Beach of a Million Bells
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
81
91
Trip End
Jun 01, 2012
Iona's Beach, Minnesota
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Nestled between two red hued cliffs lies a stretch of beach that is copiously pebbled with billions of smooth, pink rhyolite stones... many of them perfectly round and flat... absolutely perfect for rock skipping on the open waters of Lake Superior.
While staying within the lightly untamed Arrowhead region of Minnesota, we took advantage of a break in the storm clouds to head off to Iona's Beach, known by a few locals as the "Beach of a Million Bells". The curiosity of this title rests in the endless chimes that one hears when the waves lap the shoreline, lifting the rocks and settling them back down with a tinny sound of chimes.
We were able to grab a little better than an hour to skip stones, walk the beach and enjoy the rocky chorus before the clouds ominously stitched together a storm that eventually unraveled, draping us with falling sheets of rain.
