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.
Photos from here on down are from our 2023 Trip: Beautiful amygdaloidal basalt or "Galaxy Stone"
I believe this is amethyst. It has a purple-to-red color when shined with a flashlight.
Many of these "almost agates" can be found up here. They're very quartz-dense, but lack true banding.
See how the place got its name?
I think this is magnetite, which is a less common find on the Minnesota side of the Lake.
An agate in matrix, located directly in the bedrock.
This is one of the wackier things I've ever pulled from the Lake. I think my brother has this one in his collection now. Hi Sean.
A vibrant orange stripe on a seam agate.
The matrix of this one is actually oolitic hematite jasper!
This was the calmest I've ever seen the waves here. In my other visits to Paradise Beach, they were powerful and came with a riptide.
A striking stone with colors that remind me of a Red Bull Formula 1 car.
A seam agate - this one had seam exposed around the entirety of the stone.
You'll never convince me the big ones are found on the shore.
And a new friend.