Road Tripping Up the North Shore

Today Noelle, Parker and I packed up the Subaru and headed northeast up the North Shore of Lake Superior. We had a few stops planned along the way to a few waterfalls that we learned about. The first stop was Beaver River Falls. Next we headed further up the Beaver River to Glen Avon Falls. From the Beaver we headed further up the coast to Caribou River State Wayside. It was a short hike up to the very impressive Caribou Falls.

A short drive from there took us to the Cross River. The falls there are right off of highway 61. We took a side trip to see Father Barraga's Cross. The story behind the cross is that Father Barraga was a missionary who was headed up the shore of Lake Superior to treat a group of Ojibwe who were stricken with disease near Grand Portage. At a point near what is now called the Cross River, Barraga and his native guide ran into bad weather and rough seas. They were luckily pushed over the sandbar of the Cross and into safer waters. They responded to their luck (or divine intervention) by placing a wooden cross at the mouth of the river. The wooden cross was later replaced with the current stone one.

From the Cross we headed through Grand Marais and up the Gunflint Trail to Devils Track Lake and a nice little campground. Our site has a little trail to the lake with a nice view. There are some loons swimming around as well. We're hoping to hear them tonight.