Lake Superior

The Lake Superior Circle Tour is a 1,300-mile trip that takes you around the world's largest freshwater lake, through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario. We spent the last two days driving 298 miles of the route around the lake's southwestern perimeter in the three U.S. states from Lutsen, Minnesota, to the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where we camped overnight and took a dip in the chilly waters after breakfast. Here are a few Lake Superior pix and facts:

Average water temp: 40 degrees

Volume of water: 3 quadrillion gallons

Surface area: 31,700 square miles

Water turnover: 191 - 199 years

First Circle Tour: 1960, by a Thunder Bay bus,
in celebration of the completed road around the lake.

We left Superior from Ontonagon, Michigan, and drove south into Wisconsin on Monday. Stops along the way included Eagle River, the winery at Three Lakes, and De Pere, southwest of Green Bay.