With a surface area of 51,230 square kilometres, Lake Superior is the largest lake in the world. Its rugged landscape, with towering hills and steep-walled valleys was created over more than two billion years by volcanic activity and earthquakes. Modified by glaciation, Lake Superior with its exposed Canadian Shield is blanketed with a variety of glacial sediments from sand/gravel outwash to young Cambrian sandstone. Even today, the wind, water and waves continue to shape the coastline as it has been for the last 10,000 years.

A host of plant and animal life lie in this transitional Great Lakes, St. Lawrence and Boreal Forest Region. The rugged topography and the harsh climate of the area influence the growth of vegetation. Arctic-Alpine plants linger from the ice age with a profusion of wildflowers in the spring and early summer. Wildlife include moose, white-tailed deer, woodland caribou, black bear, martin, beaver, otter, Canada lynx, red fox and timber wolf. For bird enthusiasts, great blue heron, common loon, bald eagle, osprey, hawks, peregrine falcon, warbler and the Canada goose, whose Ojibwa name is wawa can be observed.

Since about 9000 BC, Ojibwa people and their ancestors are known to have inhabited this region. Evidence is small habitation sites, pictographs, and the "Pukaskwa pits", depressions dug into cobble beaches, which may have been used as "vision" pits or shelters. More recently, voyageur encampments from the fur trade, abandoned logging depots, copper mines, isolated trappers cabins and shipwrecks are still evident.

A land that is rugged, weathered, full of history and inviting for discovery.

Lake Superior Trips