Lake Superior Day 2024 is on Saturday, July 20, 2024: GREAT LAKES Roadtrip?

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The cities you named are all good places to visit... If you have time (and this would add at least 3 days to your trip) you should check out Isle Royal in Lake Superior. It's a beautiful national park, and you can only get there from Copper Harbor in the UP. Other places to check out on your way through Michigan are:

Sault Saint Marie

Mackinac Island/Fort Michilimackinac

Traverse City

South Haven (on lake Michigan)

All of these places would take you along the west coast of Michigan, rather than through Grand Rapids... but the middle of the state is not terribly exciting.

I hope you enjoy your trip!

How long does it take for Lake Superior to completely freeze up, i.e. from ice first forming to full ice cover?

On average Lake Superior freezes over once in 20 years. According to this site, it froze over in 2003 and 2009.if there is an unusual cold snap this occurs from around March 1st and lasts for a few days, say from 5 to 10 days.

what caused the depression which is now Lake Superior, was it early volcanic activity?

The Great Lakes have not always looked the way they do today. In fact if you were to go back in time and visit Michigan 14,000 years ago, you would have found the Great Lakes area covered in a sheet of ice, called a glacier, that averaged over one kilometer thick. At rates of only a few centimeters per day, the glacier slowly made its way across the Great Lakes basin. It carved out deep valleys and moved large amounts of soil. As the glacier melted and moved towards Canada, it left behind a series of large holes that filled with meltwater from the glacier. These formed the basic shape of the Great Lakes. It wasn't until 6,000 years ago that the lakes took their final shape we see today.

And that must have been a heck of a glacier because if you've ever swam in Lake Superior it feels like swimming in glacier water:) And it's really rocky- no sand and very deep. I live in the U.P.:)