Great Lakes Circle Tours

The Great Lakes Circle Tours are a total of four routes circling each Great Lake, with the exception of Lake Ontario. The State of Wisconsin has signed each of the circle tours for the Great Lakes the state touches: the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior Circle Tours. These tours were originally conceived as an aid for travellers who wished to stick close to the shorelines of the lakes in their journeys. The Lake Michigan Circle Tour was the first route established in the late-1980s, with Superior following in the early 1990s.

The links below lead to specific information and precise routings for each of the Circle Tours:

Lake Michigan Circle Tour

The first of the official Circle Tours, the Lake Michigan Circle Tour runs the entire length of Wisconsin's eastern shore and loops through the Door Peninsula. The LMCT is also the longest of the the two Circle Tour routes within Wisconsin and is also the only one which, in its entire distance, does not leave the U.S.

Lake Superior Circle Tour

Although not the first official Great Lake Circle Tour, the Lake Superior Circle Tour has roots which stretch back decades when tourism associations in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ontario promoted the route.

Additional Information

• Great Lakes Circle Tour – new website from the author of WisconsinHighways.org.
• Great Lakes Circle Tour – information from the Great Lakes Commission. It was the GLC who originally helped establishe the Great Lakes Circle Tours and continues to provide information on many aspects of the Great Lakes region.
• Great Lakes Circle Tour – from the Great Lakes Information Network (GLIN), which "is a partnership that provides one place online for people to find information relating to the binational Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region of North America."
• Wisconsin Coastal Guide – a joint project of the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute and the Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• History of the Lake Michigan Circle Tour – from the West Michigan Tourist Association (WMTA). The WMTA helped to coordinate the first of the Great Lakes Circle Tours in the 1980s.
• The 6,500-mile Great Lakes Circle Tour (via archive.org) – an overview article from The Fishwrapper.