Minnesota's North Shore October 4 - 7, 2014

For our last camping trip of the season we headed to Minnesota's North Shore. We stayed at Temperance River state park (probably our favorite state park on the north shore) and one of the few with electric sites.

see the wedding party taking photos below?

We did a hike up to Briton Peak. This is a short hike, but it's all uphill. 

We visited Grand Portage National Monument where there is a fort. During the summer months they re-enact the 1770's and have lots of activity. We got a tour from one of the rangers as he had to open to buildings for us. The visitor center was new since the last time we visited. 

We then headed over to Grand Portage State Park. They also have a new visitor center since the last time we visited and the trail to the falls is handicap accessible. Very nice. We were only 1/2 mile from Canada, but didn't go across as we didn't have our passports with us. 

We stopped at Judge CR Magney State Park. We hadn't ever been in this state park. They do not have any electric sites - they are all rustic and are pretty close together. We hiked the Devil's Kettle trail which is a really nice trail with a few ups and downs and LOTS of stairs at the end!

We also visited the new visitor's center at Tettegouche State Park

We hiked through Split Rock State Park and enjoyed the beautiful view of the lighthouse.

We then stopped at Gooseberry State Park to see the falls. 

North Shore of MN, September 10-14, 2011

We went to the North Shore of Minnesota for 5 great days.  The weather started out hot (85 degrees) and the morning we left we woke up to 40 degrees (brrrr). 

Our first stop was Gooseberry Falls.  It was a beautiful day and we walked around the falls, visited the Visitor Center and then took out our bikes and rode around the campground.  The campground here doesn't have any electric sites (they are all rustic) and the sites are fairly small, but it's a great little park. 

Here are the lower falls

Here is the Visitor center.  They are doing an improvement on the patio portion.



The bike path from Gooseberry State Park to Split Rock Lighthouse is completed.  We didn't bike it, but it sure looked like a fun ride. 

We were going to stop at Split Rock, but they are doing some major construction on highway 61 right outside the park and since we still had the camper we decided to skip it. 

We went on to Temperance River State Park to get set up for the next few days.  Here are some views of Lake Superior from Temperance.

Here is our campsite - it was a bit narrow and we couldn't get the awning out, but it was very private in the back.

Here's the road inside the campground.  The sites are very far apart and offer great privacy. 

There's a foot bridge located inside the park accessible from the campground

 Place to stop and sit and enjoy the view in the campground

More views from the campground

There's the footbridge below.

Steps to get down to the footbridge.

View from the footbridge - Gorgeous!

They were catching salmon

View the other way from the bridge (that's highway 61)

Across the road from the campground, there are many trails that take you up to additional falls, the Superior Hiking Trail and Carlton Peak.  Some kids were jumping off the rocks and swimming this day. 

We drove down to Tettegouche State Park and walked to the lower and upper falls.  It's quite a hike and there are a LOT of steps.  Lower falls below.

Upper Falls

 View of Lake Superior from the Lower campground area of Temperance River

There are some campsites right behind the fenced area.

Bike path just outside of Temperance River State Park

Cascade River State Park hike

Grand Marais, Minnesota (most of the "clouds" in the sky is actually smoke from a forest fire burning in the Boundary Waters Canoe area)

You can see how hazy the sky is here from the smoke

We drove a bit of the Gunflint Trail

and took another hike

No moose today

Back in Temperance River State park

Another hike in Temperance River towards Carlton Peak

The wind kicked up and the waves got pretty big

Another great trip!