Day 8 - Grand Portage and return

A hot day, a lot of hiking, and low bandwidth - you'll get a story today, but the pictures will come later.  We headed out at 6:55 AM, confident that we'd find a place for breakfast not far up the road, probably in Silver Bay.  No hurry, we stopped and took a few pictures at scenic spots along the way.  It turns out that Silver Bay is a Company Town, & we didn't see a café anyplace.  We bypassed Tettegouche State Park, since the walk would be a bit far (2 miles & not smooth). Couldn't find the turnoff to Illgen Falls, and we bypassed Caribou Falls since were getting hungry.  Finally Schroeder - the Cross River Falls easily photographed from the roadside stop!

Just past Schroeder we found Temperance Falls.  40+ years ago we took a nice hike up the gorge; this time we shot what we could from near the road.

No food in Lutsen, and we skipped Cascade Falls until later.  Finally, Grand Marais, a real touristy port town. We found a café, had a late breakfast - not bad but badly overpriced.  Now it's time to head north to Grand Portage.  This was the site of an early trading post and a portage trail that bypassed 8 miles of falls and rapids on the Pigeon River.  It's now on an Indian reservation, so it sports a casino near the rebuilt stockade on the National Monument. There's also a state park, with a 1/2 mile accessible trail to the 130 foot falls on the Canadian border.  Sandra stayed in the car, while Bill power-hiked the paved trail to take pictures, then power-hiked back - one Gatorade down.

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We left the park at 1:15 to return.  The main stop was Cascades State Park. A wooded trail led to the upper cascades, and Sandra made the trip with Bill.  Bill took pictures, drove out of the park, and found another trail to the lower cascades.  More pictures.

Finally on our way back toward the motel, with a stop for food at a restaurant reputedly with prize-winning BBQ.  The meat tasted good (pulled pork), but the presentation of everything was weird (& prices, ok course, were high).  Bill took a couple of pictures around the motel and planned for tomorrow,

232 miles for the day, 1734 for the trip. Tomorrow, it's MN-61 back to Duluth, then MN-194, US-2, MN-200, MN-34 & US-10 to Fargo.