2.27.2026 Wrapping up February with great skiing

Posted on February 27, 2026 by Bearskin

Guess the ski trail in these photos! We are heading into March with fantastic ski conditions. This has been a winter where the groomers have needed to regroom the trails almost daily, partially because it never stops snowing but also because we’ve had so many skiers out on the trails.

People will look back at winter 2025-2026 as having almost perfect conditions for most days. We worried during the “Low-to-No Snow” winter two years ago that this could be the future of Bearskin skiing. We persisted and made the best of it, hauling snow to Summer Home and Campground Trails plus creating a special trail system all over the snowy lake. Guests still talk about how much unique fun they had that winter, hiking into BWCA destinations they’d never normally visit in February. But we sure hoped that would not be our typical winter and indeed, we’ve had two excellent winters since then. This one has been almost ideal — lots of snow, not too many brutally cold day or unnecessarily warm ones.

March offers some of the best skiing of winter because of the longer days and slightly warmer temperatures. So far this March looks very promising. There are a few warmish days in the forecast, like today, but both of the Central Gunflint Trail’s Pisten Bully groomers have excellent equipment for dealing with any iciness. If it gets warmer, the skiing is always the best in first half of the day.

The week ahead has a mix of normal winter days and slightly warmer days, but nothing dramatic. There’s a little snow in the forecast also. Nice March conditions.

If you’re a fan of viewing the northern lights, historically March is one of the best months each year to see them due to the orientation of the earth’s poles during the spring equinox. (Same is true of the autumn equinox.) Near the dates of the equinox the earth’s magnetic field lines up nicely with the sun’s solar winds, and more charged particles penetrate the atmosphere = more northern lights! Our best northern lights photos were taken during a March 17 St. Patrick’s Day aurora show, which is a very common date to get great photos. The current predictions for upcoming northern lights are excellent, so come prepared to see a show.

Early March predictions for possible northern lights. Bigger numbers = better chances. (Strictly a guess, of course, as the lights are due to solar storms that may flare up unexpectedly.)

Mid-March predictions for possible northern lights

We’ll be serving chicken wild rice soup and chili in the lodge this weekend, plus hot chocolate, beer, wine, cookies, and treats. Come on in and warm up in our large, cozy lodge area. See you on the trails!

Trail guessing hint: it’s a loop.

1.17.2026 All groomed again this morning

Posted on January 17, 2026 by Bearskin

Grooming the section of trail in the BWCA this morning wit the Tidd Tech groomer pulled with a snowmobile. This is the only section of our trail system where the Pisten Bully is not allowed to go, but the Tidd Tech does a great job.

We are definitely living in a winter wonderland. It has snowed almost every day this past week, so the groomers have been out constantly trying to keep up. The trails are in fantastic condition. You couldn’t ask for better skiing.

Bearskin will be extremely busy on Saturday and Sunday. With almost 80 K of groomed wilderness trails, skiers are always surprised that they rarely see other people out on the trails. Where you do notice the activity level, however, is in our parking lot. We always wish we had more room to park on these weekend afternoons. Please be sure to park in a way that is safe for your car and doesn’t block the side roads to cabins. Our guests will be grateful for that.

If parking looks problematic, you can always drive just a little farther up the Gunflint Trail to Clearwater Road to park at Golden Eagle Lodge. Same trails, same ski passes, just a different entry point and usually a less crowded parking lot.

The next few days will be a bit cold. Come into the Main Lodge and warm-up with us! We’re serving soup and chili every afternoon. We also have hot chocolate and cookies, hot apple cider, wine, beer, and pop. Do a little gift shopping. Or pick up some hand-warmers to keep your fingers toasty while you ski.

For guests who will be staying at Bearskin this week, if the skies clear up there are many nights with great aurora forecasts. A lack of snow in the upcoming week may indicate potential clear skies, so be ready for a northern lights show.

See you soon on the trails.

1.4.2026 Fairly early start to ski season, but a very slow start to posting ski reports

Posted on January 4, 2026 by Bearskin

Happy New Year from Bearskin Lodge and the Central Gunflint Trail Ski System!

We’ve been skiing at Bearskin since November — but you’d never know it by the ski reports we’ve posted. We fell way behind this year. This ski report page (the one we call the “Blue Kenny” page, because that header is Kenny Johnson in about 2008 skiing up Bear Cub) will be moving to a new URL eventually this year. Meanwhile we will be posting on two sites and we will update here when the page permanently moves.

