July 14, 2013 - dantraun.com

Gooseberry State Park

Gooseberry Falls State Park is the first state park you will encounter heading North from Duluth. This “gateway to the North Shore” is situated 40 scenic miles North from Duluth along Hwy 61 and the beautiful Lake Superior shoreline. Known primarily for its waterfalls, five in all, this park offers some tremendous views of the awesome power of water. The 23 mile long Gooseberry River runs through the park with varying degrees of volume as it is highly dependent on rain water runoff. The river was plump with water for our visit in July; we photographed all but Fifth Falls. Other items of interest include Agate Beech and the 18 miles of hiking trails, of which 8 are mountain biking trails. There is no shortage of things to see at this park.

History

The area known as Gooseberry Falls State Park is intricately tied to human use of Lake Superior. At different times, the Cree, the Dakotah, and the Ojibwe lived along the North Shore. As early as 1670, the Gooseberry River appeared on explorer maps. The river was either named after the French explorer Sieur des Groseilliers or after the Anishinabe Indian name, Shab-on-im-i-kan-i-sibi; when translated, both refer to gooseberries. In the 1870s, commercial and sport fishermen began to use this area.

By the 1890s, logging became the principle use of the land around the Gooseberry River. In 1900, the Nestor Logging Company built its headquarters at the river mouth and a railway was used to carry the pine to the lake for rafting to the sawmills. Because of fires and intensive logging pressures, the pine disappeared by the early 1920s.

With the rise of North Shore tourism in the 1920s, there was a concern that the highly scenic North Shore would be accessible only to the rich. As a result the Legislature authorized preservation of the area around Gooseberry Falls in 1933. The following year, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began to develop the park. CCC crews built the park’s stone and log buildings and the 300-foot long “Castle in the Park” stone retaining wall. They also laid out the original campground, picnic grounds and trails. The area officially became Gooseberry Falls State Park in 1937. The CCC camps closed in 1941, but the park’s CCC legacy lives on. Designed with ties to the CCC, a new visitor center/wayside rest and Highway 61 bridge was opened in 1996. CCC camp photo albums: Camp life, Buildings/historic site, Legacy Self-guided Tour checklist & map.

Wow what a trip. I’ve been up the North Shore several times. I’ve been through the area in the Spring, Winter, and Fall, but never in the Summer. The funny thing though, it didn’t exactly feel like Summer. With the weird and delayed warmer weather this Spring – Spring is just reaching points Duluth and North. The lilacs are just blooming now along with all the other wild flowers including lupine. The roadsides where vibrant with color for the duration.

Leaving the twin city metro area, the weather was the typical July like 90+ degrees; there was a touch of stifling humidity in the air and the possibility of a thunderstorm was very likely. Life is usually a bit cooler along the North Shore with the breezes blowing over that 40 degree water. You could say it is a natural air conditioner. If you have ever been to Duluth, you know full well that there is a chance that you won’t see most of the town and none of the lake when heavy fog sets in. This is exactly what we were met with. From 90+ to 50 degrees in what seemed an instant. Very heavy fog clogged up any hope of a panoramic view and inhibited visibility on the road significantly, but hamper our spirits it did not. Such is life traveling the shore.

Over the next few days we made our way up the shore seven of the eight state parks in the fog. This trip was mostly about photographing the waterfalls in each state park, with the exception of Split Rock, the lighthouse is just cool to tour. It turns outs that fog makes waterfall photography interesting. It was a godsend considering some neutral density (ND) filters were left behind and one lens (with ND filters) was not functioning correctly. The fog naturally filtered out the harsh sunlight and created some interesting shooting conditions to say the least.

We are truly lucky to live is such a beautiful area with wonderful and abundant natural resources so close by. Our state parks are so beautiful. Aside from the parks, the rest of the scenery along the way is pretty awe-inspiring as well.

We were also fortunate enough to sneak a peek (and several shots) of an old abandoned 3-story warehouse/distribution center in Two Harbors, MN. It was lovely as were many other places along the way.

In the coming days I will post the photos from each park. I have a ton of photos (1100+) to look through. Until then, here are a few shots of our travels along the way and in between the parks – more of these to follow as well.