Upper Falls at Judge CR Magney State Park
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Judge Magney State Park Overview
Judge Magney State Park is the second to last MN State Park as you drive north from Duluth to Canada along Lake Superior’s North Shore on MN-61 (Grand Portage being the last one before the Canadian Border). There are five other awesome parks between Duluth and Judge Magney (Gooseberry, Split Rock Lighthouse, Tettegouche, Temperance River, and Cascade River), so why drive 122 miles (and back)? Within Judge Magney, you will find Devil’s Kettle - this incredible split waterfall where half of the water tumbles out of sight down a deep pothole. Some waterfalls are worth the extra effort to get to, and this is one of them.
Until 2018, it wasn’t definitively known where the water went after it falls down the pothole. There were stories about throwing ping pong balls into the water and never seeing them again. Some ideas were a bit outrageous- perhaps the water somehow flowed north to Canada, or maybe out to Lake Superior? When we first visited in 2016, officially it was not known where the water we were watching fall actually ended up. We stared at this waterfall with an extra bit of wonder. Researchers eventually did some measurements on flow rate before and after the waterfall, found them negligibly different, and concluded the water must return back to the Brule River downstream of the waterfall, from underground. A little bit of a letdown when we’ve visited this waterfall after this discovery - our imaginations were much more creative than reality.
Judge Magney is a smaller State Park with just one parking lot, which I’ve marked with a red star on the map below. There isn’t a Visitor Center, but there may be Park Rangers at a trailer during the camping season. If Park Rangers are not available, there should be a kiosk with envelopes to put money in for parking, if you don’t have a MN State Park Pass.
This post stands on its own, but it is a part of a larger network of posts I’ve written regarding things to do along Minnesota’s North Shore. This is a link to my full North Shore Guide for anyone interested. It’s an external link so you won’t lose your spot. I will also re-post this link at the end.
Hiking to Devil’s Kettle
The trail to Devil’s Kettle is an out-and-back 2.0 mile trail with an elevation gain of 400ft. The hardest part of this trail are the 175 steps as you get close to the falls. Along this trail, you will also encounter Upper Falls. In general, I’m not very impressed with our state’s originality when it comes to naming waterfalls, but some of them genuinely confuse me. Upper Falls is actually downstream of Devil’s Kettle, so you will see this one first.
Hiking map of Judge Magney State Park - Parking is marked by the red star. The trail to Upper Falls and Devil’s Kettle is marked in green.
Due to the distance from Duluth, Judge Magney is not a State Park we visit very often. Our first time here was in May 2016 when my husband and I were training for a Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim hike in the Grand Canyon. We started our day at the Kadunce River Trailhead of the Superior Hiking Trail, and we hiked our way into Judge Magney. There is a parking lot in Judge Magney, and that’s a better idea for most people (including us on our return trips after). I will include a trail review of the Superior Hiking Trail between Kadunce River and Judge Magney at the end, for anyone interested.
Brule River - Judge Magney State Park
The best part about being just 26 miles south of the Canadian Border in a small State Park tucked to the side of the highway is that there will not be crowds of people. This is a nice hike - long enough to relax, quiet enough to enjoy the sound of the moving water along the Brule River, and not so far from Grand Marais where there is fantastic pizza waiting for you at Sven and Ole’s.
Trail to Upper Falls and Devil’s Kettle
You can see that the trail initially ascends from the parking lot, and then it will come back down to the river as you get closer to Upper Falls.
Brule River near Upper Falls
The reason to hike this trail is Devil’s Kettle, but I enjoyed Upper Falls just as much.
Upper Falls - Judge Magney State Park
The trail offers fantastic views of Upper Falls. There is a perfect rock for pictures, and we turned around for awhile and enjoyed the mist on our faces. I would suggest bringing a tripod for pictures as there likely won’t be anyone else on the trail at the same time.
Upper Falls
Hiking isn’t just a spring, summer, fall thing. Try it in the winter too. I find frozen waterfalls to be incredible. Somehow the force of gravity has lost, and water is suspended in place mid-fall, while more water roars underneath the ice. If you are winter hiking, this is where I would suggest stopping. Devil’s Kettle is hard to see if there’s much snow anyway, and there are some wicked steps that when combined with snow, ice, and gravity could lead to some unfortunate outcomes.
Winter hiking at Upper Falls
This was an extremely cold day, with highs below zero. With the right jacket, snowpants, hats, and gloves though, moving around in the snow actually makes it pretty easy to stay warm. My son was just reminding me the other day about “that hike we went on when it was so cold but we were so hot.” That was this day. As long as it isn’t too windy, winter hiking can be quite fun.
