Visiting Split Rock

Split Rock Lighthouse offers many options for visitors who only want to stop for an hour to people who spend a day visiting the historic site. Most visitors spend from two to three hours touring the lighthouse, walking the trails, and in the Visitor Center.

Visitor Center

The Visitor Center is your first stop for tickets, interactive exhibits, a short introductory film, and the museum store.

Exhibits & Film

The exhibit area features artifacts and presents information on the history of the light station, the history of the North Shore and facts about Lake Superior shipping. Children and adults enjoy a fun, hands-on way to learn about how lighthouses work.

Museum Store

The Museum Store in the Visitor Center features nautical, north woods and Split Rock merchandise. The store is open the same hours as the Visitor Center.

Amenities

The Visitor Center has rest rooms, exhibits, Museum Store and spectacular views of the big lake. The Visitor Center is air-conditioned.

Dining

A selection of salads, sandwiches and other light fare are available for sale in the Museum Store.

Lighthouse & Keeper's House

Guided tours of the light station leave from the visitor center at the top of the hour. Visitors can also tour the site and climb the lighthouse on their own.

Costumed guides in the lighthouse and the keeper’s home show what life was like for the light keepers and their families in the early 1920’s.

Four of the historic buildings are open to visitors:

• lighthouse
• fog signal building
• oil house
• keeper's restored home

Trails & the State Park

A quarter-mile hiking trail to the lakeshore at the bottom of the cliff offers opportunities to get up close and personal with Lake Superior – and to get the famous photo of the lighthouse atop the 130-foot cliff.

The historic site is surrounded by Split Rock Lighthouse State Park with a lakeshore picnic area, trail center, tent camping at well-spaced campsites, and 14 miles of hiking, biking, snowshoe and cross-country ski trails along the lakeshore and through the northern forest.

Connect up with other nearby trails, including the paved Gitchi-Gami State Trail, the Superior Hiking Trail, kayaking in Lake Superior, and the North Shore Scenic Drive.

Other popular activities include wildlife viewing, shipwatching, and skipping rocks in the lake.

Fall colors are incredible at Split Rock Lighthouse.

Tips

• Don't forget your camera and hiking shoes! The 25-acre historic site and the adjacent 2200-acre state park offer spectacular views of the lighthouse and Lake Superior both from the clifftop and from along the shoreline.
• Expect cooler temperatures. This is most noticable in May and June, but the cool temperatures linger along the North Shore all summer -- packing polarfleece or a sweatshirt is always a good idea.