Duluth, MN July 28, 2020 – The Superior National Forest will be temporarily closing the Laurentian Divide Day Use Area/Picnic Area from August 3 to September 13, 2020 for a reconstruction project. The Laurentian Divide Day Use Area is located on Highway 53 north of Virginia, MN. This recreation site provides visitors a scenic wayside with restrooms, picnic tables, Laurentian Divide watershed interpretation, and access to the popular Lookout Mountain system of hiking, mountain biking, skiing, and snowshoe trails.

The Forest has received additional recreation funds to make improvements at this site. The old and unusable vault toilets will be removed and new accessible vault toilets will be installed in an improved location. Site amenities such as the lighting, benches, and garbage receptacles will be replaced. The parking lot will be resurfaced with a new layer of asphalt and the curb and gutter will be rebuilt to meet current accessibility standards.

During the reconstruction no public access to the day use site will be permitted. However, the Lookout Mountain Trail system will remain open. Public access to the trails will be provided from the Laurentian Snowmobile Trail parking lot located north of the Divide. Thank you for your patience and understanding as improvements are made to this site.

The Forest offices are available by phone from 8-4:30 CST, seven days a week. Please visit us at https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/superior/home for all visitor updates.  You can also follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SuperiorNF or contact us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SuperiorNF/

Everyone is urged to take the precautions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/prevention.html

 ###

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender