North Shore State Parks

'Family' Portrait at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park 

Our time on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota has been an unexpected treat.  Not that we thought it wouldn’t be nice, I guess we just didn’t expect it to be this nice.  Beautiful, cool weather and the absence of pests have had a lot to do with it I suspect.  But even without those things the North Shore is amazing – cascades and waterfalls on almost every river or stream, hiking trails galore weaving in and around the Sawtooth Mountains plus thousands of lakes dotting the landscape and to the east dominating it all, glittering blue Lake Superior.

 

High Falls at Tettegouche State Park

 

Still not ready for our summer fun to end, we decided we would spend our last days on the North Shore visiting every state park that we hadn’t seen yet.  We stayed at Gooseberry Falls, the southernmost park on our way north and visited Grand Portage near the Canadian Border and Judge C.R. Magney and Cascade Falls State Parks near Grand Marais.  That left only three to see along the coast – Temperance River, Tettegouche and Split Rock Lighthouse State Parks.

 

Mouth of the Temperance River at Lake Superior

Sunset from the campground at Temperance River State Park

As I have mentioned, it isn’t always easy to get a camping spot up here during the summer months especially near the weekends.  We left Grand Marais on a Thursday and were so lucky to get the last non-reservable campsite at Temperance River State Park.  In the summer, reservable spots are usually booked months in advance but most every park has a few non-reservable (first come, first serve) campsites available.  The good thing about the non-reservable ones is that once you have one you can stay in it up to 14 days.  Rather than testing our luck in the other state parks, we made Temperance River our ‘home base’ and visited nearby Tettegouche and Split Rock Lighthouse State Parks from there.

 

Temperance River Gorge

Our hike along the Temperance River Gorge

 

Staying at Temperance River turned out to be a very good decision.  For one thing, our campsite was surrounded by a thicket of ripe raspberries – no extra charge!  Also we were just a short walk from the mouth of the Temperance River and its cobblestone beaches at Lake Superior.  Nearby trails also led to the upstream gorges and plunging waterfalls.  The river had some deep swimming pools that were much warmer than the average 42 degrees of Lake Superior.  (Maya is the only one of us that ever managed to brave a Lake Superior swim.)

 

View of Lake Superior
from Oberg Mountain near Temperance River State Park

 

But the reason we were the most grateful that we were staying at Temperance River was – no horseflies!  Yes, Mother Nature decided we needed one last plague (at least, I hope it is the last one) to motivate us to go home.  The day we visited Tettegouche State Park and hiked to Shovel Point we were inundated with biting horseflies.  Thank goodness it was only a mile-long trail.  By the time we were back to the car we were covered in flies.  They followed us to the car and we were swatting them in the parking lot.  Maya was rolling on the ground to get them off.  We got as many as we could off us and jumped in the car quickly then put the windows down and shooed them out.  Even Maya was groaning with relief as we sped out of the parking lot.  Although the trails away from the lake were not plagued by flies, we were still glad we weren’t camped at Tettegouche.

 

Horseflies on David's back, OMG!



 

Poor Maya!



Split Rock Lighthouse State Park was fly-free as well and we had a lovely walk to the lighthouse along the steep cliffs of Lake Superior.  The Gitchi-Gami State Trail, a biking and hiking trail along the North Shore that is under construction, has its longest completed segment passing through Split Rock.  We haven’t taken our bikes on our travels since it is easier to hike with Maya than bike.  But the Gitchi-Gami State Trail would be a great trail to bike.  Just putting that out there for those of you so inclined…

 

 

Shovel Point overlooking Lake Superior at Tettegouche State Park
(where we got into all those horseflies -- I guess it was worth it)

 

With our North Shore State Park ‘tour’ complete we will camp by Lake Superior for the last time this trip in Two Harbors.  Then it is on to Duluth and points farther south.

 

 David’s Stats:

Days Hiked:  4  
Total Miles Hiked:  21.56   
Ave. Miles per Day:    4.31 
Total Elevation Gain:   3,779 
Ave. Elevation Gain per day:  945 

Another beautiful cascading waterfall, Caribou Falls

Maya climbs down from Carleton Peak in Temperance River State Park