last camping of the year

The kids love Minnesota's North Shore, and it's easy to see why. The shoreline is a rugged expression of erosion and water. Waterfalls can be found every few miles out of Duluth all the way up to the Canadian border. We have already camped and explored Gooseberry Falls (twice) and Tettegouche, for this trip I decided to go farther north to Cascade Rive State Park. It's about seven miles from Grand Marais and another forty or so to Canada.

Our arrival mimicked several of our last camping trips; the afternoon was damp, cool, and threatening rain. So, before exploration we set up the campsite. The kids are becoming quite adept at putting up the tent and arranging sleeping bags and pads while I set up the kitchen. There is an occasional bit of yelling as Galen directs Liam, but it usually works out.

At the edge of the tent pad was a small fairy castle/stick structure from a previous visitor. Galen took it upon himself to rebuild it and enlarge. One cannot let a fairy castle be left unkempt...

After the tent was up and a cursory fix to the fairy castle we were off to the lake. The afternoon clouds and wind were bound to make the lake a bit menacing, we were not disappointed. Everything was wet, waves were crashing, thankfully they were small. It was easy to see how Mother Nature makes sand and river stones. The waves crashed over and over, water pushed back-n-forth, rocks moved and struck up against one another. At times the kids were mesmerized and simply watch the activity.

That night's campfire was welcomed, and so was dinner. Waves could occasionally be heard as we drifted off to sleep.

The next was was time for river and waterfall exploration. And for this, I must digress. The day before, my billy-goat children bounded across the wet shoreline. Sometimes they slipped, sometimes they jumped, and quite often got wet. But that was playing not more than a couple of feet above the water. The crashing waves, the possibility of rip current had my watching their moves. Now, while on our river exploration, they were standing on cliff edge of wet polished rock at times fifty feet above a roaring river. It seems I can't take them camping without getting my heart racing from one thing or another...

We survived, I survived. There were no slips or falls - at least towards the river gorge. As for riverside and along the forest paths.....

All told, this was an excellent place to spend the last camping trip of the summer. We ate campfire food, ate s'mores, gazed upon natural beauty, and gazed upon stars. Goodbye summer, may fall and winter be as beautiful.

view photos here