We had our first snowmobile grooming November 27th, then started grooming with the Pisten Bully on December 9th. Most trails are in good shape.

Poplar Creek Trail took forever to open. Poplar Creek is always a late opening trail due to water issues, but this year we had an additional problem of a “bend-down” situation — huge swaths of the trail were covered with trees that bent over with heavy snow and had to be removed. After many days of Lionel, Quinn, and Bob trimming out the bent-over trees, Quinn finally made the first pass through with the Pisten Bully today. Quinn thought the trail had plenty of snow and that it groomed up pretty good for a first time through.

The heavy snow snow that caused the “bend-down” on Poplar Creek also coated our pine trees on the entire ski system with an icy cupcake frosting that doesn’t seem to be easily blown off by the the wind, making this the perfect winter to get beautiful outdoor photographs.

Bearskin is mostly full for winter weekends and for a large percentage of mid-week dates, but we have scattered openings here and there all season. If you have a little date flexibility, we can probably find you your perfect stay. Use the box in the upper right-hand corner of our web page to check availability, or for an overall summary view this regularly updated list. Most of our guests reserve a year ahead of time (lucky for us!) but that also means things can change in a year. We do get cancellations and changes during the season. Call our front desk at (218)388-2292 for the most up-to-date info. If you can’t get your perfect dates, put your name on our waiting list. Cancellation and date adjustments happen, often fairly last minute

The Bearskin ski-in winter camping cabins are also an option for some of you. This is their busiest year so far as more guests discover our most adventurous winter skiing option. The ski-in cabins definitely aren’t for everyone. With no electricity, heat, or running water, this is an experience that works best for for experienced outdoors people. The description we most often hear about ski-in cabin stays is ” it was magical,” but part of the creating that “magic” is that it does take quite a bit of work on your part to keep the wood stove going! Find out more here.

The Central Gunflint Trail system grooms part or all of the system almost every day. We’re known for our high quality grooming so we make a great effort to give you the best ski experience every time you come to Bearskin. For the most recent info on what has been groomed each day, you can always call our front desk (218-388-2292) or email stay@bearskin.com We love to talk to you about skiing!

3.6.2025 We still have great skiing

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Bearskin

We still have fantastic skiing at Bearskin! Everything was groomed over the last two days, and some skate lanes were touched up this morning. We’ve had fresh snow while other areas had rain, so our trails are looking good.

We had a couple warm days this week, and it looks like we will have a couple warm days next week too — but we have ample snow, so the trails will be fine. Our new track pan tillers work miracles on icy snow.

As is often the case by March, we’ve reached the point where you’ll start to wonder on the drive up to the Gunflint if we really do have snow. The snow along the North Shore and in Grand Marais has been decimated by warmer temps and rain, while we just had more snow. Don’t worry, when you drive up the hill you’ll start to see better snow and by the time you get to the mid-Trail area, you’re in true winter again. We are lucky to be in this magical winter location.

If you’ll be here in the next week, come prepared to watch for Northern Lights. The forecast is fabulous. We are nearing the spring equinox, so due to the earth’s tilt at this time we often have the best light shows of the year in mid-March. In fact, it’s fairly common to have amazing green lights in the sky on St. Patrick’s Day. Here’s our link to the info on how to watch for the aurora at Bearskin. Bring your camera and tripod.

As usual, we will have soup, chili, cheesecake, and hot chocolate in the Main Lodge for you to enjoy while you’re up here skiing. See you soon!

2.24.2025 Slightly warmer temperatures, but no worries — we have lots of snow

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Bearskin

After several weeks of the consistent “snow, groom, snow, groom again” pattern that we know so well at Bearskin we have a bit of a weather change for early this week. We are warming into the 30°+ temp range for a few days. We won’t be seeing any super-warm temps like the Twin Cities is forecast to have and we have plentiful snow, so we are not too worried about snow loss. It gets cold again by the weekend.

Bearskin has the right equipment to overcome any trail iciness, including some specialized track-pan tillers for our Pisten Bully that only a few machines in the US have. It actually will be fun for the groomers to use these tillers. We purchased them last year with our newest Pisten Bully, but then never experienced the right conditions to try the tillers out. We will report back on how well they work to keep the trails perfect.

