Isle Royale National Park and the North Shore, MN

The North Shore Scenic Byway runs 154 miles along the edge of Lake Superior. Lake Superior really IS superior to all other lakes, being the largest freshwater lake by surface in the whole wide world, and holding more water than the other Great Lakes combined. More facts, because I just can’t help myself: At its widest, it’s 380 miles long and 160 miles wide. AND, it’s deeper than a 100-story building is tall! So, yah. Superior it is.

South End: DULUTH, MN

Duluth is the “Gateway to the North Shore,” one of the “twin cities” (along with nearby Superior, Wisconsin) that is perhaps best known for its iconic Ship Canal’s Aerial Lift Bridge, located in a busy harbor. It is one of only two vertical lift bridges in the country (the other one is in Chicago). 

It goes up by enormous counterweights slowly descending and raising the 900-ton span, nearly 140 feet in the air, in just 55 seconds. Thus, “1000-footers” (ore boats carrying taconite pellets) and “salties” (ocean-bound ships), plus the occasional tour boat, can pass safely into the harbor.

They used to let people ride the bridge as it went up and down, but an unfortunate incident where a woman got crushed put an end to that. The big flat middle rises to let boats pass through, and this can happen up to 26 times a day. Not only do the boats do long, noisy horns, but the bridge itself makes long, noisy horn sounds. How do we know this? Because our “campground” at Lakehead Boat Basin was at the marina right next to the bridge. So we heard it. Repeatedly. Up to 26 times a day. Good times!

But, this location was worth the noise pollution, within walking distance to a cute tourist area, and the Lakewalk path, which we rode for 15 miles out into the countryside. The path in-town goes alongside inviting park spaces, restaurants/breweries, and of course, beautiful Lake Superior. Surrey bikes are also available for rent, right at the Lakewalk.

Another popular Duluth activity is touring the S.S. William A. Irvin, a retired steel ship that is now a floating museum, and the nearby Great Lakes Aquarium. The beaches are also popular, and there was a deserted sand beach just down the road from our campground. All in all, lots of waterside fun to be had in Duluth!

During our visit, we had the one-two punch of extreme thunderstorms (a sky-to-ground lightning bolt hit the aquarium just 1/4 mile from our RV) and hazy skies from Canadian wildfires. Both of these, however, made for some spectacular sunsets and night skies from our waterside campsite.

The rain cheated us out of the main thing we wanted to do in Duluth, which was a floating concert! Glensheen, a 1908 mansion on a huge lakeside estate, puts on Wednesday night concerts where the band plays on a pier, and the concert-goers can attend while sitting on the shore ORRRR (wait for it) … floating alongside in their kayaks or boats! But, POURING RAIN, so just picture us in this scene, instead of crying in the RV. Next time!!

Heading North – GRAND MARAIS, MN

The length of the North Shore Scenic Byway contains gorgeous scenery and lots of attractions — it’s called a scenic byway for a reason! Popular attractions as you head north from Duluth include Split Rock Lighthouse near Two Harbors, and Gooseberry Falls State Park – read about our 2019 visit here.

This time, we explored Grand Marais, 110 miles north of Duluth. It’s a popular tourist town, and the start of the Gunflint Trail, another area scenic byway that leads you to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, an awesome area on the US/Canada border for paddling.

Grand Marais has a good reputation as a “artists’ colony,” in no small part due to the presence of the famous North House Folk School, which offers immersive courses in nearly every craft imaginable. People escape here every season to learn basketry, woodworking, yurt building, baking and more, and they also offer sailing trips on their signature Hjordis schooner.

Of course, where there is an artists’ colony, there are art studios and galleries. Many of them are both, a working studio with items for sale. This one, the Betsy Bowen Studio, has lined its ceiling with retired printing woodblocks — way cool! — and you can see evidence of works-in-progress throughout the cozy space.

In town, coffee shops and outdoor outfitters mingle with National Register listed buildings like the old Bally Blacksmith Shop, an enormous fish crashing through a building, and the “World’s Best Donuts,” which we can’t argue were pretty freakin’ delicious, but I couldn’t stop from remembering the scene in the movie Elf, where Will Ferrell was freaking out when he went in the NYC coffeeshop professing to have the “World’s Best Coffee” (which it obviously did not).

And what would a tourist town be, without a Beer Garden?

Smoke from ongoing Canadian wildfires has been coming and going. Some days its clear(er), some days the haze turns the sun into a glowing fireball (these pictures were taken just two days apart).

The popular, lengthy Gitchi Gammi bicycle trail also goes right through Grand Marais, with endless spinning miles both north and south from town.

North End – GRAND PORTAGE

Many people go only as far north as Grand Marais, but a mere 35 miles further, you’re in the unspoiled wilderness of Grand Portage. Don’t be a quitter — go the whole distance to get the true North Shore experience!

Here, the Grand Portage National Monument lets experience the sights and sounds of a bustling trading depot reconstructed in its historic location. It has a lot of hands-on activities and reenactment of the culture and traditions of the local Grand Portage Ojibwe people, and the area’s role in the fur trade era with the French voyaguers.

