Waterfalls along the North Shore

June 5, 2017, Monday; Campsite at Horseshoe Bay near Hoveland, Minnesota

Up at 05:45 this morning soon after the Sun itself had risen through a thin morning mist above the lake.  Mist was rapidly burning off, and the day promised to be a fine one; excellent for the Waterfalls.  As I prepared to leave my home of three nights, four male American Goldfinches passed through my campsite.  Very yellow, these Goldfinches, and well deserve their name; so much flashier than the European Goldfinch, although those birds do have their own charm, with their red cheeks, but their paucity of gold begs the question of how they became to be named such.

Early morning mist rising off of Harriet Lake.

Lake Bed & reflections at Harriet Lake the boat launch.

After I left Harriet Lake, I stopped off at Hogback Lake only a couple miles down the road.  Glad I did as there were a pair of Loons, busily fishing, which made getting photos a little bit of an ordeal, but I did manage to get a few, and one quite nice and sharp.  On the way back the mile to County Road 7, a Spruce Grouse meandered nonchalantly across the road, I managed to get the camera out, turned on and pointed in the right direction, but just as I was focusing on it, the bloody bird dashed into the forest.  I shot anyway, and thought to myself, "the almost photo of a Spruce Grouse."  Upon close inspection, I see that I did capture a grouse shaped form fleeing through the undergrowth, but a portrait it is not!

Hogback Lake.

Loon on Hogback Lake.

All the way down County Road 7, I kept stopping to take photos.  A bit of a pity, to waste a great gravel road, that allowed you to get up to 55 MPH, at times ... must be that the Spring maintenance has recently taken place, and before the Summer road users have had a chance to turn it into a washboard.  And so to the Lake Superior North Shore and the first waterfall of the day; the Caribou Falls on the Caribou River.  It's a half mile walk to the falls, with the last few yards being a stairway down about a hundred feet or more, but the effort is worth it ... puff puff! Wheeze wheeze! 

Iron country  Caribou River bottom.

Caribou Falls.

Top of Caribou Falls.

Bunchberry Blossoms on the Caribou Falls Trail.

The next falls going north, on Hwy 61, is Cross River Falls, and this one is right next to the road bridge going over the river.  This makes it hard to photograph effectively, but one does what one can.  Cross River is so named in memoriam of a harrowing canoe journey across this part of Lake Superior from Wisconsin to the mouth of the River on the Minnesota shore, during a storm, by Father Baraga and his traveling companion, in the early eighteen hundreds.  He erected a wooden cross at the river's mouth in thanks for their safe crossing.  Father Baraga was a Jesuit Missionary to the Anishinaabe (Ojibwa or Chippewa) Native Americans of the Lake Superior area.

  

Cross River Falls.

My final Waterfall of the day was Hidden Falls on the Temperance River.  I have always called this Temperance Falls.  The Temperance River is so named because this is the only river on the Minnesota shore that has no bar at its mouth ... thus Temperance ... think about it.  The river plunges in a series of falls through a narrow chasm just a few feet wide, as it drops 168 feet in about a quarter mile.  I will let the photographs speak for themselves.

The plunge pool of Hidden Falls, Temperance River.

The plunge pool and the first falls in the canyon.

The next falls up the Canyon of the Temperance River.

Yet further into the Temperance Canyon.

The 4th  falls on the Temperance.

The 5th and final falls before the river levels out.

Lichens on the rock walls of the Temperance near the outflow into Lake Superior.

Fisherman on the Lower Temperance.

I realized that I had no time to stop at my most favorite falls on the North Shore, Cascade Falls, about ten miles south of Grand Marais, and would have to save for later; perhaps Wednesday or Thursday.  I decided to have fish 'n chips take away from the Angry Trout in Grand Marais ... Lake Superior Whitefish ... mmm, mmm good.  I thought I would take advantage of cell reception in Grand Marais to look up any free campsites in the interior as I ate me supper.  It wasn't so urgent, as while waiting for my food, the girl who took my order, asked if I had come up from Duluth, and when I told her about my free campground out at Harriet Lake, she told me of a single free campsite right on Lake Superior, about 20 miles up the coast ... she even had a photo on her phone of the tiny island just off shore there.  I did look up an alternative site, should the Lake Superior site be unavailable.  It was right where she said it would be, and a lovely aspect, as it is just a few yards from the water's edge.  A good day of photo-recon, followed by a fine locally caught Lake Superior whitefish 'n chips, and a great campsite. realized that I had no time to stop at my most favorite falls on the North Shore, Cascade Falls, about ten miles south of Grand Marais, and would have to save for later; perhaps Wednesday or Thursday.  I decided to have fish 'n chips take away from the Angry Trout in Grand Marais ... Lake Superior Whitefish ... mmm, mmm good ... eleven years ago this restaurant and take-away is the site of one of the two best fish dinners I have ever had in my life.   

I thought I would take advantage of cell reception in Grand Marais to look up any free campsites in the interior as I ate me supper.  It wasn't so urgent, as while waiting for my food, the girl who took my order, asked if I had come up from Duluth, and when I told her about my free campground out at Harriet Lake, she told me of a single free campsite right on Lake Superior, about 20 miles up the coast ... she even had a photo on her phone of the tiny island just off shore there.  I did look up an alternative site, should the Lake Superior site be unavailable.  It was right where she said it would be, and a lovely aspect, as it is just a few yards from the water's edge.  A good day of photo-recon, followed by a fine locally caught Lake Superior whitefish 'n chips, and a great campsite.

The view from my Horseshoe Bay Campsite.