Palisade Head

How to Get There

From Duluth, MN (54 mi): Take MN-61 E (North Shore Scenic Drive) northeast from Duluth approximately 54 miles to Palisade Head at milepost 57, just past Silver Bay, and turn left into the parking area.

Overview

Palisade Head is a large rock formation on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. It is within Tettegouche State Park but not contiguous with the rest of that park. Palisade Head is located at milepost 57 on scenic Minnesota State Highway 61 in Lake County, approximately 54 miles (86 km) northeast of Duluth and 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Silver Bay.

Geology

Palisade Head is formed from a rhyolitic lava flow which was extruded some 1.1 billion years ago. During the Mesoproterozoic era of the Precambrian eon, the continent spread apart on the Midcontinent Rift System extending from what is now eastern Lake Superior through Duluth to Kansas; this rifting process stopped before an ocean developed. A flow some 200 feet (60 meters) thick formed extremely hard volcanic rock which resisted a billion years of erosion which cut down surrounding formations. This formed both Palisade Head and Shovel Point, which is within the main part of Tettegouche State Park about two miles (three kilometers) to the east. The feature is a shallow headland, with Lake Superior to the southwest, southeast, and northeast. Its high point is over 300 feet (approximately 90 meters) above the level of the lake; the lakeside cliffs stand up to several hundred feet (60 meters) above water level.

Flora and fauna

The headland is covered by a mixed forest of white spruce, mountain ash, aspen, paper birch, and oak. Raptors can often be seen soaring over the cliffs. Peregrine falcons nest on Palisdade Head, Bald eagles nest in the area, and thousands of hawks of several species can be seen migrating along the shoreline in the fall.

It is a regional center for rock climbing with many routes up the lakeshore cliffs. The majority of the rock climbing routes range from 5.8 to 5.12 on the Yosemite Decimal System grading scale, with a few routes in the 5.13 range. Most of the climbing routes require traditional climbing gear to protect the climber.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Palisade Head", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0