Northern Minnesota Loop August 15–19, 2016    

On August 15 we headed north through Wisconsin, stopping at Pattison State Park to see the waterfall there. 

After going through Duluth, we headed NE where we stopped near Tettegouche State Park at a Forest Service campground and walked down to the Baptism River.  The river was much lower than when we had dispersed Rick’s ashes.

At Grand Marais we found the B&B we would be staying in for two nights, The Art House.  We found that our names weren’t on the check in board and no one was home.  We left a text message with the owners.  Then Roger remembered that they worked for the Art Colony School, so we walked over there.  Luckily the house  “sitter” was at the counter.  She didn’t have our names on the check in list and hadn’t cleaned the available room.  We walked around town, ate supper at The Angry Trout restaurant, and checked in later.   There was no TV and no air conditioning, but there was a ceiling fan and cooler air coming in the window. 

The breakfast the next morning was great – waffles, coddled eggs in fancy porcelain cups, yogurt & fruit, etc.  We headed to Cascade State Park, where we hiked part of a trail (a bridge was out) and saw the waterfall. 

In Temperance State Park we hiked up along the gorge to the bridge in a light rain.  Later we walked up from a wayside lot to see the Cascade Falls.  We ate lunch, then drove part of the way up the Gunflint Trail.  At Judge Magney State Park we walked the nature loop for about a mile through the woods. 

We headed back north to Grand Portage and saw the National Monument there. 

We toured the new visitor center and the reconstructed fort.  There were interesting exhibits on the fur trade. 

Back at Grand Marais we had another excellent supper and spent some time walking around the downtown by the bay.  There was a full moon reflected in the bay – beautiful. 

On Wednesday we ate another wonderful breakfast, packed up, and headed toward Ely.  We were hoping to see the new wolf pups, but they weren’t in view in the exhibit.  We looked at the exhibits and store. 

After lunch in a little café in Ely, we headed to Chisholm, and then Hibbing where we did some thrift store shopping.  Our destination was Grand Rapids where we shopped some more, then ate at the Ground Round for supper.  We stayed at the Super 8 there.

On Thursday on our way to Bemidji, we went to Bemidji State Park and did most of the Bog Walk.  There was rain threatening, so we headed back to the car before we got to the end of the boardwalk.  We saw some of the carnivorous plants, but it was too late in the summer for the Lady Slippers to be blooming.  Our total walk was about 2.7 miles. 

In Bemidji we stopped to see Paul Bunyan Park and took pictures by the statues of Paul & Babe.  We ate at a nice local restaurant downtown and shopped.  For supper we ate at the 4 Points restaurant next to the Super 8.

After a breakfast at the motel, we took county roads to Itasca State Park where we walked to the headwaters.  The river was deeper that usual, so we crossed on a log bridge. 

On the way back to the car we took a “new” boardwalk path.  As we headed out of the park, we stopped at Preacher’s Grove.  There were quite a few trees down or damaged and they had a trail to the lake.  The once barren ground under the trees now had grass and other vegetation. 

We got home in the early afternoon after a long day on the road.