Arrowhead Trail

3 photos · 2022

3 photographs tagged Arrowhead Trail, 2022.

Related: Cook County Minnesota Autumn Grand Marais Cabin Colors
Dirt road through northern Minnesota forest displaying autumn foliage with yellow and red trees in distant fog.
The Arrowhead Trail is a roughly 20-mile gravel road, designated Cook County Road 16, running north from Hovland on Lake Superior's North Shore to the Ontario border at the Pigeon River. The route cuts through the Superior National Forest, passing stands of aspen, birch, and white and red pine mixed with maple that turn color each September and October. It's maintained as a low-traffic forest road rather than a state highway, popular with anglers heading to backcountry lakes and with fall-color drivers making the trip up from Highway 61.

Gravel Road Through Fall Foliage, Arrowhead Trail, Minnesota

Gravel road through northern Minnesota forest in autumn with yellow larch and evergreen trees.
The Arrowhead Trail runs roughly 27 miles north from Minnesota Highway 61 at Hovland to South Fowl Lake on the Canadian border. Most of the route is unpaved, passing through the Superior National Forest and skirting the eastern edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Cook County maintains the gravel surface, which sees heavy use by hunters, anglers, and leaf-peepers each fall as sugar maples and aspen along the corridor turn color. The road ends at a boat landing on South Fowl Lake, one of the closest public access points to Canada in this part of the state.

Fall Colors Along the Arrowhead Trail, Cook County

A cabin on McFarland Lake surrounded by birch and conifer trees in autumn foliage, northern Minnesota.
McFarland Lake sits along the Arrowhead Trail, a county road in Cook County near Grand Portage in far northeastern Minnesota. The lake lies close to the Canadian border and the eastern edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, an area popular for canoe access points and backcountry paddling routes. Cabins along this stretch of the Arrowhead Trail are mostly private, seasonal retreats built for fishing and access to the surrounding Superior National Forest.

Lakeside Cabin, McFarland Lake, Arrowhead Trail, Minnesota

Built in Minneapolis

Minneapolis Photographer

An ongoing archive of work.

© 1996–2026 Chad Davis