Need to know:

Where: Silver Bay, MN (Map at bottom of page)

Was it worth it? Yes, I give it a 7/10

Highlight: The beach next to “Black Beach”

Suggested time here: 1-4+ hours

When we visited: August 2020

This is a fun little pit stop on an ‘Up North’ vacay!

We didn’t drive up north just to see Black Beach (aka Onyx Beach) but it was on our list of potential places to visit. Ha, not really “our list”, more of “my list”. Andrew and the boys just happily go along with whatever places I come up with.


Google Maps brought us past the Black Beach Municipal Campground to a small parking lot. We found out later that the beach that we ended up at first was part of Black Beach Park but not THE actual Black Beach. We got there and were all like hmm, this beach is all pretty much pink rocks. . Regardless, it was still gorgeous so we had a picnic and rock hunted for hours. No family members were interested in my college geology information while we hunted, pffft! We were almost the only ones there which is exactly the kind of place we love best of all!

After dipping our feet in the ice cold water (we were all too chicken to swim, especially the Australian), there was a little lookout to climb up to. There was a trail so off we went up the rocks to get an awesome view of the lake and surrounding beaches.

Black Beach was in view from where we were so we decided to trek over to it. The boys love to scale rocks and the more dangerous looking, the better, in their opinion. There was a trail on the top of the hill that we could’ve gone on, but instead, the boys (and Andrew) wanted to hop along the rocks down by the water… the slippery rocks that went to the deep water and crashing waves, yep. Off we all went, slipping around, almost to be swept out to sea a few times (maybe a slight exaggeration but still, we went the tough way around).

Minnesota’s Infamous Black Sand Beach.

This led right to a tiny little cove of Black Beach that was completely empty and BEAUTIFUL!

After just a bit of time here we walked over to the main part of Black Beach. It was a warm day in August so there were a lot of people! Fun fact about Black Beach, it’s only black because the mining industry dumped their taconite tailings in the water up there for decades. In 2015, the City of Silver Bay, Minnesota DNR and Northshore mining made an agreement to allow public access here. Before that it was off limits to the public. Even though it’s not naturally occurring it’s still something cool to see!


I suggest climbing on the rocks at the end of the sand bar for an AWESOME view of the lake and beach. A crabby child (because of the black sand stuck in his Crocs) and our extreme thirst (bottles back at the other beach) made for a short visit here. All four of us said we liked the quiet beach way better.

Stop by on your next ‘up north’ trip!

Would I make a trip up north just to visit Black Beach? Nope, but I suggest swinging by if you’ll be in the Silver Bay area. You won’t find another black sand beach in this part of the country so why not check it out?! There are other must sees on the North Shore so check out my future post on waterfalls in the area or go on an amazing hike of Bean & Bear Lakes! If you do go to Black Beach, make sure to check some of the smaller, surrounding beaches, you may just be lucky enough to get them to yourself!

Have you been to Black Beach? If so, what’d you think of it? If not, is it on your list of places to explore?


Happy Exploring!

More Info:

• No restrooms here
• Parking is limited (always an option to park in the neighboring beach lot though)
• GREAT place for a picnic
• It’s about 3.5 hours from the Twin Cities