The stamp sands at Gay are what's left of the copper ore that was processed at the nearby Mohawk Stamp Mill. In the early 1900's, the Mohawk Mining Company built the stamp mill to process ore from their mines to the northwest. After the copper was liberated from the ore, the left over stamp sands were dumped and piled up in Lake Superior. Now over a century later they've migrated miles to the southwest as lake currents move them. Because of this and the toxins found in the sa

Perhaps one of the hardest places to get to in the Keweenaw, Keystone Bay is a solid hour's drive down less-than-maintained dirt roads and logging two-tracks. And that's on top of however long it takes you to get to the end of US-41. It's entirely worth the journey though, and I'd say this is one of my favorite places to camp in the area. The bay consists of a mostly sand beach over much of its length, with the eastern end of it turning to rocks after Union Creek. There are t

A short drive and hike east of Copper Harbor is Horseshoe Harbor, a rock beach-turned-bay by prominent outcrops of conglomerate rock. The beach area is beautiful in its own right, but walking along the conglomerate mounds offers a fantastic view of Lake Superior, and if you're lucky, the Northern Lights. The south side (near the beach) of this outcrop offers great wind protection and easy access to firewood makes this location a fantastic camping spot, particularly if you're

Built in the late 1800's, the 14 Mile Point Lighthouse offered guidance to passing ships from the shores of 14 Mile Point until the 1950's when it was decommissioned and sold privately. The lighthouse caught fire in 1984 and what remains of it are the lighthouse's brick walls and metal cupola. Other surviving buildings are the brick signal house and a white wooden structure. Though much of the grounds have been overgrown with vegetation over the years, there's still a lot of

Situated towards the north end of Misery Bay, Agate Beach is on the rockier side with fine sand overlain by rocks brought up by Lake Superior. As the name suggests, this is one of the prime beaches in the area to look for agates after storms or when the ice melts. To get here from Houghton, head west downtown, through the yooper loop and west on M-26. When you reach Toivola, take a right onto Misery Bay Road. Continue 5.9 miles and turn right onto Agate Beach Road. In 1 mile

Contrary to the name, this is one of the nicest beaches in the area. From where you park, the beach is beautiful fine sand that transitions to stone and then sandstone bedrock as you walk west (above). To the northeast, the beach continues for miles, though there are tons of house right on the beach in that direction. I've heard that towards the northern end of the beach is a good place to look for agates after a storm though. The area to the east however provides a beautiful

Eagle River Falls are one of the many roadside waterfalls you'll encounter while driving around. These are rather impressive as they empty into a gorge which flows directly into Lake Superior. There is also a nice stone beach at the mouth of the Eagle River where the gorge empties out. There are a couple large basins in the rock itself, though I'm not sure whether these are natural or not. At one time this waterfall was used to power a factory of some sorts. The remaining woo

One of the more unusual entries in the Keweenaw's history is that of the Keweenaw Rocket Range. The facility was used from 1964 to 1971 by NASA and the University of Michigan as a launch site for meteorological research rockets. The bulk of these launches were small, though the site did see the launching of ~30 foot Nike Apache rockets. Today the only remnants of the facility are a concrete pad, a bent rail and a marker commemorating what research was done here 50 years ago.

McClain State Park is a beach and campground on the north shore of the Portage Canal's northern mouth. I've never camped here before, but as you can imagine from the above picture, I like it for other reasons. This is the best place (from Houghton at least) to come watch the Northern Lights on short notice. While breakers is okay for this, the lighthouse at the end of the pier obstructs your view a bit. At McClain the beach is out of view of the lighthouse and you can get som

Also known as North Canal Township Park, this is one of two beaches at the north mouth of the Portage Canal, the other being at McClain State Park. The cool thing about this beach in particular is that you can drive your car right up onto it. Due to its accessibility, it's not unusual to see bonfires all the way down the beach on summer nights. If you have a saw or axe, you can easily find enough wood for your fire by looking for downed trees in the clear cut right before you