iona's beach scientific and natural area

Iona's Beach is a former resort that is now a Minnesota scientific and natural area. Its fairly wide beach, which is about 10 acres in size, is almost purely made up of flattened pieces of smooth pink rhyolite that have calved off of the shoreline and over time been smoothed by Lake Superior and have finally washed up here. It is a scientific and natural area, so you have to tread lightly and don't pick any of the rocks. It's a great place for some solitude and to listen to the waves with little or no other noise or interruptions. It is located between Two Harbors and Silver Bay, at mile marker 42 and is about three miles north of Gooseberry Falls. You can park in the parking lot of the Twin Points Water Access and then take a short wooded walk off to the left of the lot to get to the beach. I've been here twice now, and this time my wife and I sat on a large piece of driftwood and ate our lunch. Only as we were leaving did a couple other people emerge from the woods to check the beach out. The rock skipping is strictly so-so though.