Grand Marais, Minnesota

Along the frozen waters of Minnesota's North Shore, a Lake Superior art colony offers wintry woods to explore, cozy respites from the chill, and plenty of places that bolster your creative side.

- SARAH ZLOTNICK

Town Stats

POPULATION 1,335

STOPLIGHT COUNT Just the one!

DISTANCE TO CANADIAN BORDER 38 miles

NAMED BY Fur-trading French-Canadian voyageurs in the 1700s (the name translates to "great marsh")

Get Crackin': No matter what time your morning begins, oversize omelets await at breakfast-all-day eatery Blue Water Café. Go for the three-meat Viking or a hollandaise-topped Wild Country.

Celebrate the Season: Cheer on dogsled derbies during March's annual Dog Days of Winter festival, which caps off with s'mores and hot cocoa at Trail Center Lodge. Or, set off from the lodge for a leisurely session of cross-country skiing (and moose spotting!) along Superior National Forest's 57-mile Gunflint Trail.