This is the early part of the trail, which is mostly level, but does some up and down motion. There is some smooth ground, but there are a lot of sharp rocks and exposed tree roots.

This is one of the entry points to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, part of the Superior National Forest, a vast area of northeastern Minnesota set aside for enjoying nature, particularly canoeing. This point is about a mile into the route.

There are three (I think) board walks over swampy ground. Here's me having crossed one of them:

At that time, there was only one uprooted tree lying across the trail, a large one that either required crawling under or crawling over. Shads elected to walk under, but the rest of us crawled over it. There was also evidence of many other felled trees that were sawed off to allow passage (sorry, no picture).

We met several groups along the way up, including a man with five daughters (he was carrying one on his shoulder), a man with two sons, an older couple and a younger couple.

This is the western edge of Whale Lake, off to the right of the trail about two miles into the route:

Stepping over to the right as far as possible without falling into the lake shows two peaks, Eagle Mountain on the left, and an unnamed peak (elevation about 2222 feet) on the right.

The trail hugs the western edge of Whale lake for about half a mile, then the mountain begins and the lake curves off to the east.

Sometime I want to follow the trail to Brule Lake. I find it interesting that the trail goes to the east when the lake is to the northwest of the mountain. I presume it curves around. (see the 1:200,000 topozone map)

Just after the sign, the trail starts to go up, with an initial switchback. It maintains a relatively even slope throughout (see 1:25,000 topozone map). The trail is intuitive for most of the way, but does disappear for brief periods where small streams cross over, or where there is only rocks (keep going up, and if the way is passable, it's the trail).

We felt a few drops of rain, but not enough to turn back.

A few hundred yards before the summit is the best viewing. There is a cliff right there which surrounds over half the mountain, showing a nearby unnamed peak (elevation about 2110 feet) and Shrike Lake.

A little farther up, there appears a false summit, where the trail ends. The actual summit is about 100 feet to the right of the false summit on fairly level ground. Here's where I knew I lost the trail:

The Summit

The summit is a barely perceptible upwards trek from the false summit. We stayed there about 20 minutes (Yes, we picked up our trash). Despite meeting several other hikers on the trail, we encountered none at the top.

If one were to keep going in a line from the false summit through the summit, and down hill, he would find himself on Mountain 2222.

Just in case you can't read that, it says,

"When Newton H. Winchell, Minnesota's state geologist, and U.S. Grant II (the president's son) surveyed this area in the 1860s they concluded that a peak in the Misquah Hills was the state's highest point. Using an aneroid barometer, they set the elevation at 2,230 feet. Later comers argued that Eagle Mountain, which Winchell and Grant did not measure and which can be seen from the Misquah Hills, was higher. "In 1961, a United States Department of the Interior survey team remeasured, using aerial photographs and controlled benchmarks. They found Eagle Mountain's elevation to be 2,301 feet, making it Minnesota's highest point. They also determined that the first Misquah Hills peak is surpassed by another unnamed summit 2,266 feet above sea level. Located in Sec. 19 of T-63 R-1-W in the same western Cook County area. The states lowest point is Lake Superior, which has an elevation of 602 feet. "The igneous rock composing Eagle Mountain is as old as the Duluth Gabbro, which geologists estimate at over a billion years in age."

The 1911 version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Catholic Encyclopedia and even Park Maps.com also mentioned the unnamed 2230 foot Misquah Hill as the highest point. There are, in fact, at least four peaks between 2230 feet and 2300 feet in Cook County. Just north of the Misquah Hills chain is Winchell Lake, a long, narrow, deep lake, cliffed on the southern side.

The Geological marker is right next to the placque:

I didn't see any registration book, but I read a trip report by someone who did.

The Climb Down

As it was getting late, we hurried back to the van. We met only one upbound climber on the way down. We thought he might be staying overnight.

We got back to the trail head after a four-hour hike. There was only one other vehicle in the lot, presumably the night-time climber's. I told my wife that I would like to climb the highest points in other states, too. At that time, I had no knowledge that there was an organization of people who also wanted to do that, some of whom had finished all 50 states. I also did not realize that some of them are for experienced mountaineers. I'm not sure I want to go to that much effort.

The Route Out

We continued our drive back to the North Shore. I wanted to take the alternate route to Grand Marais, but didn't think I could find it in the dark, so we drove through rain back to Lutsen, later passing through Grand Marais and then on into Canada.

Our Tallies

Other Minnesota HP Trip Reports

Greg Slayden (June 26, 1989) | Donald Desrosiers (Oct, 1995) | Jay Tegeder (1997) | Scott Surgent (May 21, 1998) | Robert Broeking (June 1998) | Adam Roddy (Aug 9, 1998) | Alan Ritter (June 14, 1999) | Felix Liard (July 5, 1999) | Stephen Drake (Sep 4, 1999) | Roger Rowlett (Oct 8, 1999) | Kenneth H. Rohn (undated) | Edward Earl (Feb 18, 2001)

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