Falling for the North Shore

Here we are at the Burlington Bay Campground in Two Harbors, Minnesota!  It's a nice campground right on Lake Superior with full hook-ups, laid out pretty well and I'm sure it will be full this weekend.

what I see as I write this post - not too shabby

After a day spent in the back seat of the truck on the road I couldn't wait to get out on a trail, any trail, yesterday so I dragged my mother 20 minutes down the road to Gooseberry State Park.  They have a huge visitor center and paved paths to the falls, but the trails are not marked at all and spurs jutted off in every direction.  The map was of little help either.  Knowing that the Fifth Falls Trail followed the river down one side and back up the other I just picked one that looked like it was going in the right direction.

Upper Gooseberry Falls

Upper Gooseberry Falls

Most of the trail along the Gooseberry River is fairly flat, keeping the river in sight the whole way.  Not much is blooming here yet, a few Rue Anemone and some Marsh Marigold were all there was to be seen besides the river.

I'm not used to so much sunshine and felt like all I was doing was fighting the glare as I tried to take pictures!  All were taken with a polarizer and I still had to tone down the highlights a bit when I loaded them up.  Still, it was nice to feel the sun and have a blue sky for a change.

The rock in the area was interesting, apparently some of it is the result of lava flows.

From Gooseberry Falls to Fifth Falls we walked a mile along the river and then had a lovely bridge to cross.

Mom on the bridge

view of the Gooseberry River from the bridge

Once on the other side we picked up our pace a bit.  Mom isn't used to hiking and was starting to be eager for it to be over and done with! I made her stop to look back at the view of Fifth Falls, totally worth a few minute detour.

We walked a little under 3 miles in 3 hours, just a warm-up for me, of course. It was a nice little hike and not too many folks wander away from Gooseberry Falls, I always like the ones that aren't crowded!

 Back at the campground the men in our lives had gone to Duluth for some supplies, including fishing poles and licenses.

Wayne wanted to drive over to Knife River and take a short walk along it to look for fish and I was happy to oblige.  Even Cory likes to walk along the water and look for stuff.

Wayne and the Knife River making its way to Lake Superior

This morning the men have gone to the bait shop to find out where to rent a boat and go fishing and my mom is taking me to the Superior Hiking Trail and dropping me off.  More sun today, but I'm packed to handle it!