Classic Roads: Superior National Forest Scenic Byway

Want a feel for what it’s like to ride to the Arctic Circle, but you’re not ready (or willing) to commit to a 5000-mile, out-and-back journey across the vast Yukon Territory? Head to northern Minnesota and explore the Superior National Forest Scenic Byway instead.

Covering over three million acres, the Superior National Forest forms the southernmost edge of North America’s expansive boreal forest biome. Its eponymous byway cuts through a magnificent and almost entirely unbroken stretch of this national forest. 

Along its length, the road passes acres upon acres of pine and mixed hardwood forest that provides perhaps the best approximation of the Yukon Territory available anywhere in the lower 48 states.

Stretching 65 miles east-to-west from the Lake Superior coast to the interior logging outpost of Aurora, the byway begins in the “taconite town” of Silver Bay—a company town founded in 1954 to support the massive Northshore Mining facility located nearby. The road begins to rise almost immediately from Silver Bay, climbing upward onto the iron-rich Mesabi Range that makes this area so valuable to the American steel industry.