Sault Ste. Marie

A border city at the southeastern outlet of Lake Superior, where the Agawa Canyon Tour Train crosses the fall-colour wilderness painted by the Group of Seven, with impressive locks and lakeshore.

Sault Ste. Marie is in Northern Ontario, Canada, on the rapids of the St. Marys River, which links Lake Superior and Lake Huron. It faces its namesake city in Michigan, USA, across the river, connected by the International Bridge. With about 70,000 people, it is the main city of the Algoma region. Downtown sights are concentrated along the river and easily linked on foot: the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site and Whitefish Island, the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, the Art Gallery of Algoma, and Roberta Bondar Park with its riverside boardwalk. The signature experience is riding the Agawa Canyon Tour Train north through the fall-colour wilderness. North along Highway 17 you can visit Chippewa Falls, Pancake Bay and the Agawa Rock pictographs in Lake Superior Provincial Park; north of the city are Hiawatha Highlands and Searchmont Resort. Across the bridge on the US side, watch huge freighters pass through the Soo Locks and visit Tahquamenon Falls and the Whitefish Point shipwreck museum. The best time is the fall-colour season from late September to early October, when train tickets and accommodation must be booked months ahead; Jul–Aug is good for lakeshore camping and hiking, though blackflies are common in June; winters are cold and snowy, ideal for skiing and snow sports. Getting there: Sault Ste. Marie Airport has flights to Toronto, or it's about a 7–8 hour drive from Toronto. You'll need a car for sights outside the city. Crossing to the US side requires a passport and any necessary visa. Allow 3 days.

Top sights

• Agawa Canyon Tour Train – A day-trip sightseeing train heading north from town into a canyon, passing through the red-leaf wilderness painted by the Group of Seven.
• Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site – The world’s first electric lock, completed in 1895; beside its red sandstone buildings you can watch yachts pass through.
• Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre – A museum in a former riverside hangar displaying northern bush planes and forest firefighting aircraft, some of which visitors can climb in…
• Lake Superior Provincial Park & Agawa Rock – Along Highway 17, the untouched shoreline of Lake Superior, where the ancient Ojibwe rock paintings on the Agawa cliffs are the most famous…
• Pancake Bay Provincial Park – A 3 km sandy beach on Lake Superior, with a campground and trails overlooking the lake and the shipwreck waters.
• Chippewa Falls – A stepped waterfall beside Highway 17, a sketching site for the Group of Seven, also known as the midpoint of the Trans-Canada Highway.
• Roberta Bondar Park & Boardwalk – A riverside park named after Canada's first woman astronaut, a native of Sault Ste. Marie, with a tent-like pavilion as a city landmark.
• Hiawatha Highlands – A forest reserve north of the city, where the Crystal Falls trail and winter cross-country ski trails are beloved by locals.
• Ermatinger–Clergue National Historic Site – A stone house built around 1814 by a fur trader, one of the oldest surviving stone buildings in northern Ontario.
• Art Gallery of Algoma – A regional art gallery on the riverfront, with Canadian paintings including Group of Seven works and scenes of the Algoma wilderness.
• Searchmont Resort – A ski resort about 50 km north of the city with a vertical drop of about 210 m, one of Ontario's largest ski hills.
• Soo Locks – A large lock system across the river in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where observation decks offer close views of giant freighters passing t…
• Museum Ship Valley Camp – A 1917 lake freighter moored on the US side and converted into a museum, with lifeboats from the Edmund Fitzgerald on display.
• Tahquamenon Falls State Park – Amber-colored waterfalls in Michigan's Upper Peninsula; the Upper Falls, about 60 m wide, are among the largest east of the Mississippi.
• Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum – A museum and lighthouse on Lake Superior's 'Shipwreck Coast,' displaying the bell of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
• Point Iroquois Light – A white brick lighthouse from 1870 on the shore of Whitefish Bay, where you can climb the tower for views over Lake Superior and the shippi…

Where to eat

• Arturo Ristorante – A family-run upscale Italian restaurant downtown, known for its handmade pasta and veal, reflecting the deep Italian-Ca…
• The Breakfast Pig – A popular brunch spot that opened in 2015, serving local pork and bread, and repeatedly named the best breakfast in Sau…
• The Mill Steakhouse & Bar – A steakhouse in a historic paper mill building in the Canal District, with exposed timber beams and a floor-to-ceiling…
• Burger Don – A Prohibition-themed local burger joint opened in 2016, known for its double AAA beef signature burger and boozy milksh…

Itineraries

• Lake Superior North Shore & Agawa Canyon Train – Head north from Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie for the canyon train, then follow Highway 17 around the lake to Thunder Bay