Bearskin has been almost 100% full since late December, but now that we are getting into March there are cabin openings again. We always fill up for the year ahead because everyone who is here has a great time so they rebook for next year. In the low-snow winter of 2024 we kept our skiing going until March 6 with incredible efforts by Quinn, Bob and our staff — we were proud to have the last skiing anywhere in Minnesota. They raided the lake to move snow to the ski trails, and also created long ski trails around the snowy lake to keep skiing alive. But after the first week of March even those efforts couldn’t save the trails and skiing was over. Consequently, there weren’t as many guests here to rebook for 2025 and now there are lots of great options available. (It’s funny to look at the reservation calendar because you can clearly see where the season ended.) A sequence of events that’s not likely to happen again!

“Value season” at Bearskin, the lowest rates of the season, starts on March 9th. Normally that first week after the rates go down is booked solid by the folks who were here last year on those dates. We expect skiing will still be good , and the longer days and slightly warmer temperatures usually make this some of the most fun skiing of the year. Give us a call at (218) 388-2292 or email stay@bearskin.com and we will help you make a plan.

What else is happening? We have a good northern lights forecast coming up next weekend, if we have clear skies.

And of course, on March 20 we have the vernal/spring Equinox, when day and night hours are exactly equal. The reason we especially like the equinox up here in the northern latitudes is that we often experience the best northern lights shows of the year around the equinox. The explanation is complicated, but the short version is that the earth’s tilt aligns directly with solar wind, allowing more of the charged particles that create the aurora into the atmosphere. The brightest most amazing aurora shows we’ve ever seen have been on dates shortly before and after the spring equinox. We can’t ever promise great northern lights, but your chances of a sighting are very good as you get into mid-March.

1.30.2025 Trails are staying in great condition!

Posted on January 30, 2025 by Bearskin

It’s snowed a few times this week, maybe an additional 3-4 inches, so the groomers have been out several times this week. Conditions are excellent. We have more snow in the forecast this weekend, which is our typical winter pattern of snow every few days. Skiers are loving it.

If you recognize the location of the ski trail in the picture below from today’s grooming, go to our Facebook page and post your guess. Free cookie to the person who first guesses it correctly. Hint: this isn’t as easy as the last few. 😉

Temperatures are all over the place for the next few days, but nothing too dramatically cold. Decent ski temps.

We do have some northern lights in the forecast for the next few days, which could add some excitement to your trip. Bring a headlamp and ski out on the lake to get the best wide aurora view. We almost always post on the Bearskin Facebook page as soon as we hear about any northern lights activity. For more info about how to see the lights when you’re at Bearskin, go to: https://bearskin.com/bearskin-lodge-photography-series-chasing-the-northern-lights-on-the-gunflint-trail/

We will have soup and chili in the lodge all weekend, as well as hot chocolate, cheesecake, cookies, wine and beer. See you on the trails!

1.10.2025. New snow, Pisten Bully is out grooming

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Bearskin

It snowed a bit last night, with more in the forecast for the weekend. We have been so grateful to have good skiing here, but our snow was getting fairly compacted. It snowed just enough to freshen up the trails well.

We groomed the east side trails this morning with our Pisten Bully. We’ll do the west side — Bear Cub, Oxcart, and Poplar Creek — this afternoon. (EDIT: Quinn didn’t get to Bear Cub this afternoon.) The small amount of snow we received did wonders and everything groomed up great.

The northern trails, on the Golden Eagle side, had their skate decks refreshed with the Tidd-Tech this morning. Golden Eagle plans to go out with their Pisten Bully on their side of the trail system after the snow this weekend.

Weekend Planning:

We will have soup, chili, cheesecake, cookies, hot chocolate, caramel macchiato, wine, beer, pop, and snacks available in the Main Lodge for weekend skiers. Skiers are coming here to practice for races from all over the state right now, so the parking lot has been getting a bit full on the weekends. Remember, if our parking is nutty then you can drive a little farther up the Gunflint Trail to Golden Eagle and start on the north side of the same system. That lot is generally more available. If you get here fairly early, then parking is easy. Arrive in the morning and spend the day. By lunch time the lot may get fairly full— be smart about how you park.

We do have an opening in Lodge 4 for this weekend, as well a big new opening in Cabin 3 for dates during the coming week. (Cabin 3 rarely comes open in winter!) Check our Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BearskinLodge/ for more info.

