The epic Keweenaw Point Trail will finally be completed in 2026, providing a 30-mile backcountry loop beginning in downtown Copper Harbor, MI. Thanks to the expansive wilderness blanketing Michigan's Upper Peninsula, this true backcountry mountain bike route passes through a vast tract of wild land that was previously inaccessible to the public. "It's cool — for the Midwest […] it's true wilderness out there, it's big tracts of protected lands," said Adam Yeoman, Interim Executive Director of the CHTC. "It feels like nowhere else in the Midwest."
Within this 32,000-acre wilderness are innumerable locations with incredible natural beauty, and the new backcountry trail has been designed to access the best of them. The route provides access to two previously difficult-to-reach beaches - Big Bay Beach and the "absolutely gorgeous" Keystone Beach - as well as Montreal Falls, "a waterfall that pours directly into Lake Superior." The trail also features rock outcroppings galore and natural rock rolls built into the trail tread, and even passes beneath a massive sea arch, an impressive rock formation found along the Lake Superior coastline.
The entire Keweenaw Point Trail is designed as a blue-rated intermediate trail, offering a classic backcountry XC experience with "some meandering, flowy sections of the trail, but that's interspersed with some cool rock features." The Keweenaw is full of different rock geology, featuring both chunky, human-built rock gardens and natural rock rolls. "Mile after mile after mile, it just keeps putting smiles on your face or [offering] new reveals around every corner." The Big Bay section runs for five miles along the coastline, where "you've got Lake Superior on your left and this massive swamp on your right, and you're on this 25 to 50 foot spit of high and dry land between them."
