Last updated July 21, 2026
Here is the honest version, because it will shape your week: this is a small county and the shops reflect it. Cook County has exactly one full-size supermarket — Gene's in Grand Marais, half an hour from the lodge and closed on Sundays. Everything nearer is a general store. They are genuinely good stores, and they will save you for milk, bread, a forgotten onion, beer, ice and firewood. They are not where you provision twelve people for a week.
Selection is narrow and brands rotate with what the truck brought. Prices carry the cost of being at the end of a long road. In peak weeks — holidays, colour season, big ski weekends — shelves genuinely empty out, and the thing you assumed you'd grab simply isn't there.
Our honest advice: arrive stocked. Bring the bulk of your food with you and treat the stores up here as top-ups rather than the weekly shop. If you're driving up from the south, Duluth is the last full-scale shopping on the route — and it's directly on your way, not a detour. Fill a cooler as you pass through rather than planning to provision after you arrive. Guests who do this are reliably the ones who tell us the trip felt effortless: they spend the week cooking and skiing instead of driving Highway 61 for a bag of flour.
Everything we list runs between Silver Bay at the southern end and Grand Marais at the northern — that's the stretch worth knowing. Beyond it in either direction you're a long way out of your way.
Worth bringing from home
- Anything dietary or specialist — gluten-free, dairy-free, baby formula and particular baby food, protein powder, specific supplements. Do not assume it is stocked up here; often it isn't.
- Your coffee, if you're particular about it. The kitchen has a good grinder and the basics, but not your beans.
- Prescriptions and regular medication — bring what you need. The pharmacies are in Grand Marais, half an hour away, and keep small-town hours: North Shore Pharmacy, 21 W Highway 61, (218) 387-1133; and the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic Pharmacy, 513 5th Ave W, (218) 387-2330 (option 3), open Mon, Tue, Thu and Fri 9–12 and 1–5, closed over lunch. Don't arrive on a weekend needing a refill.
- Anything for a celebration — birthday candles, a cake, the specific bottle you want for a big dinner. Selection is thin and the exact thing rarely turns up.
- A cooler and a couple of ice packs for the drive. Obvious once you've done it once.
- Cash in small amounts — a few roadside stands and firewood honour boxes don't take cards.
One thing you can leave at home: firewood. Both fire features here are gas — see below.
All that said, the local stores are worth your money and worth your time; the co-op deli in particular is a genuinely good first night. Here is what is where.
Groceries
Clearview General StoreLutsen
5323 MN-61 · 7 AM – 9 PM daily · groceries + gas pumps
The closest store to the lodge and the longest hours on this stretch. Right for a top-up, a forgotten ingredient, or fuel — not for provisioning a week for twelve.
Tofte General Store & Bottle ShopTofte
7125 W Hwy 61 · Mon–Thu & Sun 9 AM – 7 PM, Fri–Sat 8 AM – 7 PM · gas pumps
A proper butcher counter, produce, and an adjoining bottle shop — which makes it the efficient single stop if you're coming up from Duluth and don't want to push on to Grand Marais.
Cook County Co-opGrand Marais
20 E First St · 8 AM – 7 PM daily · open Sundays
Community-owned; organic, local and regional. The deli does fresh bread, daily soups, grab-and-go and take-and-bake pizzas — a genuinely good answer to a first night when nobody wants to cook.
Gene's FoodsGrand Marais
431 E Hwy 61 · Mon–Sat 9 AM – 7 PM · closed Sunday
The only full-size, full-service supermarket on the shore, and the best meat and produce in the county. This is where you do the big shop for a group of twelve.
The one to plan around: Gene's is shut on Sundays. If you arrive on a Sunday, the Cook County Co-op (open daily) and Clearview in Lutsen are your options — or shop in Duluth on the way up, which is what we tend to do for a full week.
Beer, wine & spirits
The Tofte General Store has an attached bottle shop, and Grand Marais has off-sale in town. Minnesota permits Sunday off-sale between 11 AM and 6 PM, but individual shops set their own hours and several up here close earlier — worth a call rather than a drive.
