Gooseberry Falls State Park

Gooseberry Falls State Park

—Two Harbors, MN—

 At the end of July, we had visited the North Shore with the entire Fiedler Family, and we had a blast.  It was a great trip, but we ran out of time before we could visit every state park – leaving two geocaches unfound on the north shore: Gooseberry State Park and Split Rock Lighthouse.  After a lot of planning, we decided it was time to get the rest of the parks knocked out and come close to finishing the avian challenge.  Here is is our plan for this weekend: approx. 800 miles to visit...

*Gooseberry State Park * Split Rock Lighthouse State Park * Bear Head State Park*

*Soudan Underground Mine State Park * Lake Vermillion State Park * McCarthy Beach State Park*

*Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle State Recreation Area * Savanna Portage State Park*

We also plan on picking up the Coniferous Biome Avian Geocache at Savanna Portage after we get the rest of those state parks (and recreation area) completed.  We decided that it made the most sense to find a home base near all of these parks, so we stayed at The Lodge at Giants Ridge in Biwabek, MN for the big trip (more on that later).

So Gooseberry Falls, about fifteen minutes northeast of Two Harbors along the lake, was the start of this very big weekend adventure.  This is such a pretty park and one that I (and lots of other Minnesotans) am really familiar with.  When I was a kid we stopped by this park a lot of times and did plenty of hiking.  Although Marcus has been to the North Shore, this was his first trip here and it was a hit... He LOVES "WATERFALLS"...

Inside the Visitors Center.  There actually were
lots of people around.

This trip started like most of the state parks...  We got to the park and got started.  We were not prepared for how busy it was this weekend in the fall.  It was peak fall colors, so people were everywhere.                                                                                 We started off towards the park and spent some time looking around the area.  Gooseberry is a really neat park, and the Visitors Center is a really beautiful building and worth exploring—it even has a taxidermied animal exhibit.

After stopping in the building, we headed off towards our first stop.  It was actually a few hundred feet past the building on the main path...  But, being experienced geocachers, we could see it coming...  Our guess is that it was right behind the sign...

Underway to our first geocache of the weekend.

... Two roads diverged in a wood...

Yep- we were right.  Guess all this experience is good for something.

It wasn't far to the next stop.  We decided that we would find the geocache before taking time to take in the view of the big falls.  We climbed some stairs and ended up by a statue that reminded us of the awesome work done by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression.  Here is a little about the parks history from the Minnesota DNR website: "With the rise of North Shore tourism in the 1920s, there was a concern that the highly scenic North Shore would be accessible only to the rich. As a result the Legislature authorized preservation of the area around Gooseberry Falls in 1933. The following year, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began to develop the park. CCC crews built the park's stone and log buildings and the 300-foot long "Castle in the Park" stone retaining wall. They also laid out the original campground, picnic grounds and trails. The area officially became Gooseberry Falls State Park in 1937. The CCC camps closed in 1941, but the park's CCC legacy lives on. Designed with ties to the CCC, a new visitor center/wayside rest and Highway 61 bridge was opened in 1996."

Here are some pictures of the famed "Castle in the Park" retaining wall that was building by the CCC.  It is actually a bit more impressive when you see it from the road, but we didn't stop on it or climb all the way up.  Marcus was a bit of a fan of climbing up and down the stairs.

"This is really neat!"

"Castle in the Park" retaining wall.

The second stop was right across the path – just hanging out on the bench, so it was pretty easy to find.

From here we entered the next set of coordinates, and by looking at the map, we could tell that we were going to get to do a bit of hiking upstream from the falls.

We crossed over the bridge and set off.  This park has one deep stream – it is full of waterfalls and gorges and the path goes on both sides of it.

It was a great day for hiking... I was actually a bit too warm!  The changing colors were also very pretty on this particular day.

We got to the first bridge and crossed over it.  The GPS pointed us toward the other side.

It didn't take long for us to find these coordinates mounted on the bridge.

We grabbed the coordinates and could see that the next stop was a ways up stream.  We were pretty close to a sign, so we could see that we were headed up the Fifth Falls Trail to the next bridge at the Fifth Falls (the farthest waterfalls in the park upstream).  All that was left was to pick which trail we wanted to take there.                                                                        Marcus decided that he was done walking for the day—oh, no!—and instead wanted to crawl... So I had to pick him up.  He was not too happy with that change.

We ended up carrying him for pretty much the rest of the hike... which is an added challenge but so much fun.  The trail by the river was amazing.  Here are some pictures of our hike.

We finally made it to the bridge over the Fifth Falls.

The coordinates brought us right here... it didn't take long to find the cache.  When a tree is so perfect for geocaching, it makes me wonder if they pick the hiding spot before they pick the area of the park for the next coordinates.

The Pine Grosbeak (pronounced "gross beak").

It was still pretty early in the day, and we had time, so we decided to take time on our way back down to the car.  We hiked and played and looked at all of the waterfalls on the way back to the cr.  What a beautiful day!

Snowmobile Trail Bridge.  Kind of an old-picture feel here with the late afternoon sun shining down like it is.

Luke and Marcus looking out at Gooseberry River from the Superior Hiking Trail side of the river.

Fall.  Season of long shadows.

Marcus had a lot of fun jumping from rock to rock and playing in the small pools that were offshoots from the main river upstream from the Middle Falls.

"Marcus, smile for the camera over there!"

The spectacular view of the Middle Falls.

"We should do lunch like this EVERY day."

The big falls.   Marcus ate his lunch while sitting in front of them and just staring.

If you are curious about the hiking route we took, here it is.  We went all the way up to the Fifth Falls and back toward the lake to see the big waterfall at the bottom.  This is a wonderful park, and the hiking is pretty amazing too.

One last view of the falls....