North Shore of Minnesota - Day #1

It was another track meet that brought us back to the Midwest. With Brooke competing at the Big 10 Outdoor Track Championship in Minneapolis, we decided to head to Minnesota a few days early to spend time along Minnesota’s north shore and to explore national park #21 with a visit to Voyageurs National Park.

We started our trip on a very cold, windy, and rainy day in Duluth. The first stop was Canal Park which sits along the shoreline of Lake Superior. This was a good vantage point to see the Aerial Lift Bridge, although we didn’t get to see it raise since no ships were sailing through while we were there. Due to the wind and cold, we spent just a short time getting photos of the two lighthouses that stand at the entrance to the canal that leads from Lake Superior to the harbor.

The Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge

Once in the car, we started our drive along Highway 61 which is a beautifully scenic road that hugs the shoreline from Duluth almost all the way to the Canadian border. Just 30 minutes from Duluth, we stopped in Two Harbors to enjoy a mid-morning snack from the iconic Betty’s Pies. The story behind this pie shop began in 1957 when Betty’s dad ran a fish shack along Highway 61. Betty decided that the fisherman might enjoy coffee and donuts, then later added hamburgers/hotdogs. Eventually, Betty had her own cafe with a large menu, but it was her pies that were most popular. We can attest to the fact that Betty’s Pies are delicious, as we thoroughly enjoyed our slice of apple toffee crunch pie with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Enjoying a delicious mid-morning snack!

To work off the pie we had eaten, we needed to get a little exercise. Gooseberry State Park was the perfect place to do that. The highlight of Gooseberry Falls State Park is definitely the waterfall. The upper, middle, and lower portions of the falls were raging with snowmelt and recent rain. We followed a trail that took us down one side of the falls and back up the other where we crossed over the bridge at the top. At the state park’s visitor center, we learned that the water flowing over the falls will be one of two colors - root beer or chocolate milk - due to decomposing plants in wetlands upstream that release tannins which stain the water varying shades of brown. It was definitely a murky brown and in fact all of the falls that we visited during our north shore trip were this same color.

Only 10 miles north on Highway 61, we arrived at the Split Rock lighthouse. Before entering the lighthouse, we watched a short documentary film about the history of the lighthouse. The actual tour of the lighthouse is a quick self-guided climb up the spiral stairs to reach where the fresnel lens is housed at the top. The weather was still pretty cold and dreary and as we were walking from the lighthouse outbuilding to the light keeper’s house, we heard thunder rumbling. Then there was a huge crack of lightening and we instantly smelled smoke. It turns out that lightening struck a tree in the parking lot only 300 feet from where we were. Later we walked out to the parking lot to see that the top of the tree had exploded and splintered debris all over the parking lot. This lightening strike was way too close for comfort! We saw on the news that night that the lighthouse would be closed the next two days because of electrical damage caused by the strike.

The Split Rock Lighthouse

Back in the car, the next stop was Palisade Head. Usually you can drive right up to it, but the road was closed. So we parked and walked up the winding road to reach Palisade Head. Once again the rain and cold wind made for a brief visit.

Palisade Head

Up until this point, we hadn’t done any real hiking. So when we got to Tettegouche State Park we set out on a 3 mile round trip hike to Two Step Falls and High Falls. It was a pretty hike to a few more Minnesota waterfalls!

There was still some snow/ice on the trail.

Two Step Falls

The view from the top of High Falls

Standing on the bridge over High Falls

We stopped a few more times as we were driving north to Grand Marais to enjoy more waterfalls right along the highway. The prettiest of these was Hidden Falls at Temperance River State Park. Again the raging river water made for an impressive waterfall.

Hidden Falls at Temperance River State Park

Where the Temperance River flows into Lake Superior

Once in Grand Marais, we had a yummy dinner at the Gun Flint Brewery before checking into our hotel, the Best Western Superior Inn.