Who could bypass this? World Famous Betty’s Pies in Two Harbors Minnesota.  We sample wild blueberry and Bumbleberry, each with ice cream of course.  It is a fun, tasty stop.

Born a port town where the St. Louis River drains into Lake Superior, Duluth is still a very industrial city with some interesting sites to visit. We start our walk around along the harbor to check out the lift bridge over the Duluth Canal.  It is a cool kind of draw bridge.  A 386 foot section of highway is suspended below an impressive steel superstructure that juts high above the channel.  Huge counter weights, 500 tons a piece, do most of the heavy lifting when the operator sets the bridge in motion.  It can provide as much as 180 feet vertical clearance for passing boats.  We witness a couple short lifts for fishing and tour boats but timing wasn’t quite right to see the full stroke up close when big freighters pass through.  Before this was a lift bridge, it was an aerial tram that moved a gondola loaded with people and cars across the channel.  That would have been fun to see…and ride.  Nearby we spend some time in the Corp of Engineers Maritime Museum checking out wreck history on the lake and other stories from these great bodies of water.  We wander on to check out Duluth Pack and of course Duluth Trading Company which is packed with much of the same merchandise and silly messaging as seen on their webpage. We stroll a bit more lakefront in route to Old Chicago Pizza for lunch.

The stars of this place are the St. Louis River and the CCC built swinging bridge that spans it.  The river is stained a rich brown from organic materials upstream.  It tumbles and foams down a rugged rock channel.  Geology all along here makes for impressive river cuts and lakeshores.  It makes for big floods too.  This swinging bridge has been completely rebuilt five times, the most recent after a 2012 flood that destroyed all but the piers.  The nature center/picnic pavilion is housed in another native stone CCC structure.  It has an amazing huge fireplace.

Many white tail deer call this area home. I have watched them several evenings as I am out at our “phone booth” location (reception at our site is terrible) checking in with folks.

One has to get out on the water to enjoy this park. We chose the Grand Tour cruise that winds its way past many of the 21 islands.  There are lighthouses and lots of rugged terrain which is home to some 30 pair of nesting eagles.  The coolest feature is the “sea” caves where thousands of years of crashing waves have eroded pockets into the sandstone cliffs leaving columns and caverns.  Today’s calm waters allow us to get up close and personal as the captain noses us to within touching distance to the cliffs.

Superior is an impressive lake and being out on it feels like being out on the ocean.  1333 feet deep at it’s deepest with temperatures at that depth just above freezing even this time of year.  Surface temp is a shiver inducing 50 something.  A favorite slogan on Lake Superior T-shirts; “The Lake is the boss”.  I believe it.

The gateway community, Bayfield, is a vacation destination on the lake with lots of cottages and inns along with many restaurants and all manner of resort wear, local art and whatnot shop. Beautiful wildflower gardens line the streets and sidewalks.  Docks in the municipal harbor shelter hundreds of sailboats many of which hire out for private tours and trips.  The old brownstone courthouse building now houses the National Park Service visitor center.  It is a restful, beautiful place to stroll.

Dinner tonight is at The Fat Radish, a farm to table place right downtown. We sample local fish; Kent the whitefish and I lake trout.  Both are deliciously prepared and they claim “swimming in the lake last night”.  We enjoyed it.  I was even too full for blueberry pie!