North Shore Camping - Day 2

Tuesday started with a quick breakfast before the boys had a plan.  As soon as they had finished breakfast, they wanted to go for a hike, which of course was fine.  They led the way....

They led us straight to the picnic lava flows down by Lake Superior.  Apparently they had the idea that they needed to look for something....

Of course, the something that they wanted to look for was tadpoles.....and they had no problem finding them and catching them....

I spent the hour and a half looking around at features you find on the picnic lava flows, like how the lichen is growing or buildings built by the CCC in the 1930s.

After we had returned to camp, it was time to go and view the three main waterfalls at Gooseberry Falls State Park.  The pictures below show the Upper Falls, located just north of the Hwy 61 bridge.

Next we had to stop and get as close to the Middle Falls as we could, we actually got closer than the picture shows but I needed to hold onto the boys as opposed to the camera.

From the Middle Falls, the boys and I continued on a rather long hike that would take us downstream, eventually cross the river and bring us back on the opposite side of the river.  Signs of the recent flooding were everywhere, with most vegetation being pushed down to the ground and no longer being upright.

Large trees were also laying as they were thrown, the amount of water needed to move some of these trees would've been impressive.....at this point we were also able to look straight up river to see the Middle and Lower Falls.

On the Eastern side of the Gooseberry River, the trail takes you to some impressive overlooks, of course these overlooks are at quite a height above the river level.

It's also interested to get a view of the Middle Falls from a different perspective, we're not sure how many people take the time to get to this side of the river.

Before returning to the visitor's center, the trail takes you underneath the Hwy. 61 bridge by a walkway and gives you the opportunity to view the Upper Falls from a different angle.  Pops has always claimed that in his more 'reckless' days he traversed the bridge via the beams located underneath the structure....not really sure if it's true or not...

After viewing the falls, we took a quick trip up the road to the Split Rock Lighthouse.  Luke had never been to the lighthouse, Kieran had a few years earlier.

We had to take the stairs to the top of the lighthouse, the stairs are tight and Luke did not especially enjoy them (particularly the way down).  But it is an interesting view from out the windows in the lighthouse.

After leaving the lighthouse, Kieran really wanted to go down to the lake level and they apparently found a tree to hug along the way (it wasn't the first or the last tree they would hug).

Getting to the lake level involves a large amount of stairs, the trip down is not bad at all, then you remember that the vehicle is parked at the top and you'll be walking them again...

What did the boys want to do at the bottom?  They didn't really care for the view, they wanted to throw rocks into the lake, again....

Of course before beginning the hike up the stairs to the van, they (and I) wanted a quick rest break.

After leaving the museum, both boys were immediately drawn to the anchor of a ship that had crashed over 100 years earlier, they had ignored the anchor on the way in...

After leaving Split Rock, we went to the beach at Beaver Bay (apparently one of the best places to find an agate on the north shore).  All the boys wanted to do of course is.....throw rocks.....

I was looking for an anorthosite inclusion in the surrounding basalt.  The greenish anorthosite crystalized at depth (20-25 km) before riding to the surface with later lava flows.

After dinner that evening, we took another hike to view the falls, but this time it was from a straight-on viewpoint.  It was about a mile hike before the trail was closed because of being washed out from the recent floods, but it gives another view of Gooseberry Falls.

After returning to camp, exhausted, it was time for bed.  It was our last night at Gooseberry Falls State Park.

The next day, we left for Trail's End of the Gunflint Trail.  Before we made camp the next day, we hiked to Magnetic Rock just off the Gunflint (meaning a 1 mile hike, uphill, one way)....

Too be continued....

North Shore Camping - Day 1

Kieran, Luke and I left home last Monday (June 25th) for our annual week-long camping trip on the North Shore area.  Our first stop of the trip was just north of Duluth at Kitchi Gammi Park.  Massive rain amounts (over 10 inches) five days before we drove through washed out roads, flooded homes, and killed animals at the zoo.  I wanted to see if you could see the effects of this amount of rain from near Duluth.  As the picture shows, the water was very brown/red in color, the result of large amounts of sand, silt and especially clay being washed into the lake from the St. Louis River and other streams.

After showing and explaining what had happened to the area, the boys preferred to throw rocks into Lake Superior (it won't be the first time).

After an early lunch, we stopped at Agate Bay in Two Harbors.  It's easier see the ore docks from Two Harbors here than it is in Duluth.  You can also see the old tug Edna G. while watching trains from the Iron Range unload almost in front of you.

While looking at the ore docks and Edna G., the boys realized a 'laker' was leaving port (of course the loud horn blasts helped them to this conclusion).  We had to jump in the van to see the ship leaving from a different angle.

After a 1/4 drive we got to the lighthouse and boat access for Two Harbors which gave us the point of view that we wanted.  The comment that the boys kept repeating was 'these ships are big'.  And after being in Canal Park numerous times, this was not their first time seeing these ships.

Had to take this picture, in the foreground should be the first loon that we saw on the trip (you might have to look close and ignore the seagull).  We had a lot of discussions about loons throughout the trip, after seeing them on numerous occassions.

While watching the loon, Kieran and Luke realized that the second ship in the harbor was switching positions with the ship that had just left.  Let's just say that we spent a large amount of time in Two Harbors....

After leaving the harbor area, the boys reminded me that they had never been able to walk around the trains that are permanently parked near there.  We had to fix that of course, so we explored the trains and equipment that helped bring the iron ore to the docks in years prior.

After leaving Two Harbors, we were finally on our way to Gooseberry Falls State Park, where we would spend the first two nights of our trip.  Of course we didn't go straight to the campground, we had to see the falls first, especially since the area had received so much rain five days earlier.  It wasn't flowing like I though it would be, apparently the high flow last approximately 30 hours before decreasing.  The two pictures below were taken in front of the Lower Falls.

Of course, stopping here gave the boys an opportunity to throw more rocks into water....

Finally we were able to set up camp and get settled, but the boys immediately wanted to go on a hike.  They wanted to go to the picnic lava flow area near Lake Superior, which is a basalt flow that formed 1,100 million years ago during the Mid-Continent Rift event that effected areas from Michigan through Minnesota, all the way to Kansas.  Of course, the boys we're looking for areas where water was pooled in depressions in the basalt.

Their target was tadpoles....they know from experience that frogs/toads lay eggs in these pools and they can be easily caught when we camp at Gooseberry (this is the third year in a row that we've camped at the same site, at the same time of year).  They are going to be upset if we ever camp at Gooseberry in September....

I tend to look at the landscape around these particular lava flows while the boys search for tadpoles, especially the areas where the lake is weathering and eroding large blocks of basalt.  The boys do not get to come close to this particular area.....

After spending almost an hour and a half chasing tadpoles, we could hike the 1/2 mile or so back to camp to eat dinner.  Along the way, like most of our hikes, the boys played Transformers.  Kieran was Optimus Prime of course and Luke was Bumblebee, sticks were swung and blasters fired, I'm sure Megatron was defeated....

After dinner, we had to walk to Agate Beach at the confluence of the Gooseberry River and Lake Superior.  The goal was strictly to 'throw rocks' into water, it didn't matter if it was a river or the lake.

After the sun was low enough it was time to leave, but not before the boys got one last look at the lake for the day.  We had to get back to camp to get a fire started and make sure we were settled.

While camping, the boys have a goal of seeing 'the first star' of the night (or planet), they definitely did not this night, they were in bed early.  This worked out well as Day 2 led us to Split Rock Lighthouse, Beaver Bay and several long hikes around Gooseberry State Park.

To Be Continued.....