2025-07-20 – Grand Marais, MN
Continuing northeast along the shores of Lake Superior, we were headed for Grand Marais, a small city of about 1,500 along the water. Our first stop was at the Schroeder Baking Co for a second cup of coffee.
Nearby was a monument honoring Father Frederic Baraga, a Catholic missionary who ministered to the Chippewa people in the mid-1800s. He was known as “the Snowshoe Priest” because he traveled on snowshoes to minister to people during the winter. His memory is especially revered because he worked to protect the Indians from being forced to relocate. He also composed about 100 Catholic hymns in the Ojibwe (Chippewa) language, which continue to be used to this day.
Nearby was Cross River Falls, which can be conveniently seen from the bridge under which it flows. There’s a nice wayside where you can park and walk to the viewpoint on the bridge.
We wanted to arrive early at the Grand Marais Campground & Marina so we’d have a chance to snag one of their first-come-first-served waterfront campsites. And we lucked out with our choice of three available sites. We chose one with an unobstructed view of the harbor.
A popular walk in town is out the harbor’s breakwater. For the most part, the breakwater is a concrete wall poured on top of a rocky ledge that defines the harbor. The wall is narrow in places and can be a bit intimidating. Nevertheless, Sandy persevered and got a close up of the light at its end.
The town surrounds the harbor and we explored a few of the shops including one that served ice cream.
Adjacent to the campground is the North House Folk School. They offer a dizzying array of courses ranging from one to seven days. Subject matter can include things like timber framing, blacksmithing, fly fishing, weaving and many other things and over several versions in any one subject area. Best of all, perhaps, is that you can walk the school’s grounds, watching people in action and ask questions of both students and teachers. It would be a fascinating place to do some course work.
It was Sunday and the Stine family has a Zoom session each week. This time we were able to set our table and chairs up on the beach and have the harbor as our background. Kinda neat!
Dinner was lake trout (filet had bones!), broccoli and sliced tomatoes.
2025-07-21 – Grand Marais, MN
The Gunflint Scenic Byway is a road that leads from Grand Marais to Saganaga Lake, near the Canadian border. It provides access to Minnesota’s legendary Boundary Waters Canoe Area, more than a million acres of pristine forest, lakes and streams. We weren’t in the market to canoe the Boundary Waters but the 57 mile road is designated a scenic byway so we thought it worth taking a look.
Our first stop was at a trail that lead to a moose viewing platform at the edge of a pond that is a favored moose haunt. We walked the trail and came to the platform but found that a fallen tree almost completely obscured our view of the pond. And, of course, we couldn’t see any moose.
We also stopped at a couple of wilderness lodges. Each of them, Bearskin Lodge and Golden Eagle Lodge, were back several miles off gravel roads. They offered small housekeeping cabins in the woods and a central lodge to gather socially. Each was on a lake and offered opportunities for canoeing and hiking. In the winter the two lodges cooperate to groom many miles of cross country ski trails. It’s reputed to be excellent skiing.
But, overall, we were disappointed in the drive and turned around about half way in. We both agreed that the road was mostly mile after mile of sameness with dense forest on both sides of the road offering no grand vistas of other views of special interest. The best views of the day, from our point of view, were of the wildflowers lining both sides of the road.
We had dinner in town at the Voyageur Brewing Company.
2025-07-22 – Grand Marais, MN
Today was a dreary, kinda laid back day with rain in the afternoon.
Bill spent much of the day writing and editing pictures for the blog while Sandy walked the town’s pier and checked out some of the shops downtown. She was inspired by some of the rock art items she saw to use beach pebbles rocks she’s been collecting to do similar work.
For dinner bill poached chicken tenders and used the meat along with cannellini beans and other goodies to make a white chili for dinner. We also finished off the last of our homemade applesauce.
2025-07-23 – Grand Marais, MN
After heavy rain overnight and continued showers most of the day, we didn’t do any touring.
Instead, we made an actual cooked breakfast of eggs and home fries, a first for this trip! Then it was more work on the blog for Bill while Sandy defrosted our fridge. And, since we were in need of groceries we shopped for those later in the afternoon.
The Angry Trout restaurant was said to be a good place for dinner. Since we needed to get away from the camper for a bit, we treated ourselves to a fine meal and hazy view of the harbor.