Fuel
Pumps at Clearview General Store in Lutsen and the Tofte General Store, with more in Grand Marais. Fill up before you head up the Gunflint Trail or toward the Boundary Waters — there is no fuel once you're out there, and the distances are longer than they look.
Firewood — you won't need any
Both fire features at the lodge run on gas: the indoor fireplace and the outdoor fire pit alike. They light from a switch or a valve, there's no wood to split, haul or store, and no ash to deal with in the morning. It's one of the quiet luxuries of the place — a fire in about four seconds, at any hour, in any weather.
So there's nothing to buy for the lodge itself. The only reason to think about firewood is if you're camping or using a state-park fire ring elsewhere on your trip — and in that case, don't bring wood from home. Minnesota restricts moving firewood to slow emerald ash borer and other pests: it is illegal to move uncertified hardwood firewood out of a quarantined county, and illegal to bring hardwood firewood in from another state to a non-quarantined area, with penalties running to $7,500 per day, per incident. Minnesota state parks accept only MDA-certified wood or wood bought at the park, and the Superior National Forest prohibits out-of-state firewood outright. Buy it where you'll burn it.
Renting gear
Sawtooth OutfittersTofte
7213 Hwy 61 · (218) 663-7643 · closest full outfitter to the lodge
Winter: cross-country skis, downhill skis, snowboards and snowshoes. Summer: kayaks, paddleboards, bikes and shuttles, plus full Boundary Waters canoe outfitting.
Stone Harbor Wilderness SupplyGrand Marais
Winter rentals and guided trips with gear included
Backcountry and cross-country skis, skijoring kits, snowshoes, winter camping kit and outerwear. The place to go if you want someone to take you out rather than work it out yourself.
For downhill, the rental shop at Lutsen Mountains is the obvious call — you can pick up at the hill and skip hauling gear north.
The Great Minnesota Ski Pass — you need one for Norpine
Easy to miss, and it applies the moment you leave our yard. Anyone 16 or older must carry a Great Minnesota Ski Pass to ski groomed grant-in-aid trails, which includes the entire Norpine system. It's $10 for a day, $25 for the season, or $70 for three years, sold online through the Minnesota DNR and locally at outfitters, lodges and some gas stations. The money funds the grooming you're skiing on, which is why the trails are as good as they are.
Getting around
There is effectively no rideshare up here — don't plan an evening that depends on summoning a car. You'll want your own vehicle for the whole stay, and in winter a 4WD or AWD one.
Charging an EV: there is no charger at the lodge, so plan to arrive with enough range or to top up in town. Grand Marais has a dual-head Level 2 charger at the municipal campground and both a Level 2 and a DC fast charger at City Hall. Closer to us, ClipperCreek Level 2 units sit at the Bluefin Bay complex in Tofte for guests of Bluefin Bay, the Bluefin Grille and Coho Cafe. Treat charging as something you do around a meal or an errand rather than a quick stop on the way past.
Mobile signal at the lodge works for most major carriers. It does thin out as you get further from the highway and deeper into the forest and up the Gunflint Trail, so don't count on a signal everywhere you roam. The lodge has fibre-fast Wi-Fi throughout, so Wi-Fi calling is the reliable fallback.
Sleeps 12 · 5 bedrooms · eight wooded acres, three miles from Lutsen Mountains. Book direct for the best available rate.
Common questions
Is there a grocery store near Nordhus Lodge?
Cook County has one full-size supermarket — Gene's Foods in Grand Marais, about half an hour away and closed Sundays. Nearer stores in Lutsen and Tofte are good for top-ups, fuel and firewood, but not a week's provisions for twelve. Arrive stocked; Duluth is the last full-scale shopping on the drive up and directly on your way.
Do you need to bring firewood to Nordhus Lodge?
No — both fire features at the lodge are gas, so you don't need to bring or buy firewood.
Where is the nearest pharmacy to Lutsen?
In Grand Marais, about half an hour away — North Shore Pharmacy and the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic Pharmacy, both keeping small-town hours. Bring prescriptions and regular medication with you rather than planning to refill up here.