M-26 from Eagle River to Eagle Harbor

Best U.P. beaches!

At Phoenix, M-26 turns west for about two miles, following the Eagle River to the village of the same name. Then it goes east along the Lake Superior shore to Copper Harbor. Beginning at Eagle River M-26 is one of the most idyllic highway landscapes in the United States. From here to Copper Harbor, the Lake Superior shoreline looks a lot like Maine - only without the summer crowds. The narrow, twisting highway does have summer traffic, however, especially in the afternoon.

The western upper Keweenaw shoreline has both sandy beach and this dark volcanic rock which is over a billion years old. The rock slants down toward Lake Superior and back up again at Isle Royale some 45 miles to the northwest. It's the result of a huge rift that formed Lake Superior and led to some 20 volcanic eruptions that also brought huge copper deposits to the surface.

Rocky shores and islets are interrupted by occasional crescent bays and beaches - some sandy, some rocky. Roadside parks have benches, picnic tables, and occasional gazebos. The Keweenaw Road Commission's tidy rustic signs hanging from brown cedar posts point out historic and scenic highlights. On the opposite, uphill side of the road, trails climb into ferny-floored forests of pine, balsam, and hardwoods.

Here, and at many sunny areas of birch and aspen in the Keweenaw, the landscape looks amazingly like Scandinavia. Thimbleberry bushes, with their velvety, maple-like leaves and bright red summer berries, border many roads and cover open woods. One house advertises "Thimbleberry Jam for Sale." The intensely flavored spread is locally prized. The Jam Lady here is now a man, who has taken over his late wife's business. In a blind taste test at an Upper Peninsula Tourism & Recreation conference, his jams were judged best.

M-26 curls around Cat Harbor, just west of Eagle Harbor.

Signs sometimes point out the paths to waterfalls, formed as short creeks and rivers come cascading down to Lake Superior from the peninsula's high spine.

Sand Dunes Drive is the name of the lovely eight-mile stretch of M-26 between Eagle River and Eagle Harbor. It parallels the sandy beach of the Great Sand Bay. Frequent pullovers encourage motorists to get out and take a swim or walk down the beach. The tilted shelf of volcanic crust drops off so rapidly under water that the bay is 1,300 feet deep. On the opposite side of the road is the steep, dark, rocky forest, carpeted in pine needles.

Great Lakes Waterfalls & Beyond

Jacobs Falls, next to the Jam Pot, flows right next M-26. Weirdly, a motel once straddled Jacobs Creek on the other side of the highway. But in the 1950s, a beaver dam far to the east near the creek's source at Meadow Lake burst. The resulting tidal wave of water destroyed the motel.

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