This is a continuation of a travel series to Wisconsin and Minnesota's North Shore. To start at the beginning, go HERE. The rest of the posts in consecutive order are HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!
After enjoying the morning soaking in the views at Palisade Head and Shovel Point, we had a nice picnic lunch then headed out for our last hike of the day: the Cascade Trail.
We picked up the trail behind the visitor's center so we could enjoy the views of the Baptism River Mouth. If you want to make your hike shorter to the falls, you can skip this part and park in a lot closer to the start of the Cascade Falls trail; but then you would miss out on all this beauty, so why would you want to do that? 😉
Baptism River Mouth Trail
The Baptism River Mouth Trail is a short trail that provides beautiful overlooks of where the Baptism River flows into Lake Superior. You can also hike a few flights of stairs down to the shore line if you'd like.
This is really a pretty spot, not to be overlooked, so I highly recommend not missing it if you ever get a chance to visit this park.
The rock formations in this area are just breath-taking, and I love all the extra interest the beautiful pines provide as well.
There is a road bridge right above this spot, so if you want to avoid hiking at all, and just see the view, you can drive onto the bridge and enjoy!
Cascade Falls Trail
The Cascade Falls Trails is an easy, 1.8 mile out and back trail that meanders along the river with the highlight of a lovely waterfall at the end.
This is a short, easy trail, so take your time and enjoy all the scenic views along the way!
At the very end, you have to scramble over or around some large rocks, but it is worth it to see this view.
Cascade Falls is the closest waterfall to Lake Superior so it is small; the waterfall is like a slide with a 12 foot drop.
It is a wonderful spot to slip off your shoes and enjoy the cool water.
I always like to include a video of any waterfall because I think you get so much more of an idea of what the area is like through a video than any photo. Enjoy!
This is a continuation of a travel series to Wisconsin and Minnesota's North Shore. To start at the beginning, go HERE. The rest of the posts in consecutive order are HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Palisade Head
On our last day of exploring Minnesota's North Shore on Scenic Highway 61 we went to Tettegouche State Park.This is a beautiful park filled with lots of fun trails where you can get amazing views of Lake Superior and lots of waterfalls!
We had actually visited this park before, around thirty years ago, so this was our second time back. Because we had been here before, we decided to hit some trails we missed on our first visit. The first place we went to was Palisade Head to see the sun rise. Now, this can either be a hike where you park in a small parking lot right off of Highway 61 and hike a half mile up, OR, you can drive up the road, park in the lot at the top and enjoy the gorgeous view. We chose the latter. Why walk when you can drive? However, I have heard during super busy times you may not have a choice and will have to walk up. The road is super narrow, and I can't even imagine having to share it with other vehicles or hikers. When we were there, we never saw a single soul: we had the whole place to ourselves! So I suggest, get there early and watch the beautiful sun rise like we did!
Palisade Head is a large rock formation that is nearly 350 tall. On a good day, you can see everything from the Sawtooth Mountains in the Northeast, Split Rock Lighthouse to the Southwest, and even the Apostle Islands over 30 miles away.
Here's an interesting fact about its name: A "palisade" is an English word for a defensive wall. A "head" in geology describes deposits of minerals often resulting in flat hilltops. I think knowing this information, the rock formation is aptly named.
Shovel Point Trail
After soaking up the views at Palisade Head it was back in the car to the entrance of Tettegouche State Park. The first trail we took was on a whim. I just saw a beautiful scenic photo on a display wall at the Visitor's Center and said "I want to go there!" so off we went!
This is a 1.2 mile out-and-back trail considered easy, but I was surprised at the number of people who couldn't complete the whole trail while I was there, and turned around at some point. It was such a shame, because the view at the very end of the trail, was worth every step.
Almost all of the trail is a series of steps and boardwalks, and I think it's all the steps that turn a few people off. But there are always plenty of spots just to stop and rest and soak in all the views!
See that point at back right center in the photo below? That is Shovel Point and where we are headed on our hike.
