- Trip start, Duluth stopover, and the International Wolf Center
- Duluth Round 2
- North Shore of Minnesota
- Isle Royale National Park
- Bayfield, Apostle Islands, and Hayward, WI
- Waterfalls, the Porkies and Bond Falls
- Pictured Rocks and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
- Mackinac Island
- Dunes, friends, and the end of the trip
We visited the north shore of MN, from Duluth to the Canadian border twice during our stay — before and after our trip to Isle Royale. The route for this trip was along the scenic highway 61 — essentially a road that was more or less paved over a scenic wagon trail from 1899. And scenic it is, with lots of overlooks of Lake Superior, a handful of towns, a few state parks and anational monument, and lots of tourist kitsch shops. In some ways, it reminded me of driving along Route 28 on Cape Cod. We took our time along this section to see the wide variety of things that are available — and still we didn’t see it all! Oh, and then there’s the waterfalls!
Our first stop along the way was at Gooseberry Falls State Park, right outside the charming town of Castle Danger (okay, I give up — what’s the source of this town’s name?). We came to see the falls here and hike some of the trails. Sadly, we had a few disappointments — the drought had reduced the fall across the falls, and we found no evidence of gooseberries (even in the gift shop!). Still, they were beautiful and worth the stop.
Up the road, we stopped at the Split Rock Lighthouse, now run by the Minnesota Historical Society. This lighthouse was built following the wreckage of 30 ships in a 1905 November gale. What is interesting, though, is the number of visitors the lighthouse got — nearly 100,000 people in the late 1930s (about 5x the number of visitors as any other light station in service at the time). And it’s no wonder — the views up and down the coast are absolutely stunning. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1969 and turned over to the state. The lantern is still in operational condition and is lit each November 10th in honor of the Edmund Fitzgerald. We had a great time here, climbing the tower to see the turning Fresnel lens as well as the other historic buildings, including the light keeper’s house, the oil house, and the fog signal building.
Our stop for the evening was in the town of Grand Marais, a charming little town on the lake with beautiful waterfront views, a vibrant art scene — and the World’s Best Donuts (at least that is what was advertised; we weren’t willing to wait in the hours long line to find out)! This is where we first ran into the employee shortage crisis. Some restaurants were closed and some only open for a few days a week. Even the pizza place had an hour plus wait to get a pizza. Luckily we found a rooftop bar to ease (ooze) us into the evening with the strangest Manhattans I’ve ever had. But I do have to do a shout out to a restaurant that we actually drove 20 miles out of our way to get to on the Gunflint Trail. It’s called the Poplar Haus, overlooking Poplar Lake. Now you have to understand, this is way out of town and generally services the fishing, hunting, snow shoeing, and snowmobiling crowd. It used to be a dive bar. After 5 years of struggling to get the local onboard, they now have a menu that I would invest in a restaurant for. One of their specialties — duck wings covered with a sweet soy ginger glaze. OMG, good!
The next stop (geographically, not time wise) was Grand Portage National Monument. This was another critical stop in the trade routes for the fur trade. “Gitchi Onigaming” is the Ojibwe term for the “Great Carrying Place,” an apt name for 8.5-mile portage trail that the native people had used for thousands of years. Ultimately, the natives showed the explorers and voyageurs this route that would allow them to avoid giant waterfalls, gorges, and cascades while trying to navigate the Pigeon River, heading to Lake Superior. This was no easy portage; the 8.5 mile trail gained over 300 feet in elevation over rocky terrain, with men often carrying two 90 pound packs or their canoes on the journey. But, of course, this wasn’t the only portage between Lake Superior and Rainy Lake in Voyageurs National Park. There were 36 of them and the transit time was generally about two weeks. Voyageurs, North Men, Montrealers, and ultimately the British North West Company conducted trade here. In addition to the stockade built by the North West Company, there were large numbers of people would spend weeks to months in and around the area. Today the stockade is a living history museum, staffed by park rangers and members of the Grand Portage Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe) tribe who donated about half the land that the national monument sits on.
North from Grand Portage, you rapidly approach the international border, but the sights just keep on coming. At the Mount Josephine Wayside Rest, you can get great views of Isle Royale National Park as well as the Susie Islands (known locally as the “Susies”). When we were there, the fog was starting to roll in which made for great photos. Right along the border, we stopped at Great Portage State Park where the Pigeon River serves as the border between the US and Canada. It was kind of eerie to see the border crossing basically deserted. At that point Canadians were not allowed into the US and, frankly, we didn’t see too many people heading north. The highlight of this park is High Falls, 120 feet high and the highest in MN. You can immediately see why the Grand Portage trail was so important.
The North Shore is definitely worth visiting and we thoroughly enjoyed it. For us, though, it was the gateway to Isle Royale!
This entry was posted in Minnesota, National Park/Monument, Travel, United States
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
