The Waters of the Great Lakes

Lake Erie is nestled on the international boundary between Canada and the United States. The southernmost of the Great Lakes, characterized by rich green waters, Lake Erie is the warmest of the five lakes, offering world-class water recreation. Lake Erie’s southern shore offers views of spectacular waterfalls.

Lake Huron is the second largest of the Great Lakes and the fourth largest lake on the planet. It’s waters expand from Michigan to Ontario and offer access to beaches, sand dunes, wetlands, forests and rugged shorelines featuring fascinating rock formations, caves and grottos. Lake Huron's bright turquoise waters are home to an astonishing 30,000 islands.

Spanning the entire west coast of Michigan, Lake Michigan is the third largest of the Great Lakes, with more than 1,600 miles of shoreline offering access to world-class beaches, deep forests as well as bustling shoreline cities. The crowning jewel of Lake Michigan is the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore, whose towering dunes stretch to the enchanting waters below.

Lake Ontario is the easternmost Great Lake, bordered by New York and Ontario, with a largely undeveloped shoreline that boasts untouched natural beauty. The world-famous Niagara Falls thunders into Lake Ontario’s deep blue waters. The lake’s shores boast more than 100 beaches, and Sandbanks Provincial Park, the world’s largest freshwater dune system.

The largest freshwater lake on the planet and home to 10 percent of the world’s freshwater, Lake Superior’s crystal clear waters crash against the untamed beauty of the North. With breathtaking sandstone cliffs of the Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore where waterfalls cascade into the waters below, remote beaches, and magnificent pine forests, Lake Superior touch the shores of Ontario, Canada and Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The St. Lawrence River in its most limited bounds, begins at the foot of Lake Ontario, opposite the city of Kingston and flows generally in a north-easterly direction about 775 miles, when its flood mingles with that of the gulf by the same name. Beyond the Gulf of St. Lawrence lies the vast Atlantic Ocean. The St. Lawrence River has its source in the largest body of fresh water on the globe, and among all of the big rivers of the world, it is the only one whose volume is not greatly affected by the elements. This river, which Sir J.M. LeMoine called "The noblest, the purest, most enchanting river on all God's beautiful earth," for miles upon miles acts as a natural boundary between the good friends of the United States and Canada