Ten overlooks, and the long waits come last
An All-American Road in Minnesota whose catalogued views arrive in pairs and knots at one end, then thin to three across the long run to the other.
Ten lookouts are on the roster for the North Shore Scenic Drive. Read them in order from the southwest and they do not keep an even pace. They come in a pair, then one on its own, then a knot of four, and then the gaps open so wide that the last two, when they finally arrive, are standing a hundred and fifty feet apart.
Seven lookouts in the first fifty-six miles, measured in a straight line. Three in the eighty-two after that.
Where they bunch up
Chester Park Trail Overlook and Lester River Overlook open the list about five miles apart. Top O' Creation follows on its own, a name with nothing modest about it. Then four together: North Shore Mining/Lake Superior Overlook, City Overlook, Palisade Head and End of Shovel Point Overlook, all within about five miles of each other. The first two of those four sit under a fifth of a mile apart.
Lake Superior is named exactly once on the whole roster, and even there it shares the entry, on the far side of a slash.
Before the first overlook
Near the southwestern end, by Canal Park, the byway passes eleven historic-site records that fit inside about two hundred feet. Three are anchors: a Modern Ship Anchor, a Trotman Folding Stock Anchor and a McDougall Patent Anchor. One is a Modern Ship Propeller, one a Capstan, one a piece of Float Copper. The other five carry names, from Northwoods Sailors to Edgar A. Culbertson.
Read from the southwest, the catalogue meets three anchors and a propeller before it meets its first overlook.
Where they thin out
After Shovel Point the roster goes quiet. Good Harbor Bay Overlook is almost forty-four miles on in a straight line, and the Mount Rose Trail overlooks are close to thirty-nine miles past that. The road between is longer than either line.
The byway is not empty there, only the lookout list. Caribou Falls State Wayside sits on it about eleven miles past Shovel Point. Cross River Heritage Center and Father Baraga's Cross sit on it a quarter of a mile from each other. And about five miles beyond Good Harbor Bay comes a run of museums: the Fish House, the Cook County History Museum, built in 1896, and the Bally Blacksmith & Metal Shop, built in 1911, both on the National Register.
Two records, a hundred and fifty feet apart
At the northeastern end of the roster the list doubles up one last time. Mount Rose Trail Interpretive Overlook and Mount Rose Trail Depot Overlook are about a hundred and fifty feet from each other, and Mount Rose itself, a peak listed at 294 metres, is about a tenth of a mile from the second. After gaps of forty-four and thirty-nine miles, the catalogue hands you two overlooks inside fifty yards.
What that makes the drive
The first and last lookouts are about a hundred and thirty-eight miles apart in a straight line. The front of that line carries seven stops. The back carries three, and the reason to stay at each of them is not that the next one is close. It is that it is not.
Where the stops are far apart, the stop you are at is the one that counts.
Take the early clusters as they come. Past Shovel Point, when an overlook finally arrives, do not hurry back to the car. Give it long enough for the weather to change its mind.