A Perfect Duluth Day on Park Point

It looks like our days in Duluth are numbered, so today made a great day to get out and enjoy the city Noelle and I have called home for a little less than two years. The weather today was perfect for a summer day at the beach. Although we had originally planned to canoe a section of the Namekagon River near Hayward, Wisconsin, I'm kind of glad those plans did not work out. Today's weather contrasted sharply with yesterday's fog, rain and cool temperatures and it was nice to share our time with Mom T and Noelle's Aunt Lisa.

We drove through a crowded Canal Park to the end of the road on Park Point near the Seaplane Airport.

From there we hit the trail that follows the airport boundary and eventually found ourselves in some cool, piney woods. At some points along our hike St. Louis Bay was visible.

We passed a small bird of prey, possibly a Merlin, and saw a few wildflowers like this pink pyrola.

After I climbed this big, old White Pine,

we soon found ourselves at the ruins of the old lighthouse.

We ventured past the lighthouse ruins to an old concrete building of some type

 with some graffiti covering its inside walls.

Then we moved on to the very tip of Minnesota Point.

We admired the Wisconsin Point Lighthouse from there

and then headed back in the direction from which we had come, only this time we walked along the beach. We found a small snapping turtle on the beach among the abundant driftwood.

Soon we waded through some water near the breakwater, climbed the breakwater's rocks and clambered back onto the sand. By this point we were getting hot and so we stopped at a pebbly section of beach where I took off my shirt for a swim.

As I swam in the remarkably warm Superior waters, Noelle, Mom,

and Aunt Lisa hunted for agates.

While Park Point is not known as prime agate hunting territory, we found some great ones here.

 We spent a good 45 minutes to an hour swimming and agate hunting before we started to make our way back to the car along the beach. As we approached the parking area the crowds of people started to thicken. We hiked across the dunes to the parking lot and headed back home.

 What a great way to spend a perfect Duluth day!