The trail through the forest is absolutely beautiful. The boardwalk not only keeps the forest floor safe from erosion but it's easy on the feet and limbs too.
Yes, there's a lot of stairs, but they do their best to make the incline as gentle as possible. I do recommend walking sticks, because they work well as a "handrail" when coming down a steep stair case like this one.
I read that there is a total of 300 stairs on the trail.
Did I mention the incredible view of this trail? The cliff way in the back center of the photo below is Palisade Head, where we stood on top of just that morning to watch the sun rise. And a little closer, you can see some sea caves.
But it is at the very end of the travel, when you are standing on the very edge of Shovel Point that you can see this! Wow! What an experience! Hubby and I kept saying it reminded us of an upper east coast line. So gorgeous!
Shovel Point is 656 feet tall, so you are way up there once you reach the top.
The park made a nice, safe staircase leading down to the very point so you can look out at both the water and back at the coast line.
We hiked three trails in the park on this day, but this one was our absolute favorite. It's not a long hike at all, they say you can complete it in thirty minutes, but we found that laughable. The joy in hiking is to soak everything in: the views, the forests, the sounds, the animals, the wildflowers...it takes a lot longer than thirty minutes to do all that.
Finally, here is a short video of me standing out on Shovel Point expressing all the "feels" I had at the moment. Unfortunately, it's hard to hear what I'm saying because of the wind, and especially when hubby pans the camera away from me. I almost didn't post it for that reason, but I felt it still gives a great representation of what the view is like that a photograph could never do.
Next week, I will share two more hikes we did in this park.
This is a continuation of a travel series to Wisconsin and Minnesota's North Shore. To start at the beginning, go HERE. The rest of the posts in consecutive order are HERE and HERE.
Split Rock Lighthouse
On Day Two of our trip to the North Shore, after spending the morning at Gooseberry Falls, we continued our drive on Scenic Highway 61 for another 7.2 miles to visit Split Rock Lighthouse. The photo you see below is one of the most photographed spots in Minnesota; and I can certainly see why! Between the vast blue sky, the crystal clear water, and that amazing rock formation, the lighthouse on top is just the icing on the cake! Gorgeous!
The Split Rock Light Station went into service in 1910 after a horrific storm in 1905 sank or damaged 29 ships on Lake Superior. In 1969 it was decommissioned and deeded to the state of Minnesota for preservation. Today it includes a lighthouse, a fog signal building, an oil house, three keepers' homes, two surviving storage barns, as well as sites where a boathouse and dock, a hoist and derrick, and a tramway were located. A fee of $8.00 grants you admission to the grounds and inside the Lighthouse and other buildings.
Our first stop was touring the inside of one of the keeper's homes, which you can see to the left on the photo below.
For whatever reason, I only took one photo of the inside of the home, but I remember thinking it was quite lovely and I said "I could live here!". I'm sure you can find photos on-line if you're really interested. The homes were very functional, but quite nice.
I did take a photo from inside one of the bedrooms. Just look at the view they got to wake up to every morning!
All three homes are identical, so they only have one open for tours. It is fully furnished and decorated.
The houses were home to more than 35 lighthouse keepers and their families during all the years the station was active. Three keepers lived on site taking four hour shifts during the night to keep the beacon lit.
The station was closed during the winter and because it was far from any schools, the keepers and their families moved to town from January through March. After the North Shore Scenic Highway was built past the light station in 1924, the keepers and their families were able to live there year round.
While we were visiting, we imagined what life would have been liked for the three families living there. We could picture children playing together, and mother's working and supporting each other. We think it would have been fun! But I'd love to read some journals from these keepers and their families. Were they ever lonely or bored? I don't really know.
The lighthouse height is 54 feet. The beacon height above Lake Superior is 168 feet.
The light station mostly served freighters hauling iron ore that was mined in northern Minnesota and shipped out from the ports of Two Harbors and Duluth/Superior.
