Day 7 - Calumet to Gooseberry Falls

Woke up quite early this morning, so we were on the road by 6:15 EDT. Naturally, the only place open for breakfast was McD's, so we went hungry for a while.  At Ontonagon, we finally found a café open, with 10 men drinking coffee and us eating.  This was a side trip via MI-38. After breakfast we took MI-60 back to MI-28, which ran into US-2 and relatively heavy traffic. Despite that, we got thru  Duluth before lunch.  Two older US Steel lakers were in port in Superior, and Sandra wanted me to stop (on the interstate) to take their picture.  No!

We stopped for lunch at Judy's Pies in Two Harbors, then drove down toward the port to see what was happening. En route, we captured the Lake County Courthouse.

At first look, the port didn't seem to have anything exciting going on. A large laker was taking on ore on the other side of the dock.

When, to our surprise, we had a visitor - one A of the new-fangled 1000 foot lakers coming in to port.
All we could say was "Wow!"  It's amazing how they maneuver such a massive boat/

Note the size of the boat compared to the people on the jetty. 

A tug gives the Edwin H. Gott some help

We headed northwest on MN-61, through a series of tunnels,  toward our night's destination, Gooseberry Park Cottages and Motel - and drove right past it to Gooseberry Falls State Park.  We (luckily) found a parking place, and headed up the trail marked "To Falls."  The park is features a series of falls, and a bit of recent rain had them running at a reasonable rate.  The upper falls are almost underneath the highway bridge.

Upper falls

 Upper falls close-up

Middle falls

Our next stop was the oft-photographed Split Rock Light, which was built in response to a wreck nearby.  There's a lot of iron ore in the rocks along the North Shore, so magnetic compasses are often in error. The light was made obsolete by radar.

A telephoto view of the lighthouse

Trying for fine art up by the lighthouse

Every light needs a foghorn

The coast that required a light

Back to the motel to register and move into the room - just in time before a thunderstorm delivered a roaring deluge. After the rain stopped we crossed the highway for supper.  The folks up here are awfully proud of their food!

295.4 miles on the day, 1501 for the trip. Tomorrow it's up to Grand Portage & back, looking at scenery, especially waterfalls.

Tidbits of the day:

• The UP has a Sleepy Creek
• Lake Gogebic sports a Hoop & Holler Bar
• Wakefield features a very large wood Indian statue
• Sign west of Hurley: "Watch for Blowing Snow and Drifting Sand"
• There's a Bad River Casino - is it a  bad casino on a river or a  casino on the Bad River?.
• East of Brule we saw a rocking chair with a fishing pole, an arrow, and a stump with an axe - all at least 10 feet long/high
• Brule also sports the Kro Bar