A trek along the 8.5-mile Grand Portage Trail is a marvelous Minnesota hiking adventure that rewards you with both stunning natural beauty and trip back in time to the area’s human history. The trail is the namesake of the national monument, a state park, and the community of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa whose land the portage trail bisects.
Today, the Grand Portage - or Gichi Onigamiing (“great carrying place”) in Anishinaabemowin - begins at the national monument of the same name on Lake Superior.
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The trail was long used by Native American peoples of the area and, later, fur trading voyageurs who made the overland trek from Fort Charlotte on the Pigeon River to the Northwest Company outpost on Lake Superior.
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The entire trail is now part of Grand Portage National Monument.
Jamie Wellik/AllTrails The monument, itself, is a joint venture between the National Park Service and the Grand Portage Band.
The first portion of the trail gains several hundred feet of elevation, as it traverses the rugged hills above Lake Superior.
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Navigating these hills was a challenge for generations of Native Americans and fur traders.
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The second portion of the trail negotiates marshes, bogs, and swamps in the uplands.
Dave Hanna/AllTrails Those who wish to avoid one section of the trail or the other other may start at a trailhead off of old Highway 61. This is the approximate midpoint of the trail.
To help you to negotiate the wetlands, the Park Service has installed boardwalks.
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And bridges.
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The trail ends at the Pigeon River, which now demarcates the border between Minnesota (i.e., the United States) and Canada.
Jordan Dietrich/AllTrails Downstream of this point, the river tumbles down toward Lake Superior in a series of rapids and waterfalls, including 100-plus-foot High Falls. Hence, the Grand Portage.
Fort Charlotte, a fur trading outpost built in 1789, used to stand on the site.
NorthernExpat/TripAdvisor Today, all you’ll find there is a campsite with two tent platforms and steps down to a canoe landing on the Pigeon River.
Be sure to spend some time at the national monument visitor center to learn more about the area’s history. Afterward, head up toward Grand Portage State Park, and hike to the Pigeon River’s High Falls to get a glimpse of what the Grand Portage sought to avoid.
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Robert W./TripAdvisor
Jamie Wellik/AllTrails
The monument, itself, is a joint venture between the National Park Service and the Grand Portage Band.
NorthernExpat/TripAdvisor
AC97/TripAdvisor
Dave Hanna/AllTrails
Those who wish to avoid one section of the trail or the other other may start at a trailhead off of old Highway 61. This is the approximate midpoint of the trail.
Jordan Dietrich/AllTrails
Downstream of this point, the river tumbles down toward Lake Superior in a series of rapids and waterfalls, including 100-plus-foot High Falls. Hence, the Grand Portage.
Today, all you’ll find there is a campsite with two tent platforms and steps down to a canoe landing on the Pigeon River.
Have you hiked the Grand Portage? What other trails make for marvelous Minnesota hiking adventures?
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Address: Grand Portage National Monument, 170 Mile Creek Rd, Grand Portage, MN 55605, USA
