Day 14: Gooseberry Falls

 

We visited Gooseberry Falls State Park this morning and enjoyed walking on the trails through mixed evergreen, aspen, and birch forests to see the falls  of the Gooseberry River.  The most visited state park in Minnesota, much of it was originally built by the CCC during the Depression including the 300-foot long “Castle in the Park” stone retaining wall.   Trails go along each side of the river and loop to all the falls.  Near the steel arch bridge over Highway 61, the 30 foot Upper Falls can be viewed, and a short ways beyond are the Middle and Lower Falls.  The Visitor Center had interesting displays and 2 videos:  The North Shore State Parks and Lake Superior. 

After a very pleasant morning at Gooseberry Falls SP,  we returned to the coach for lunch with plans to bike to the light house, 3M Museum,  and other places in Two Harbors in the afternoon.  However, it began raining almost immediately and continued throughout the afternoon, sometimes quite hard.  Since we have another day here, we decided to stay dry.  Irene read and napped, and George spent the afternoon on the computer placing campgrounds on the map for  GPS upload.