This is the first National Monument to be co-managed by the National Park Service and a Tribal nation. Many place names here retain their original Ojibwe meaning, and the road signs reflect both languages. For example, Gichi-onigamiing means “the great carrying place,” and that is exactly what the voyageurs did. To “portage” is to carry your boat, and your stuff, over land between lakes, and that’s exactly what happened, in birch bark canoes.

24 foot canoes (with 2 voyageurs) were used between the Canadian Northwest and Grand Portage, then 36 foot canoes (with 14 voyaguers) were used between Grand Portage and Montreal. Cedar trees were used for the planking, thin birch tree paper for the skins, and spruce roots for the “rope” laces. Joints between pieces of bark are sealed watertight with spruce tree resin.

Wild rice is totally a thing up here and Minnesotians eat wild rice like nobody’s business. You can get burgers and other foods stuffed with wild rice. In Grand Marais, the bakery had at least 30 loaves of Cranberry Wild Rice bread, which tells you they sell at least 30 loaves a day. Lemme tell you, it was DELICIOUS! Besides being hand-harvested by the Ojibwe on the lakeshore, flooded fields are also growing wild rice.

ISLE ROYALE NATIONAL PARK

Grand Portage is one of two cities (the other in Michigan) from which to journey to the remote Isle Royale National Park, which is on an island 22 miles off-shore, smack-dab between Minnesota and Michigan.

Due to its remote location, Isle Royale is one of America’s least visited national parks. All those antlers in front of us are moose. The island is theoretically full of moose — up to 2,400 are estimated on the island — but they are notoriously elusive. The only one we could find was on a sign in the restroom.

Isle Royale is a designated wilderness park, and 99% of the land is undeveloped. When you come to the main island (approximately 50 miles long and 9 miles wide), there is a small visitor center, a small store with a porch, and a dock. That’s about it. Most people who come to Isle Royale come for remote, isolated, extended camping.

A crazy storm hit just as we arrived, so we were thankful for that covered porch. Other more ambitious hikers ignored the continuous thunder in the distance and hit the trails the second we arrived. They had nowhere to take cover on the trails and spent the rest of the day soaking wet. After it cleared, we hiked to Grace Creek Overlook on the Feldtmann Lake Trail.

This photo shows the only two ways you can get to Isle Royale: seaplane, or boat. And the seaplanes only depart from the Michigan side, so we took the Sea Hunter III for the journey from Grand Portage.

The chilly 2.5 hour boat ride to Isle Royale had little in the way of sights except water, lots and lots of water …

… with the exception of the “Rock of Ages” Lighthouse (which is obviously the coolest lighthouse name EVER) on one of the 400+ islands that are considered part of Isle Royale National Park, and a marked spot where the huge passenger steamship SS America sank in 1928 after hitting a reef. The 47 people on board survived, but 1 dog drowned (nooooo!) and the huge boat still rests on the bottom of Lake Superior at the entrance to Isle Royale.

The Isle Royale trip makes for a nearly 8 hour excursion, which is too long to leave Finn alone in the RV. Our adventure was saved by the cutest family in Grand Portage. I had posted on a Facebook group for the area, “Hey, anyone want to watch my hairy, drooling Golden Retriever?” Melissa and her two girls, Emmy and Abby, PLUS their one-year old Retriever Poppy, took possession of Finn for the day!

But they did so much more than just keep Finn. They were our volunteer tour guides, dispensers of travel advice, gifters of great hiking guides and Girl Scout cookies and homemade painted rocks, and were even able to direct us to secret beaches and special sights that most travelers in the area wouldn’t even know about.

The girls had only ever seen an RV from the outside, so they were able to try out the steering wheel, drop down bed, and even the shower, in their quest to convince their mom and dad to buy one. Inspiring the new generation, one RV at a time!

The North Shore Scenic Byway ends at the Canadian border, where Melissa’s husband’s family has run Ryden’s Store for decades, making them pretty much Grand Portage royalty. Besides carrying an astonishing assortment of t-shirts and sweatshirts plus drinks and snacks, one of their main businesses is accepting packages for Canadians, who either can’t get things shipped to them, or the cost of shipping is too great. They send them to Ryden’s and then make the short drive across the border to pick them up!

Right next to Ryden’s, Grand Portage State Park has an easy 1 mi RT hike to the High Falls of the Pigeon River, which thanks to lots of recent rainfall, was running at full steam and sporting a full rainbow. Yay! These falls, as tall as a 13 story building, are just one of 20 miles of various waterfalls and rapids that made travel impossible for Indians and fur traders and caused the creation of “The Grand Portage,” a nine-mile trail here that bypassed the impassable on the way to the inland waterways.

Being adventurous (and dumb), we continued on for a difficult 5 mi RT to the top of Middle Falls, a great deal of which was ankle deep water or unavoidable mud. The Pigeon River on which these falls are located is the international boundary between the US and Canada, but there was no checkpoint with a stern border agent (or even a sign) on the trail, so we carried our passports along for no reason.

Besides making new friends and logging our 47th National Park, we learned an awful lot of about canoes, portaging, and the voyaguers who inhabited this area! But we have even more voyageur action coming at our next stop … it’s Voyaguers National Park!