1.8.2025 Lots of happy skiers

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Bearskin

You’ve probably heard there’s “no snow” up north. Not true at Bearskin. We continue to provide good skiing conditions on the Central Gunflint Trail System. Skiers are happy to be here. On Sunday, a bitterly cold day, we still set a new record for how many January day-ski passes we sold. Of course, our trails are so extensive that you don’t usually encounter all those other people, but the trails were busy with serious skiers.

We’ve been in a stretch now with no new snow or else small flurries of snow. The trails are still holding up just fine. We went out and touched up some skate lanes on Summer Home, Campground, Beaver Dam, and the Lit Loop. They’ve been well-used, but they cleaned up nicely.

It looks like we could get some mild temperatures and more snow by the end of the week! We don’t need much more snow to continue to maintain the trails well, but a few inches of fresh flakes would make our groomers super happy.

We’re skiing at Bearskin!

Posted on December 7, 2024 by Bearskin

First grooming of Summer Home Road on December 1

Ski season 2024-2025 is underway. Looking back at the ski posts from last year, it’s pretty funny to see how the posts just trailed off — just like the skiing did. We actually kept the skiing alive until early March, by moving snow from the lake to the trails and by creating a maze of trails on the lake. People had a surprising amount of fun last winter in spite of the low snow conditions. We’ll all remember winter 2023-2024 as uniquely enjoyable because of the different activities everyone could do–hiking into the BWCA, exploring summer trips like Rose Falls, playing with the kick sleds on the lake ice, ice skating far into the wilderness on the lakes. But we didn’t want to do it again this year.

Fortunately, it is looking like winter 2024-2025 might be a snowy one. After an extended autumn, we started getting snow after Thanksgiving and it has been snowing constantly ever since. Bearskin tends to get its snow in big dumps, followed by addtional little snowfalls almost daily. That’s the pattern we are seeing so far this year. We hope it continues.

Summer Home and Campground ski trails have been pisten bully groomed several times now, the latest grooming being Saturday morning. We have the Cook County High School ski team and the Team Birkie skiers out on those trails today and tomorrow, so there has been a lot of ski action on that grooming. Our forecast is for a possible 8″ more of snow Sunday and Monday, with more snow forecast for later in the week. That’s probably just the right amount snow we need to start grooming the rockier, hillier sections of our trail system. We’ve done preparatory packing work on many of the trails on both the north and south sides of the system, so now we just need the snow. We’re ready!

Both Bearskin and Golden Eagle are selling ski passes now, including day passes and season passes. Stop in and get yourself set up for a winter of great skiing!

2/11/2024 We are working our way back to skiing

Posted on February 11, 2024 by Bearskin

We lost it all on Friday. The heavy rains came down, the snow that made it possible to groom trails on the lakes turned to standing water, and the snow on our other trails mostly melted. Talk about discouraging, because we’ve worked so hard to make good trails out of mediocre conditions.

BUT, hurray! We are working our way back to skiing! Quinn has groomed trails on Summer Home Road and Campground. Quinn skied on it this evening and wasn’t thrilled about Summer Home. You will have to remove your skis to cross the culvert area in the big dip on Summer Home, and there are some “stop your skis” rocks, he said. Needs continuing snow — we will get there. Campground, on the other hand, is fairly good because of all the snow we hauled to it.

We haven’t been able to redo the lovely, long lake trail we had on East Bearskin because of snow/water slush. We’ll be keeping an eye on that every day until it hardens up again. However, they were able to groom some fairly nice ski trails on the south shore of Aspen Lake.

On the Golden Eagle side, they’ve groomed the Flour Lake Campground trail and added some ski trails back on Flour Lake.

Is it as good as our usual outstanding ski trails? Nope. Is it probably the best skiing on natural snow still available in Minnesota? Yes, it likely is. And we’re happy to say, people seem to be having a pretty good time. We have snow, we have winter conditions, and the temperatures are pleasant enough to get out and enjoy the world.

The weather reports indicate that we are returning to more typical winter conditions, with small snowfalls every day. The forecast looks promising for snow in the future. We’ll never catch up now to the massive amounts of snow we had in 2022 and 2023, but getting adequate snow would be a wonderful surprise. We will continue to do everything we can dream-up to create a good winter experience for our guests.

Bearskin Lodge Ski Trail Reports

Info about the Central Gunflint Ski Trail System of Minnesota

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