Sawtooth Aviation

Sawtooth Aviation is an air tour company based at Grand Marais Cook County Airport, near Devil Track Lake and about eight miles from downtown Grand Marais on Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior. It flies a Cessna 172 Skyhawk for most tours and an amphibious Cessna 180 Skywagon on floats for seaplane rides and charter work.

Its half hour and one hour flights take in waterfalls, the Grand Marais harbour, the Lake Superior shoreline and the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The one hour tour spends more time along the shore and can follow the border with Canada, and the company also flies along the Gunflint Trail. Tours pass Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota.

The company flies year round, with fall colours, spring waterfalls and winter moose viewing among the seasonal highlights. Passengers may see moose, black bears, deer, beaver lodges and waterfowl, and occasionally wolves. Flights usually carry two passengers, with a third possible with notice, and photography is welcome.

The Sawtooth Mountains that give the company its name rise behind the North Shore, and a flight shows how the ridges, inland lakes and the great lake fit together in a way the coast road cannot.