Agates, Yooperlites and the South Shore

People drive a long way to pick rocks off Lake Superior beaches, and once you understand why, it stops sounding strange.

Agates

Lake Superior agates are banded, translucent and stubbornly hard to spot until your eye adjusts. Wet stone shows the banding that dry stone hides, so work the waterline rather than the dry beach. After a storm is better than after a calm week. More on agate hunting.

Yooperlites

Yooperlites are syenite containing fluorescent sodalite — ordinary grey rock in daylight that glows orange under a longwave UV light. Which means this is a night activity. Take a 365nm light, go after dark, and walk slowly. More on Yooperlites.

When to go

Spring and autumn. Summer beaches are busier, and winter ice makes most of the shoreline inaccessible. Late September is close to ideal — the colour is turning at the same time.

What to bring

Rubber boots, a bucket, and more patience than you think. The lake is cold in a way that has to be experienced rather than described. General rockpicking notes are here, and the beaches are listed here.