Winter hiking at Judge Magney
The main difference about taking a trip to hike in the winter is that it gets dark really early, and you will need to fill some time in your evening, unless you plan to hike under a full moon or with a headlamp. If you want ideas to bribe your kids to go for a hike in the snow with you, check out the Edgewater Hotel in Duluth. While the rooms aren’t amazing, the waterpark is awesome and a perfect way to fill the space between supper and bedtime. Just pay attention to which room you book. Some rooms require walking outside to get to the waterpark - this would be the opposite of winter hiking - and would be incredibly cold.
Warm clothes, spikes or Yaktrax, and hiking poles are common gear for winter hiking
We’d been here before, so I knew about the 175 steps to get to Devil’s Kettle, but this was my first time dealing with 175 steps and a ton of snow. Going up in the winter is fine, but going down is sketchy at best. Really not wanting to slip and fall down these steps, we eventually gave up trying to do this safely. We sat down, and just slid on our butts all the way down. We made a ton of noise as we slid down the steps but most of it was due to our laughter. There was so much snow, we hardly noticed that we were sliding down steps. And luckily, none of us got hurt at the bottom.
There are 175 steps along the trail to Devil’s Kettle
In the winter, climbing up steps is easier than going down. In this case, we simply gave up, and slid down…
No sled, no worries - just get your penguin on and have some fun sliding down the hiking trail
At the end of the steps is the long anticipated Devil’s Kettle…and I’ll be honest, this isn’t near as impressive when it’s frozen…
Devil’s Kettle - January 2019 - I am a fan of trees of course, but this tree keeps growing and growing and each time we return, more of the waterfall is unfortunately blocked.
This is what Devil’s Kettle looks like without snow, and it’s pretty awesome. The only downside to this waterfall is that tree that has started to grow in the way.
I don’t know how people were able to throw ping pong balls into the pothole. This is as close to the falls as we were able to get.
Hiking SHT between Kadunce River and Judge Magney
The hike between Kadunce River and Judge Magney State Park along the Superior Hiking Trail is 19 miles out-and-back with an elevation gain of about 1900ft. If you are looking for a tough hike in MN, this one qualifies.
The Superior Hiking Trail between Kadunce River and Judge Magney State Park is marked in blue. Parking lots are marked with red stars.
As I mentioned above, in the spring of 2016, we were training for a Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim hike in the Grand Canyon. And the best way to practice for a big hike is by doing a big hike. We don’t have anything near as challenging in Minnesota as the Grand Canyon, but our goal on this day was simply to see what it was like to hike over 20 miles in a day, to assess what we didn’t yet know about hiking long distances in an environment safer than the Grand Canyon, and to figure out what we actually needed to carry on our backs for a full day hike. We picked this particular trail due to its length, that it was ranked as one of the hardest sections of the Superior Hiking Trail, and to see Devil’s Kettle in Judge Magney.
The trailhead for Kadunce River is right across MN-61 from Lake Superior. We stopped at the lake for a peak of the shore before starting our hike
Unless you are hiking the full Superior Hiking Trail, or similarly training yourself, I wouldn’t recommend this entire trail. But doing a shorter out-and-back from the Kadunce River to the waterfall would be a fantastic way to spend an hour. I’m not quite sure on the exact mileage to the waterfall, but it took us about 20 minutes to wander there from the trailhead.
Hiking along Kadunce River
I’ve only been on portions of the Superior Hiking Trail, but every time I step foot on part of it, I’m so impressed with its construction, maintenance, and how beautiful it is. I would love to see all of it some day, although I’d be more of a section at a time hiker.
Bridge crossing the river
The trail is thickly forested, but obvious and easy to follow. I really enjoyed walking along the Kadunce River as well. This was a tough day of training, but I had more fun than I thought I would (especially on the way out to Judge Magney - the way back I’ll admit I was just ready to be done).
Kadunce River walking to the falls
Throughout the SHT, there are boxes similar to this with notebooks. You can check in. Write down who is hiking in your party, where you’re going, what you’ve seen or enjoyed, or anything else about your story you want to share. It was fun to page through the notebook for a short bit to read some of the stories hikers had left behind and write our own.
Trail journals kept along the Superior Hiking Trail
The trail continues to follow the Kadunce River right up to a small set of cascading waterfalls. You can see here just how close the trail hugs the river bank.
Some rapids below the Kadunce River Falls
The cascading waterfall isn’t huge, but it’s very pretty. And most likely this is section of the woods you will have all to yourself.
