Best Hikes in Minnesota

Minnesota's ranked summits cluster mostly in the North Shore Highlands of Cook and Lake counties — the Misquah Hills and Gunflint Trail country inside Superior National Forest, on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Nine of the fifteen sit within about 43 miles of the group's high point, Eagle Mountain, which at 2,300 feet is Minnesota's official state high point and sits only about 12 miles from the state's lowest ground, the shore of Lake Superior itself. Four more scatter individually across the rest of the state rather than clustering: Pike Mountain, near Ely in the same Superior Upland country, sits about 90 miles west; Big Thunder Peak, in Itasca County's Sugar Hills, about 155 miles farther; Height of Land Lookout, in Clearwater County near the Mississippi River's headwaters, about 235 miles out; and Inspiration Peak, in Otter Tail County, about 266 miles southwest — popularly but incorrectly described in Minnesota tourism writing as "one of the state's highest points," despite sitting nearly 550 feet below Eagle Mountain. The group's two actual farthest entries sit almost 400 miles from Eagle Mountain in the opposite corner of the state: Jasper Peak and Eagle Rock, in the Sioux quartzite outcrop country around Jasper and Luverne, in Pipestone and Rock counties near the South Dakota border. Honeymoon Bluff's 0.3-mile out-and-back is the shortest hike in the group; Big Thunder Peak's 7.8-mile out-and-back is the longest. 7 more Minnesota summits are already queued in the database — these 15 are simply the ones with a confirmed route and elevation profile today.