Lake Superior- Noth Shore

This evening I took a drive up the scenic higway along the north shore of Lake Superior. There are some nice views on the road there. They call highway 61 their scenic drive route. There are lots of rental cabins, hotels, lodges, small towns with crafts, etc. The landscape is very rocky in many places. Sometimes the road varies from lake level up to a few hundred feet above the lake. The road has overlook parking lots at regualr intervals.

Here are a few pics from some of the overlooks.















There are also road tunnels thru some of the larger hills like the one below.




There is also a bike/hiking trail that runs alongside the road and the lake most of the way to Canada. It is called the Gitchi Gami State Trail.







There is a great water fall along the trail from the Gooseberry River (called Gooseberry Falls). There is an Upper, Middle, and Lower falls. I visited the middle and lower falls at the Gooseberry State Park. Here are some pics from the park and the middle falls.
















Here's a close up shot of the lower falls.







There are lots of exposed lava rocks in the area. The river has eroded the rock in many areas. Here are some pics of the lava rock in the river and above it.








Here's a picture of an interesting tree root growing in the rocks beside the river.



Here's another picture of an interesting tree that was hollow and twisted but it was still thriving.


Farther up the lake coast drive, there is a major attraction called the Split Rock Lighthouse. It sits up on a rocky hill directly on the coast in another state park. I tried to get to it, but I was too late. It was closed when I got there. However, I did barely get the following picture (just before dark) from one of the overlooks. You can just barely see the lighthouse way off in the distance in the middle of the picture.





And here's a picture from a brochure I picked up that shows a close up of the lighthouse.