The ultimate dog-friendly road trip on Minnesota's North Shore from Duluth to Grand Marais

A few weeks ago, I set out with the intention of writing an itinerary for the ultimate dog-friendly vacation on the Minnesota North Shore .

Turns out, that's not as easy as I thought.

Not for a lack of writing material, either.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE FROM OUTKICK OUTDOORS No, the challenge I ran into was that I couldn't fit all the outdoor adventures the area had to offer into the measly three days I planned to visit.

Not a bad problem to have.

Every summer, my husband and I visit my mother-in-law at her snowbird summer home in Minocqua, Wisc.

During that trip, we like to take a few days to drive up to Lake Superior and see what kind of hiking we can find.

In 2024, we explored the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Last year, it was the Apostle Islands at the tippy top of Wisconsin.

YOU DON'T NEED A KAYAK TO APPRECIATE NORTHERN WISCONSIN'S APOSTLE ISLANDS This year, we figured we'd try Minnesota.

So I booked us a little Airbnb right on the lakeshore in Tofte, we threw our packs, our boots and our German Shepherd in the truck, and away we went.

Admittedly, before this trip, I knew nothing about the stretch of land between Duluth and the Canadian border — aside from the fact that it's very cold in the wintertime, and I imagined every guy up there probably looked something like the Brawny Man.

So I relied on my old friend Google (and my very helpful Nightcaps readers) to build our itinerary.

Did you know there are eight state parks in that 150 miles of shoreline? EIGHT.