page_title: Brockway Mountain Drive
section_title: Awards and recognition
hierarchical_section_title: Brockway Mountain Drive / Awards and recognition
caption_attribution_description: Panoramic of Lake Superior and surrounding woodland from atop Brockway Mountain Drive
context_page_description: Brockway Mountain Drive is an 8.883-mile scenic roadway just west of Copper Harbor in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States. Drivers can access the road from state highway M-26 on either end near Eagle Harbor to the west or Copper Harbor to the east in the Keweenaw Peninsula. The drive runs along the ridge of Brockway Mountain on the Keweenaw Fault and climbs to 1,320 feet above sea level, 720 feet above the surface of Lake Superior. Several viewpoints along the route allow for panoramas of Copper Harbor, Lake Superior, and undeveloped woodland. On a clear day, Isle Royale is visible approximately 50 miles in distance from the top of the mountain.
  Brockway Mountain was named for Daniel D. Brockway, one of the pioneer residents of the area. The road was constructed by the county road commission with funding through Depression-era work programs in 1933. It was briefly used as a connection for the parallel state highway after it opened. Since it opened, Brockway Mountain Drive has been recognized nationally and locally in several media outlets for its picturesque qualities, usually in profiles of Keweenaw County, the Upper Peninsula or other scenic drives.
context_section_description: Many locales in the Keweenaw Peninsula are frequently praised for their beauty and pristine appearances and Brockway Mountain Drive is no exception. The road has been recognized in numerous publications, dating back to the 1950s. The Milwaukee Sentinel profiled the "famous Brockway Mountain Drive" in 1956 in an article about a tourism boom to the region. More attention was focused on the roadway when Milwaukee's other newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal, spotlighted the region in 1961 stating, "the road along the Brockway Mountain fault follows the Keweenaw Peninsula  700 ft [210 m] above Lake Superior, past ghost copper mines [toward] restored Fort Wilkins". 
   
  The New York Times had similar praise in 1962, saying "a side trip that should not be missed is the Brockway Mountain Drive ... for a panoramic view of the forest and the blue waters of Lake Superior." The Chicago Tribune called the overlook "breathtaking" in 1986, and the Chicago Sun-Times said that views from Brockway "rival[ed] any in New England" in 1990. The Pioneer Press of St. Paul profiled the area in 2005 saying that the tourists "cruise along Brockway Mountain Drive, renowned for fall color." The staff of MLive, the online news presence of Booth Newspapers in Michigan, highlighted the height of the roadway, the view to Isle Royale, and the birdwatching opportunities in a profile of the area in 2007.
  In April 1994 and April 2001, the route along US 41 and Brockway Mountain Drive was selected as "one of the best fall color views and mountain biking areas" by Michigan Living. It was also named the "most beautiful bike ride in the United States" by Bicycling magazine in February 1995. The Star Tribune in Minneapolis said that a visit to the drive "is worth the whole trip by itself, with a twisting road leading up to the crest, with panoramic views of fall colors."
  The drive was also included in the coverage of the Copper Country Trail, a designation applied to the neighboring US 41 by the Federal Highway Administration as a part of the National Scenic Byway program. NBC's Today featured Brockway Mountain Drive in September 2007 as part of a segment on "great and unusual fall foliage destinations". In May 2010, local residents of the Upper Peninsula chose the road as the region's "favorite natural wonder" in a poll conducted by WLUC-TV. Brockway Mountain Drive was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 2017.
caption: View from atop Brockway Mountain
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:02:25 00:50:36", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "338", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5284", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "6630", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2057", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "2b5582f06baa06fe1f86a31e7c881b46"}