Tettegouche State Park Revisited

January 29

Today went ventured back to one of the parks on the Highway 61 strip in northern Minnesota not so much for the pictures but for the hiking adventures that we might be able to find. We choose Tettegouche State Park since we had not been there since this past summer.

The first stop that we made on our journey was to Lake Superior to see what if any treasures might be found there. We had stopped there so many times in the past with total amazement we were hoping for a small gift to bring back with us. So many times we passed this particular area leaving the downtown Duluth area but chose to stop this time. Boy were we in for a treat.  Lake Superior didn't let us down at all. The lake was still giving us a new look at its beauty. She had deposited sheets of broken ice along the shore line that looked like blue crystal or sheets of glass. The rocks that jettisoned from the shoreline were covered with layer upon layer of ice that created an awesome site to behold.  We found Lester River Park, open to skiers and snowmobiles.  We found an area that we decided we want to come back in the spring for some grand waterfalls shots.

From Lester River we drove up to another spot that is one of our favorites, Illgen Falls. Since Illgen Falls isn't that far away from our final destination we figured  we should stop there first to see what beauty we might find there. On the way up to Illgen Falls we found beautiful rock formations with layer upon layer of ice. Some of the colors of the icicles were blue while some were the color of the iron filled water that the Arrow Head is famous for. We arrived at our first destination the Illgen Falls State Park area.  Little did we know that the path to the falls area was not kept up.  We drove down close to the Illgen Falls State Park cabin with high hopes that the path to the river would be accessible.  We walked over to where the path use to be in the fall. We really wanted to see Illgen Falls and decided to go forward thinking that the snow cover must be packed down on this trail by now.  With this in mind AAALynx went up and over the first snow bank. When I looked up to follow him, he was no longer there.  I scurried up the snow pile after him only to find out that he had sunk down in the snow to chest high snow. Of course at this point he was frantic not being able to feel any solid ground below his feet and asking for my assistance. I'm sure that he thought he was going to die or become a AAALynx popsicle.  The more he moved trying to get out, the further down he went. All I could think about is how the heck am I going to help this man get out of the snow pile. If I went down to help him I would sink up to my chin in snow and that wouldn't help him out at all so I did the next best thing; started to laugh. I laughed so hard that I couldn't stop. Finally, he grabbed a hold of a tree, started to push the snow away from his body and slowly climbed out. Sure do wish I would have gotten a picture of that. That is the one time I am so glad that I was not the one that forged ahead  to make the path. Well after that we knew that we weren't going to go to Illgen Falls or see any of the beauty that she provides today.

Next we scurried over to Tettegouche State Park; the place that we had chosen to hike. Like I said we had not been here since this past summer so we didn't know what we would find. The Minnesota State DNR site said the trails were all open and well groomed. This was great news to us. We found the trail head, then started on our adventure. We hiked up hill 0.3 miles to where we had to turn off the main groomed trail and had to hike what the sign said another 0,5 miles to the falls area. The trail didn't look so bad here but there was only one other human that chose to venture to this park of the park. We followed the path which zigzagged through the landscape,  walking wasn't too bad if you followed either the other persons steps that were there before us or the wild animals that walked along the trail. Finally the High Falls of Tettegouche came into view. We could hear the familiar sound of the waterfall not far in the distance. We raced on down the mountain side to see a snow covered High falls. At the bottom of the once powerful fall you could still see a small non-frozen area of the falls and hear the raging Baptism River running in all its glory.

Next we found the suspension bridge that takes you over to the other side of the falls. It was at this point we had to decide whether we go back the way we came or venture forward. If we moved forward we didn't know what lie ahead, or we could go back the way we came and go maybe to another place this day. We of course ventured forward. The suspension bridge was not at all like the one we found at Jay Cooke State Park oh no. This one moved and gave and I wanted to get off it as fast as I could.

No one had been across this bridge from what I could see in what was maybe months. There was no snow pack at all. So my prints were the first; up the stairs and over to the other side of the mighty river. I told myself that crossing this bridge over the river wouldn't be so bad so please don't panic and just move forward over the bridge. I was doing just that till I saw the open water spot below me on the Baptism River with all the layers of thick ice surrounding the edges. 

The northern side had not been visited and there were no other tracks to follow with the exception of the deer population that used the trail. We made it up the steep incline to see the High Falls from a different angle. At least on this side of the river we could see the open area of water so we knew that the falls were not completely frozen solid. It was also at this vantage point that we could see what we had traversed to get to where we were. As I was looking I realized that we had just climbed over one of the hills of the Saw Toothed Mountains. Once again it was here we had to decide if we ventured forward down the path along the river or go up and up and find Hwy 61. Do you think we would actually follow the path we had traveled this past summer to make it back? No, once again we chose to go up and up on the other path to find our way out. I do have a good sense of direction; with this being said, as we started to walk I did notice that we were going north and not south to get to Hwy 61.

The snow was fresh and 18 inches deep.  Not only were we going away from Highway 61 and going up hill but this hike was extremely difficult in unpacked snow. We climbed to the top of another hill and realized that we had for a second time gone over another hill of the Saw Toothed Mountains; no wonder I was getting so tired. We stayed on the path which we thought was a trail that had not yet been completely groomed by the Minnesota DNR walking in the deer tracks so not to sink up to our knees in snow. Once again if we missed the trail we would sink in unpacked snow to depths between 28-32 inches. We hiked 2 miles total and finally a clearing up ahead showed signs of a road. We came to the clearing stepped out and thought we were home free now. Wrong but we did get to watch several deer frolic about in the snow. They watched us intently as we tried our best to capture them on film.

The road we found was actually a driveway of sorts but this time I was the one that forged ahead and followed the driveway to the main road. I had a vague idea of where we were when I viewed the sites that lay before us and couldn't believe we had gotten that far off course. Where we were was  Highway 1 only 0.2 of a mile from our days beginning at Illgen Falls. Since we had no other way to get back to the vehicle we walked down the Saw Toothed Mountain Road  2 miles till we came across Highway 61.

Once on Highway 61 we knew that we were not far from Tettegouche State Park and back to my truck. When we made to the visitor center we spoke to a gentleman there, asked how much further it would be to walk to the trail head where we had started. He informed us it would be another 0.5 mile down the road. My mind raced with  excitement; the hike was just about over and I would be able to sit down in a nice warm truck. This was a plowed road but was slushy and mostly up hill. No problem we thought, we just went two miles through unpacked snow at Tettegouche State Park and another 2 miles to get to Highway 61 and a half mile to the park. We walked a half a mile and the road continued on and on; uphill of course with slushy snow making it more difficult to travel. The half mile were told turned into another two mile hike back to the trail head. We both thought for sure that we were have heart failure by the end of this hike but we lived.

Once in the truck AAALynx looked over at me with a serious face and asked if I  wanted to go to Cascade State Park to hike. I was about to stop my vehicle and let him out thinking he could walk home but the smile on his face afterwards made that task hard to do.

Now we feel we are ready for some serious spring and summer hiking. Please come back again as we hike through more of Minnesota's State Park systems.

Sincerely

RedFox

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