Lake Superior - Knife River to Thunder Bay, Canada

We are in two minds as to which way to go around Lake Superior but we decide to drive the coupe up the north edge to see what it is like.  We try to get away early but Daryl gets caught up talking to the locals about cars etc and we finally get away around 10.30am.   Daryl was told to go to Two Harbors to see the Iron Ore Docks & Gooseberry Falls by one of the guys there,  so the Iron Docks is our first stop.

Barge coming in to full up at the docks - again good timing.

 

Next stop is Gooseberry Falls which Neil & Abbey have also told us about and this turned out to be a local gem - beautiful area, very peaceful but also very popular.

 

Upper Falls 

And the Lower Falls.....

 

 

Gooseberry Falls was such a beautiful place, I could have stayed there all day but as usual there is just too much to see.  Soon enough we are on the road again to the next stop, Split Rock Lighthouse which is the most visited spot on the shore and was placed on the National Registrar of Historic Places in 1969.





Continuing on, the view is lovely as we travel up the coastline towards the top of Lake Superior.

We stop at Grand Marais & walk around town, then Grand Portage & check out the National Monument which is a Heritage Center.

And then we were in Canada again.......we seem to have a habit of skipping the border for a day.

 

And then I spot this little guy... and pull a u-turn for another look.

So cute and right on the edge of the road, the photos were straight out my window.

 

We both had this image of Thunder Bay in our heads and Daryl wanted to take me there as somewhere special that we would remember, but when we get there - there is nothing special about Thunder Bay - it appears to be an old Port town and not much more even though it has over 109,000 people there.

After driving around for about 3/4 of an hour we ask at a hotel who suggest a lodge in the mountains, can't get them on the phone so drive out that way as it is back towards the border anyway.

Unfortunately they were booked solid - such a beautiful spot too & we were so low on petrol by that time that we had to ask if she had any spare.  Luckily she found about a 1/4 of a small tank in the shed, so we bought this for $10US and headed back out - by the time we get to the border we are running out again but luckily there is a gas station just over the border.  We also got the nice guy going back for the first time, who suggested that we head back to Grand Marais for accommodation.

We looked and looked for Moose on our trip but they were all hiding, even in Canada.

 A pretty trip back down again but getting late and we needed find somewhere to stay.  The first couple of places we tried were all booked out or they didn't look great, so we kept going.

Finally, at 9pm we find a lodge at Cascade Falls & get a room for the night.