Green Tripping: State Parks, Gitchi-Gami Trail and Waterfalls, Hwy. 61

Before I get this particular blog started about this section of our trip, I wanted to make note of something that has taken up a lot of Anthony's time, which is singing The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot). Just about every time we see a sign that has Gitchi-Gami, or even a view of Lake Superior, he starts singing. He especially went nuts when he saw an exhibit when we were in Duluth. He said that the song makes a lot more sense than it did before.

And I also forgot to put in the picture of the statue of Leif Erikson, the person, according to the info on the plaque, who discovered America. So I definitely didn't want to leave him out.

And Anthony's fascination of moose continues.

(I ran out of pics of Anthony and Moose, so I added a pic of the girls, just for cuteness sake!)

Okay, now on with this part of the trip.

We have found out this trip that Minnesota is not only one of the friendliest states we know, but it also has its share of beauty, and we got to experience it up Hwy. 61 heading toward the Canadian border. There are a total of seven state parks between Duluth and the border, each showing off waterfalls and trails. We tried to see most of them and here they are:

These waterfalls were described to us by our nephew, Jason, as looking like Dr. Pepper, and that is a really good description. They look brown because of all the iron in the water.

And just in case you didn't know, Anthony likes to ride bikes.

If you think that Minnesota is mostly flat, you need to ride the Gitchi-Gami trail.

Just a glimpse of what we got to experience up Hwy. 61.

I saw the ducks and thought, that duck has seaweed trailing behind it. Well, first of all, this wasn't a sea, lol, and secondly that wasn't any kind of weed. I can't even count how many ducklings were behind her, but they were keeping up really well even though the water was pretty choppy that day. They were the cutest little things.

And here are the lighthouses. The one on the left was at Two Harbors. It was built in 1892 and is still active today. The one on the right is Split Rock Lighthouse. It was built after a single storm in 1905 caused damage to 29 vessels on the rocky north shore of Lake Superior.

Two towns of note that were worth the stops were Two Harbors and Grand Marais. In Two Harbors, we learned that from the first shipment on 1884, iron ore has been the foundation of the town. It also still has a tugboat, the Edna G., that was one of the first, and was the last, steam tug on the Great Lakes.

Grand Marais is a cute little artsy town, and one of the last bits of civilization before you leave the U.S., so that's where we stayed one night.

The last picture was taken at The Java Moose, where Anthony tried one of their apple cinnamon scones, which he gives two thumbs up. I had a nice big cup of coffee while I blogged.

We also found these fun tidbits. People have sent me pictures of this kind of bike that Anthony could use to cut our grass. He actually does use a reel mower on the front yard, just not with a bike attached.

One last gem before the border was the Grand Portage National Monument. Here we learned about an 8.5 mile portage, which is a footpath used to carry boats and supplies from Lake Superior to the Pigeon River. Through this portage passed all the trade goods and furs from the Canadian Northwest.

Please note that in 1793 that at the height of the fur trade, 183,000 beaver pelts passed through The Grand Portage!!!! Only because the latest fashion in Europe was beaver skin hats!!! AND they had hunted the beaver in Europe almost to extinction. Wow!! I am not saying we need more beaver around, but that seems excessive. FOR HATS!!

We also learned about how the birch-made canoes could haul tons and tons of supplies.