Tettagouche State Park

It's our final morning in Minnesota. When we go to bed tonight, we'll be in Wisconsin. This hasn't been a good place for Smitty to get out of the RV. We tried yesterday, but there are too many Mans and ATV's around...very scary for cats. On the other hand, it's the first place where he's been able to enjoy a morning sunbath on his window hammock.

Our plan for yesterday was to visit Tettegouche State Park. I couldn't get my camera to focus on the sign as we drove by, and so you'll have to trust that's what we did based on this lettering at the door of the visitor center.

When I planned our trip, I used a state parks book to choose the best state parks in any given state. If we could camp in the park, we did. If not, we found a spot nearby. I had no familiarity with this park, and so we decided to do the recommended one-hour to visit from their website. This was the suggested tour:

Now that we've actually done it, I'm going to say that's a very optimistic plan for just one hour. We spent several hours at the park, and still only managed the hike out to Shovel Point, and the hike to the Cascades Waterfall. We started at the visitor center. When we reached this sign, we went to the left first. We would come back eventually, and then go to the right out to Cascade Falls.

Here's how our hike looked on the park map.
 

These were very nice trails...well maintained and wooded. The trees provided some nice shade on a warm, sunny day.

Intermittently there were wooden platforms with benches and breaks in the trees where we could look out on Lake Superior.

Stick with me, my friends. I survived the trip, and so I won't lead you over the edge.

There were also a lot of stairs on this trail that led up to a high spot at Shovel Point.

We took advantage of the benches along the way, sat and enjoyed the view.

This particular place along the trail reminded us of Acadia National Park in Maine, where the coastline is rugged and the Atlantic Ocean comes right up to the rocks.

Looking toward the right, this is what we saw.

Walking on, I noticed how these tree roots had grown out over a rock, almost enveloping it.

After many steps and stairs, we reached the end of the trail at Shovel Point. 

Looking off in the other direction, it looked like this:

There were rock climbers gearing up and readying themselves to rappel over the side of the cliff. Not this camper.

We sat and rested for a bit and then headed back the way we came. We've seen these trees with clusters of red berries along the way, but not as many as we saw here in the state park yesterday.

One of you can probably identify them. They remind me of the Madrones in Oregon with their red berries, but the leaves and trunks are completely different.

 

After walking that trail in and out, we were plenty warm enough and decided to shed our windbreakers. Mike took them back to the truck and retrieved my hiking pole. I hadn't needed it up to that point, but I was glad to have it for the rocky trail that followed. While I waited for him to return, I took pictures of every blooming thing, including these purple jobs.

Apparently this is purple's place to grow. I noticed these asters on the other side of the walkway, more purple than the ones I've seen so far.

Now we were heading right from the sign at the visitor center. The hike promised to take us to the Baptism River. I can guess why it has that name, but my friend The Google couldn't tell me any more about it. We paused for more pretty views of the lake. Looking out across that vast expanse of blue water never gets old.

In the other direction, it looked like this:

We didn't walk far before we came to the mouth of the Baptism River where it drains into Lake Superior.

There's a beach for swimming here. Make sure you know what to do if you see a drowning swimmer. And I recommend staying out of the ice cold water altogether.

Our plan was to continue the hike up to Cascade Falls. Walking away from the lake and up the river, it looked like this. I wanted you to notice the color of the water across the way. That brownish-red is caused by tannins in the water. As fallen leaves decay, tannins seep into the water, making it appear the color of darkly stained tea.

Walking on, we had to cross the bridge.

If you're following along, let your conscience be your guide whether you can cross safely. I can tell you that I'm safely under the weight limit.

Walking to the middle of the bridge, we looked back and saw this:

Looking straight down, we saw this.

Our shadow selves took this picture of us. It's about time they made themselves useful.

From there, signage promised us a hike of 3/4 of a mile in and then another 3/4 of a mile back out. LIARS!! I'm telling you it was the longest 3/4 mile hike I've ever hiked. Over rocks and up and down stairs. It was a nice trail, right along the river, but we were tired by the time we reached Cascade Falls. Phew. As we were heading back out, we met other hikers who were saying the same thing. Is it really up there? Have we missed it? No...just keep going, and this will be your reward:

It's one of three waterfalls on the Baptism River. I made a little video of it. By the way, thanks for your feedback on the videos. If you're following by email, just click on the title of this blog post to be taken to the actual blog. You'll be able to see the video there.

Looking back in the other direction, there was a very inviting pool of mostly still water.

Mike had to skip a few rocks here. You can make a man of the boy, but you cannot take the boy out of the man.

The bees were humming on these nearby flowers.

And then, it was just a long slog back to the truck. Just beside my door I noticed these little guys growing in the grass.

And phew! We were tired. It was just after 1:00 p.m., and my Fitbit had logged over 11,000 steps and 54 floors!

We were tired pups by the time we got back to the RV, and my knees were killing me. I took some naproxen and iced them twice yesterday afternoon. By dinner time, they were feeling pretty much back to normal. This morning...no problems at all, which is encouraging.

Okay, so we're on our way to Wisconsin next. We'll have four nights in Bayfield, and we have tickets to a Grand Tour of the Apostle Islands. When we visited this area last time, we decided to skip the boat tour, and we've always regretted it. The sky is overcast this morning, and so I'm hoping for blue skies when we take our tour on Wednesday. We still have not reached the halfway point of our trip, and so there is much more to see and do coming up.