North Shore of Lake Superior (Eagle Mountain trip pt 2)

After leaving Eagle Mountain (our first highpoint, see earlier post), we continued to explore. It was early and we decided to head north.

The first place we checked out was Grand Marais. In Grand Marais, there is a nice harbor, where we walked out on some rock to a place called “Artists’ Point”. It was clear why this spot had such a name. The breeze off the lake made it quite cool, out on the rocks, even though only 20 miles away on Eagle Mountain it was a hot day.

As we continued north, we thought we might as well go to Canada. Only a few miles from the border, there is a nice scenic overlook, situated on a bluff overlooking Lake Superior (surprise, surprise). It was cool to know that if you were looking in one direction, it was Ontario, the other direction, Minnesota. We took a few pictures and arrived at the border. As we were about to get it, the border patrol man asked me for my latest insurance card, which of course I didn’t have! I had the one that expired a week earlier, and he turned us down. This was a bit of a bummer, as we were loosely planning on camping in Canada.

So we were now forced to head south. We still had a few hours of sunlight at this point and decided that our best option was to make our way south and check out a couple places along the way. After a quick fill up in Grand Portage (there is a gas station/casino/ice cream shop all in one right off the road) we began our trip back.

We made our way to Cascade Falls state park. There is a large wooden arrowhead in a parking lot just off the road marking where to find the falls. It appeared that there was nowhere to pay to enter this park, so we walked right onto the trail. We walked up the trail and quickly found some nice waterfalls. It was definitely a picture-worthy spot, and a great spot to do a little bit of exploring, especially since it was free to check out.

We continued south and parked on the side of the road near the Temperance river. I’d been there about 5 years earlier, and remembered that it was pretty neat. This river is very rapid, as it crashes into the Temperance River gorge on its way into Lake Superior.

After we did all of this, it started to get dark outside, and it was too late to check out Tettegouche State Park, one of my favorite places along the North Shore. Believe me, this won’t be the only post about the north shore of Lake Superior.