Kadunce River Falls
Looking downstream from the falls
After the falls, the trail separates from the river and continues north. For miles the trail looks a lot like this picture, with lots of ups and downs and tall skinny trees everywhere.
Hiking through the forest between Kadunce River and Judge Magney
Sometimes the trail peaks high enough to catch glimpses of Lake Superior. There are no mountain peak views along this section of the trail though.
View of Lake Superior as we walked over the top of a hill
A flicker eating some bugs out of a dead log
The trail curves back and goes directly out to the shoreline of Lake Superior. This was the hardest section of the hike as the surface is just loose gravel, which is really hard to walk long distances on. This was great practice for us as the Grand Canyon has several sandy sections, but our legs hurt so much at this part that we cheated on the way back and walked along the edge of MN-61, skipping this beach trail.
This was a pretty section of the trail following directly along Lake Superior, but it was a beast to walk over
One more picture of a uniquely constructed bridge along the trail - there were several. If you are curious how long it took us to hike this, it was about 4 hours each way, with a long break once we got to Judge Magney.
If you happen to be looking for tips on how to train for a difficult hike, see my below post on how we prepared for our Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim hike.
Other Outdoor Things to Do within an Hour Drive
Below are hyperlinks to other posts I’ve written about things to do that are located within an hour’s drive from Judge Magney State Park.
Lake Walk - Superior Hiking Trail
(south) The only section of the Superior Hiking Trail that is along Lake Superior’s shoreline is the Lake Walk, a 1.5 mile stretch of sand / loose gravel, just south of Judge Magney State Park. Note that this is an awesome beach, but a hard place to hike long distances due to the soft ground.
Grand Marias, MN
(south) My favorite pizza along MN-61 is at Swen & Ole’s Pizza in Grand Marias.
Eagle Mountain
(south) The highest point in Minnesota can be accessed from the BWCA along a 6.5 mile out-and-back trail. This is an easy trail until the last 1/3 of the trail ascends 500ft dramatically. A permit is required, but it’s free, and the paperwork is available at the trailhead.
Cascade River State Park
(south) This park has multiple waterfalls that cascade, making it difficult to provide an actual waterfall count. Similar to Temperance, most of the waterfalls are within a hike less than a mile long. This is also the only MN State Park with a true hike along the Lake Superior Shoreline.
Lutsen Ski Resort
(south) Lutsen is the best ski resort in Minnesota. During the summer months, the gondola continues to run. There are hiking trails and a half-mile Alpine Slide.
Oberg Mountain
(south) This is overlook hike is part of the Superior Hiking Trail, and therefore parking is free. This is a busier trail, especially in the fall..
Temperance River State Park
(south) This is the most unique State Park along MN-61 where seven waterfalls can be seen in a hike less than 2 miles. Several of these waterfalls occur in dramatic pothole formations. The official MN State Park map undersells this state park, as does the size of the parking lot off of MN-61.
Sawbill Canoe Outfitter
(southwest) The closest entry to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area from MN-61 is Sawbill Lake. There is a canoe outfitter on the lake where canoes and other gear can be rented. There is a 4.5-mile three-lake trek for a single day exploration, and multiple options for multi-day canoe trips.
Sugarloaf Cove
(south) A privately owned section of Lake Superior with an interesting bay protected by rock formations. This park has a small fee and includes its own visitor center.
Caribou Falls State Wayside
(south) An easy hike to large but quiet waterfall..
George Crosby Manitou State Park
(southwest) This is a rustic, quiet, and less travelled MN State Park with one of the more impressive waterfalls in Minnesota.
Tettegouche State Park
(south) This is my favorite MN State Park. There are four waterfall hikes within the park, amazing views of Lake Superior along the cliffs above the water, secret beaches with sea caves, and more inland there are some incredible views from above of smaller lakes (especially gorgeous in the fall colors).
Grand Portage National Monument
(north) When visited in the summer months, this National Monument includes an interactive fort that depicts the life of British fur traders from the 1780s. Outside of the fort is an exhibit on the Ojibwe Native Americans, which is open year-round.
Grand Portage State Park
This park borders Canada and includes the tallest waterfall in Minnesota. The hike to this waterfall is handicap accessible. There are also two smaller waterfalls along a more rugged, (and slightly swampy) trail.
Link to Full North Shore Guide from NatureImpactsUs.com
For more ideas of things to do up and down MN-61 along Lake Superior, visit my North Shore Guide.
Other Hiking Ideas
If you are looking for more hiking suggestions, please check out my below map which has additional posts linked to each pin.
Do the hike you’ve always wanted to! This post gives suggestions on how to start training and encouragement to go for it!