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| High Falls from Main Deck observation platform. Photo courtesy of Minnesota DNR. |
High Falls plummets 120-feet
over cliff on Pigeon River
Minnesota’s highest waterfall awaits day hikers at the end of the High Falls Trail at Grand Portage State Park.
The paved, handicap accessible walkway heads to a boardwalk with three observation decks for a 1.25-mile round trip hike.
To reach the waterfalls, from Duluth take Minn. Hwy 61 north. As the road reaches the U.S. Customs Station on the Canadian border, the park entrance is on the left/west. The entrance enters a parking lot with the trail leaving from the lot's northwest corner.
The trail parallels back channels of the Pigeon River, the main course of which forms the U.S.-Canadian border.
High Falls
In about 0.3 miles, the trail reaches a small 0.1-mile loop that takes hikers to the river’s shores.
The Pigeon River runs 31.2 miles east into Lake Superior. In pre-industrial times, the river was an important route connecting land west of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. Because of rapids and waterfalls, early traders and travelers had to portage nine miles around the river, leading to the park’s name, Grand Portage.
Once the side loop reconnects with the main trail, go right/west. In about 0.1 miles, it reaches a boardwalk that heads to viewing platforms overlooking High Falls.
The Pigeon River tumbles 120 feet over the falls, a shale rock cliff with a window through the stone wall. Rainbows often are visible in the falls’ mist.
There is some controversy over the bragging rights to the tallest waterfall in Minnesota. As part of High Falls technically is in Ontario, the 70-foot same-name High Falls on the Baptism River in Tettegouche State Park sometimes is advertised as “the highest waterfall entirely within Minnesota.”
Extending the hike
Returning from the falls to the main trail, hikers can extend their walk by taking the Middle Falls Trail. It heads 2.3 miles one-way (4.6 miles round trip) to Middle Falls, a smaller waterfall farther up the Pigeon River. Some will find the backcountry terrain challenging.
Alternately, just before returning to the parking lot, take the intersecting trail that goes left/east. It runs 0.2 miles (0.4 miles round trip) to picnic tables overlooking the Pigeon River and ends at a historic site commemorating the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which in 1842 established the part of the current border between the United States and British Canada.
The land making up the park actually is owned by the Grand Portage Indian Reservation and leased to the state. The park’s Welcome Center is an excellent location to learn about Ojibwe culture via a number of interpretive displays.
The land making up the park actually is owned by the Grand Portage Indian Reservation and leased to the state. The park's Welcome Center is an excellent location to learn about Ojibwe culture via a number of interpretive displays.
Read more about day hiking Northeast Minnesota in my Headin’ to the Cabin: Day Hiking Trails of Northeast Minnesota guidebook.
