Fall Color Trilogy

Part 1

September 24-26

When the fall colors began to trickle in, Redfox and I wanted to get as many pictures as possible taken of this magical time, especially of our favorite waterfalls. So we decided to go as soon as we read a fall color report from the Minnesota DNR stating that the northern-most parts of Minnesota were peaking in color.

The campgrounds and motels were chock-full on Lake Superior's North Shore, no surprise at all to us. After much research on the internet, we found a Day's Inn just south of Virginia in Eveleth, MN which is in the heart of the Mesabi Iron Range. The town of Eveleth boasted the highest point, the Leonidas Overlook, the Hockey Hall of Fame and of course, the world's largest hockey stick. When we arrived up there it was overcast, but we had much to see, so we headed out to the Superior National Forest a few miles up the road, to see what we could see. We found bright red and orange trees, the first of our fall color shots.

We went to sleep early that evening so we could pack a lot into the next day, and boy-oh-boy did we ever! Our goal was to make it all the way up the magical highway 61 on the North Shore to Canada, with the two most northern State Parks that we hadn't visited yet being the priority. It would be no easy task, over 150 miles with a dozen potential waterfalls stops on the way. We would adjust our agenda as we went, knowing the sun would set by 7pm.

We grabbed a quick continental breakfast at the Day's Inn, where we had soaked in the spa the night before, and headed out, so hastily in fact that we were treated to a friendly warning by a Highway Patrol officer on the way. We had discovered some non-State Park waterfalls sites that we wanted to check out first, shortly after passing through Duluth on the journey north.

The first one was Knife River, which was a delightful array of small cascading falls carved into the lava-rock just south of a dam. It looked like a nice place to hang out for a while, but we got our snaps and set out in search of the Beaver River.

We found the wayside rest along Hwy 61 that had a trail that wound around to Beaver River by the falls. Since we were limited in time, I slid down a steep ravine instead. Redfox chose another path, and we met in the middle of the falls area, a slightly larger set of cascading falls, finding some more color in our shots.

We had a long ways to go yet, so we raced back to the truck and continued north on 61. We couldn't pass up the most popular Gooseberry State Park with four separate waterfalls though, so we flew into the parking lot there at 10am, grabbing one of the remaining half a dozen spots. We snapped a couple shots of the middle and upper falls before taking a trail to see the strangely named Fifth Falls, the fourth set actually, that was more remote than the others. That being completed, we aimed ourselves back to the truck so we could make it to two familiar State Parks on the way, the Temperance River Park and the favorite of Redfox's, the Cascades River Park.

We knew where the paths went, and we hurried through the very unique set of falls at both of the Parks. These two sites have awesome red lava-rock bedded falls: Temperance with narrow, deeply cut powerful falls cascading down powerfully from the calmer, wider river above; and Cascades with swirling eddies gracefully carving into the red rock below each of the several falls in the zigzagging Cascades River. We were a little disappointed in the lack of variety in the colors at the two parks that the DNR had said were at full peak, but we got what we could anyway, knowing we wouldn't be back before the area lost the deciduous leaves for the oncoming winter.

The clock was ticking. We grabbed our cooler and made sandwiches on a newspaper laid out on the front seat of the truck, then ate them on the way as we made our way to the border, with no more stops along the way.

We arrived at Grand Portage State Park on the Pigeon River, which is shared by Minnesota and Canada. What a sight it was, two separate gushers spilling down a long cliff of black-red lava rock in a very large ravine. We would have absolutely loved to explore further, but it was still a mile back to the truck and the sun was really sinking towards the horizon.

We had seen on our DNR maps that the final stop, Judge CR Magney State Park had only a little over a half-mile walk to get to the falls there. We were thankful of that as we were getting a bit tired and sore by then, having hiked over 10 miles of hilly paths already in our quest for fall color.

The short path led to a shockingly long set of stairs trailing steeply down into what we later discovered was the deepest ravine in Minnesota. We walked and walked and walked until we finally saw the first set of falls peeping out of the wooded valley below. It was a relief and a beautiful sight all at once! We continued until we were face-to-face with the short but very powerful Lower Falls of the Brule River, spraying mist like nothing we had seen yet. We got so close our cameras got wet; what a treat this was! But where was the famous Devil's Kettle that we had saved for last? Oh my gosh, it was 700 more feet, and uphill too!

Our legs were rubber-in-pain as we scrambled up the precarious path to Devil's Kettle. What an awesome sight awaited us! The Brule River splits into two paths, the first to a regular waterfalls, but the second to a waterfalls that emptied into a seemingly-bottomless pit, the subject of much urban legend. We could even get behind the falls to get pictures of the raging river split by a giant lava-rock rudder. Wow, what a cool place indeed!

The sun was not waiting for anyone though, and after climbing back down the 700-foot hill we began our ascent back up the infamous million steps to the top trail, where we clicked a couple pics of the sun setting in this beautiful one-of-a-kind park.

We grabbed the bins and coolers, along with the propane stove, and in the next 30 minutes we cooked up thick pork chops with mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans almondine, then ate while we cleaned up and packed it all away. It was completely dark as we left the park; we had just barely squeezed in this last, very high priority site.

We made it back to Eveleth three and a half hours of straight driving later, at 11pm, and by 8am we were back on the road, stopping first at Leonidas Overlook to get some shots of the valley and the lake-filled deserted taconite mine nearby. We found the giant hockey stick, snapped it and headed down the highway back home.. or were we?

About halfway home we decide to check out another State Park that did not list waterfalls, the Jay Cooke Park on the St Louis River. We thought we could have some lunch and see if there was colorful scenery there. As we drove in we stopped at a wayside rest that we later learned was a remote corner of Jay Cooke that had interesting ravines with a dam nearby. We split up and snapped a few pics of the dam and the river, then headed towards the main entrance. The road ran alongside of the St Louis River giving us a great view of it, winding around bends carved into black lava rock with many small rapids all the way into the park. We parked and headed towards the Suspension Bridge that we had seen on the park map. We were surprised to find that the river was filled with many small waterfalls on either side of a diamond shaped island. We climbed all over, looking for the many shooting angles possible at this fascinating spot. We had really gotten a bonus at this park that had not been listed as one with waterfalls. We would be coming back to this spot many times to enjoy this most unique river. But we were getting pretty tired on this third day.
 

We never would have believed that only 5 days later we would embark on another journey that rivaled this one.

Hope you enjoyed part one of my trilogy. Part two will soon to follow.

Sincerely

AAALynx

Our found treasures

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Come see all the waterfalls and other treasures that we have found to share with you this  past year. All you need to do is click on the Park Lynx Prints to find them. Hope you enjoy the sites and scenery