During it's first twenty years, the station was only reachable by boat, so everything needed to even build the lighthouse was brought to the site by boat.
The views from the top of the lighthouse are breath-taking! I can't even imagine having a job where you could look out and see this view everyday. I wonder if it ever gets old.
Although I have seen many lighthouses from the outside in my life, this was my first time inside a lighthouse. I was pretty excited!
Although there have been renovations over the years, so much is still in it's original state like all this tiling! Can you even imagine all the work it took to tile these walls in 1924?
I couldn't believe they let visitors climb these stairs to the top. Usually it's "unsafe". How cool is this?
Thirty two steps takes you to the top!
The bivalve Fresnel lens was built in Paris and weighs nearly 6.5 tons. When operating, the lens made one revolution every 20 seconds, floating on a thin layer of mercury. Gears are driven by wights on cables, like a grandfather clock. Every two hours the weights had to be cranked back to their starting positions. Light for the beacon was provided by a kerosene vapor lamp, which was replaced in 1940 by a 1000w electric light bulb. The original fog horn is long gone, but they rigged up a digital version for the visitor's enjoyment.
The beacon range is 22 miles.
Split Rock Lighthouse is also a park where there are several nice hiking trails. We wanted to get to the photos of the "Top 5 Places to Photograph the Lighthouse" so we took the 0.3 mile trail from the parking lot to the lake. Because it's a state park, you have to pay to walk these trails, even if you don't even tour the lighthouse.
There are 171 stairs down to the lake. At the top of the stairs are the ruins of the tramway building. In 1916 a tramway replaced the hoist and derrick. This inclined rail system ran uphill from the boathouse to the tram house. A 5 horsepower gas engine pulled a small cart up the tracks by cable. The tramway was taken out of service in 1934 when keepers were able to truck supplies from Duluth.
You can get to the lakeshore by taking the Tramway Ruins trail, which is a pretty path through the woods, or you can take the steps up and down. We chose to take the trail down, but then took the steps back up as it was a shorter distance. I did have to stop a few times to catch my breath!
This is one of the views from the steps. It's number one in "The top 5 places to photograph the lighthouse".
My favorite views were from the lakeshore. Wowsers!
Of course we had to do selfies with this amazing background! 😀
Black (Onyx) Beach
After our tour of the lighthouse it was back in the car for our last stop for the day: Black Beach. Some sites refer to it as Black Beach and others refer to it as Onyx Beach, why I don't know: it's the same beach and it means the same color: Black.
This beach is absolutely stunning; almost other-worldly. I felt at times that I wasn't even in Minnesota but in some other exotic country.
Black Beach is located in the city of Silver Bay, about 10 miles down North Shore Scenic Highway from the Split Rock Lighthouse.
The beach is known for the fine black sand that lines the shore of Lake Superior. It is bordered by jagged cliffs and rock formations that look so incredible against the blue sky and water.
Although we did see swimmers there, I found the beach impossible to walk on barefoot because it is so rocky. Even when I tried to walk in the water, my feet would sink a foot deep. If you want to swim here, I would highly recommend water shoes!
The black sand isn't natural, but the result of taconite, which was dropped into the water for years by mining companies and washed ashore by waves. The tiny pieces of this mineral mixed with the sand to create an other-worldly phenomenon.
As I was putting this post together, I found out that there are two parts to Black Beach and I missed it! The other part has the black sand. You will have to google it if you're interested in seeing the black sand. However, I think the part I was at had the best views for rock formations. The other part also has a black sand strip you can walk on to reach one of the rocky islands. I'm so bummed we missed it! Oh well, it's not that far for us so we can always go back.
The parts of Black Beach we did see, were sure beautiful!
FYI, most of the information in this post I quoted from the Split Rock Lighthouse Visitor Guide. Oh, and I forgot to mention they have a great Visitor's Center at the Split Rock Lighthouse where you can watch a movie and see lots of displays telling you everything you need to know about the lighthouse and the surrounding area.
