Paradise Beach
Minnesota
Find: Lake Superior Agates, exceptional amygdaloidal basalt
GPS: 47.81065, -90.07425
Nearest city: Thunder Bay, ON, Canada
Recommended Vehicle: Any
Summary:
I visited Paradise Beach at the same time as the Superior Trailhead. The spots are less than a couple miles apart and you can freely walk around the whole beach up here. If you’re looking for Lake Superior Agates, they seem to have ‘hotspots’ where they were more common than others.
Paradise Beach has its own little parking turnout, but there are a seemingly infinite amount of access points in this area of the North Shore.
Video Guide
Jump to the 5th timestamp in the video to see Paradise Beach. All the different spots up till the end of the video are within a couple miles of Paradise Beach. You can even walk between them if you’re up for a long hike, which I did later in 2024.
If I could only bring 3 tools…
Chest Waders
Chest waders were the single best investment I made for exploring the shores of Lake Superior.
Agate Scoop
An agate scoop is helpful for both keeping dry and picking up rocks faster. You don’t need a fancy one. Mine is a golf club welded to a kitchen scoop.
Classifier
A classifier is helpful if you’re a fan of small agates and stones. One with a larger, 1-inch mesh would be what I’d pick.