Best 100 Miles: Scoville Point Loop, Isle Royale National Park, MI

These 4 miles of rugged coastline are among the best 100 miles of trail in the whole national park system.

Photo: Sanya Kushak via Getty Images

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Scoville Point, Isle Royale NP. Photo: Aaron Peterson

4 miles / Coasting

Take everything we love about Upper Midwest hiking—serene forests, rocky bluffs, the soundtrack of howling wolves and lilting loons, and above all, those glorious lakes—turn it up to 11, and you have Isle Royale. The island’s charms are in full force on its northeastern tip, where the trail hugs the shoreline for constant lake views. It’s here, where dry land’s victory over the water’s countless incursions of bays, inlets, and waves never seems totally assured, that you’ll best appreciate the drama of this rugged refuge.

Start on the Stoll Memorial Trail and hike east through the spruce-fir woods to the stony finger of Scoville Point for horizon-gazing across Lake Superior. Look for moose on the return hike along Tobin Harbor, a sheltered cove sprinkled with evergreen-furred islands of its own.

Trailhead 48.103765, -88.567016
Total hike 4 miles
Camping None on this route
Info nps.gov/isro

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From 2022