This was a complete impromptu kind of trip.  Being the planner that I am I still put together an itinerary of possibilities.  We did plan to focus on photographing waterfall in the state parks this trip.  We no sooner made the plan and were met with a potential hurdle.  Just outside of Duluth on I35 we were met with a wall of fog.  If you have ever been to Duluth or been there multiple times, there is a good chance you have experienced this king of fog of epic proportions.  Visibility was nil.  All was not lost as Duluth was not the destination, but rather a blip on the trail of this particular journey.  Little did we know the fog would run the whole length of the North Shore and only really clear one morning during our visit.  It made for an interesting trip photographically, that is for sure.

This post and the next few after will recap the details of each day of our trip to the North Shore.  I will highlight where we went, what we did and saw and where we ate and stayed.

Knife River, MN was our first stop.  You couldn’t see much of Lake Superior, but you could smell the fresh air and the lake.  Russ Kendall’s Smokehouse is always on the itinerary.  Cyndie isn’t a fan of smoked fish, but I am.  I got a quick fix in the parking lot and even shared a bit with the seagulls.  Just down the road from Kendall’s on the opposite side of the road are some fantastic old vehicles.  I photograph them every trip.

The first day we milled about in Two Harbors a bit and then made our way to Gooseberry Falls State Park.  It was this first day that we noticed the abandoned building, but we didn’t photograph it until we returned later in the trip.  This was a long day filled with many miles and great sites.  Cooter Pottery  and Two Island River/Taconite Harbor were great destinations of the day.  We settled in at Cove Point Lodge for the night.  We had a wonderful dinner just up the road at Cove Point Crossings Bar & Grill.

As you can see by the satellite view there is a nice point to observe the bay and lake from.  There is a trail all the way out to the point.  This was an interesting and picturesque hike after breakfast the next morning  in the fog .

Here are my shots of the Minnesota North Shore – The in between, Day 1

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