The motor home deposited in a campground near Duluth, we take the car back up Rte 61 along the Lake Superior Shore.  First we check out Split Rock Lighthouse.  The lighthouse itself isn’t very tall but it sits 100 feet above the lake on a magnificent cliff top location. They have Peregrine falcons nesting on their cliff!

Built at the request of ship captains and shipping company owners (mostly steel mills) after a disastrous 1905 on the lake; the Split Rock Lighthouse broadcasts a beacon visible for 22 miles and served as a navigational lighthouse for the north shore. The advent of more sophisticated technology rendered it un-necessary but fortunately it has been wonderfully preserved by the Minnesota Historical Society.  Morning fog lifts as we walk around the site.  A young man dressed the part serves as lighthouse keeper today.  Every 90 minutes he actually winds the works that turn the Fresnel lens and spends many an hour polishing brasswork in and around the lighthouse.  Maybe we should check to see if the historical society needs volunteers!  It is beautiful here.

A short distance south we find Gooseberry Falls State Park.  Recent rains have swollen the coffee-brown stained waters of the Gooseberry River and it tumbles impressively down three rugged rock steps on its way to Lake Superior.  Trails wind along both banks and criss-cross the flow on bridges.  In addition to the spectacular natural scenery, there is impressive CCC work along the trail. 

The most impressive is an enormous retaining structure dubbed “the castle” built of native stone.