Two Hearted River
Michigan
Find: Lake Superior Agates, unakite, magnetite, banded iron, quartz, granite, fluorescent sodalite, etc.
GPS: 46.69806, -85.42262
Nearest city: Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Recommended Vehicle: Any
Season: Accessible year round, Winter is likely to have significant snow, ice, and frigid temperatures. Roads likely aren’t drivable if there’s been heavy snow.
Summary:
The Two Hearted River mouth is a popular spot to explore for a variety of rocks that come out of Lake Superior. It takes a long drive down gravel roads to make it out here. When I visited in 2024, they weren’t too bad. This spot will be see a lot of traffic in the Summer months even though it really is in the middle of nowhere. Regardless of what you find, there’s a great likelihood a beautiful sunset awaits you.
If you’re specifically looking for fluorescent stones or agates, going earlier in the year may help.
3 Helpful Tools
Chest Waders
Chest waders are great to stay dry if you want to get in the lake.
Agate Scoop
An agate scoop is helpful to pick things up faster and farther away from you.
Classifier
A classifier is fun to sit with if you’re a fan of small agates and stones. One with a larger, 1-inch mesh would be what I’d pick.
The morning drive up to the Northeastern UP.
Underwater in the Lake, right by the river mouth.
It's big and has banding, but this looks like a coldwater agate or stromatolite instead of a Lake Superior Agate.
A crazy granite that stuck out against the others.
There is awesome variety in type of rock and a good mix of each type
Hematite jasper - all these next pictures were taken at sunset. The light is interesting, but there's no photo editing.
A good sized chunk of banded iron with bands that almost resembled wood grain.
If the small purple crystals are garnet, this might be something called eclogite.
I've been told this is unakite, but an oddly patterned piece of it.