My Souvenir Memories: A Stone's Throw from Canada

Tuesday, September 27

Click here for a video of Day 2 of our road trip along the north shore of Lake Superior!

Only a small slice of Lake Superior could be seen from the front window of our AirBnB apartment, but when I got up I was wishing for a better view. From the colors in the sky it looked like a beautiful sunrise and I would have loved to see it over the lake. But sunrises are early...and it was cold outside...so I didn't.

After breakfast, we gathered up some lunch fare and put it in the smaller of two coolers we had brought. The morning was chilly when we set out for the day, but the forecast was for temps in the mid-50's by afternoon.

Less than 10 miles north of Grand Marais we made our first stop of the day at Paradise Beach. The notes on my itinerary say "good place to look for agates." Looking for agates is the easy part. Finding them among the thousands (millions?) of other rocks on the beach isn't so easy. This place really would be paradise for a little kid who loves to throw rocks into the water!

Bob took off walking down the beach while I found a suitable log to sit on and enjoy the solitude and sounds of the waves lapping at the shore. He walked for over an hour!

Can you see Bob off in the distance? I was happy to sit on this log and listen to the waves washing over the rocks. At times it almost sounded like wind chimes!

Bob didn't have much luck finding agates, but he did come back with a bunch of driftwood sticks. He uses the sticks as handles for pottery spoons that he creates.

An ore boat passed by while I was waiting on Bob to return.

About 35 miles north (east?) of Grand Marais, our next stop was at Hollow Rock Resort. I was a little nervous about pulling into a private resort, but have since read that the beach is open to the public. The resort itself wasn't our destination, but rather to see the natural arch that gave the resort its name.

The Hollow Rock Resort was pretty secluded, but the view was outstanding!

The back side of Hollow Rock.

At the very tip of Minnesota's Arrowhead Region lies the community of Grand Portage. It is home to the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and one of the earliest Ojibwe settlements in Minnesota.

We pulled into the Grand Portage National Monument and parked at the Heritage Center. The visitor center was filled with displays and information on the history of the area from the Ojibwe culture to the Northwest Company fur trading.

Heritage Center (NPS Photo)

This was an interesting display. A video projection made it look and sound
as if people were inside the teepee.

It was past noon when we walked out of the visitor center. There was plenty more to see at the National Monument, but first lunch. With Google's assistance, we found a small picnic area nearby where we ate. The wind coming off the lake was brisk, but you couldn't beat the view!

A flock of geese floated by while we were eating.

Bob's double hat situation was strange, but it kept his ears warm and the sun out of his eyes.
He goes more for function than fashion.😄

Returning to the parking lot at the Heritage Center, we walked across the road and down the path towards the recreation of the Northwest Company Depot.

Outside the walls of the trading post was an Ojibwe village with several types of birch bark homes.

Just inside the stockade walls of the Northwest Company Depot was the Canoe Warehouse. During the time when Grand Portage was the center of the fur trading world, canoes were used much like semi trucks are today to carry goods and supplies. The Canoe Warehouse housed replicas of some of these large vessels and replicas of the loads they would have carried.

Docents in period clothing were available in some of the buildings which added to the experience.

This is an example of the type and size of load that might have been carried in the canoes.

The four wooden buildings at the Northwest Company Depot have been recreated on the archeological footprints of some of the original buildings.

The kitchen.

Inside the kitchen.

The Great Hall. The hall included four bedrooms and an open great room used for meeting and exchanging gifts with trading partners and for other business.

Some of the world's richest men would have gathered in this room to conduct business.

Bedroom in the Great Hall.

I was fascinated by the reproduction wavy glass used in the window panes.

On the path back to our car, Bob picked some of these rose hips and
enjoyed rose hip tea later in the evening.

Besides the national monument and town, there is also a Grand Portage State Park and that is where we headed next. The park is located right at the Canadian border...and I mean RIGHT at the border!

I snapped this photo of the Canadian border crossing as we were turning into the state park.
Because of Covid restrictions, we chose not to cross the border.

The parking lot at the visitor center was packed so we didn't even go in. Instead we headed directly to the trail leading to High Falls, the highest waterfall in Minnesota. The one-mile round trip path is paved although at one point Bob took a detour down to a more rugged trail following along side the river.

There were three different viewing platforms once we reached the falls which let you check out the falls from different angles.

The land to the left side of the falls is in the U.S. and the right side is Canada.

It was around 4:30 pm by the time we got back to the parking lot and time to head back to the apartment.

Highway 61 between Grand Portage and Grand Marais runs right along the lake shore compared to the high cliffs further south.

I'm not sure I can really explain this photo. 😕 One needs to see it in person!
We passed by quite a large property on Highway 61 (this is only a small section) that had piled up walls of driftwood. In amongst the wood they had placed all sorts of objects and doodads which are hard to see in the picture. UNIQUE and INTERESTING might be a good way to describe the place!

We stopped briefly near Artist Point in Grand Marais before going back to the apartment for dinner. The lighting was very poor, but I got a silhouette photo of Bob as he walked on the breakwater out to the lighthouse.

I was keeping an eye on the sky and the clock as we rushed through dinner. I was determined to see the sunset over the lake. However as we drove down the hill towards town I realized it was going to take some effort to find someplace where I could photograph the lighthouse without looking directly into the sun. In fact, the sun was so bright and so low in the sky that it was hard to keep from being blinded as we were driving.

Had I looked on Google Maps, our search would have been so much easier. There is actually a location called Grand Marais Marina Photogenic Point! Luck was with us and that was where we ended up by chance.

Grand Marais, Google Maps

A small flight of wooden stairs led to the top of a cliff overlooking the marina. I was a little nervous to go up at first (based on the sign!) but it turned out to be a perfect spot to get photos of the lighthouse during golden hour and watch the sunset. A lovely ending to our day!