Follow Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk as we explore the USA and Canada. Trips began in 2013. See sidebar. Since Jan. 2013, over 220,000 miles traveled and 1100 days on the road. Over 700 blog posts written. 2023-We are closing in on 350th National Park unit. Photo below is Pacific Ocean by Big Sur, CA
Saturday night was our second attempt at spotting the aurora borealis, The northern lights. The skies were completely clear. This night, instead of being at the rainy Lake visitor center we are at the Kabetogama Lake visitor center. The view to the north did not have the distraction of the lights from a resort that we had Friday night.
Our other major activity of the day was taking a boat trip to the Ellsworth rock Gardens. The trip to the Kabetogama peninsula is about 20 to 30 minutes from the visitor center. The day was sunny and pleasant, the boat ride being a welcome means to experience the lake.
Jack and Elsie Ellsworth were from Chicago and spent summers on Kabetogama lake. over the course of 22 years, Jack built a series of stone terraces, planted flowers, and created various stone sculptures. Today the Ellsworth rock gardens are the second most visited part of voyageurs national park.
Today’s rock Gardens are not as extensive as the final product of Jack’s laborers. Nevertheless, the Park service has made extensive efforts to re-create the gardens and the result was well worth the visit.
On our way home, we stopped at the rock exhibit at Moose Lake State Park. We have tried to see this exhibit previously but it’s limited hours did not accommodate any of our previous visits. Besides presenting a brief geologic history of Minnesota, there is a nice display of Lake Superior agates
As mentioned last night, this blog post is being dictated on an iPhone rather than an iPad. I hope the shorter verbiage and the potential errors in typing and spelling do not lessen your appreciation.
It was 9:30 PM. We were sitting in a parking lot in Voyageurs National Park. despite bug spray, I was feeling itchy all over. We were listening to a presentation about astronomy. I had heard most of this information before. We were here to attend a dark sky event held by the national park. We had a hope that we might see the aurora borealis. This was a hope of ours for quite some time but had not panned out before.
Most of the people stayed in the parking lot to look through telescopes. Chris and I decided to move down to the waterfront and look at the stars there. in addition, it seemed to have a better view of the north where the aurora borealis would be located.
When we arrived at the waterfront, we set up our chairs and the breeze felt good, the stars were able to be seen, and the mosquitoes and we blown away by the breeze. Overtime, we saw a slight glow in the north, most resembling the blow you see in an urban area from a shopping center far away.
Another participant came by. He took some pictures and asked us how we liked the aurora borealis. We said, what? We looked at his phone and saw the aurora borealis. I took out my new phone, an iPhone 13 Pro. we took several pictures in that direction. Voila! The aurora borealis.
Finally, success in seeing the northern lights. We had heard before that they are much sharper through a camera than they are to the naked eye. The camera with actual exposure and intensity can gather more light than the naked eye I can.Very true, at least this far south. Not that international Falls on the border with Canada is truly south.
We started this trip on Thursday, having lunch in the little town of Tower on the iron range of Minnesota. we met a couple we had known, who live in St. Louis but have a home in Babbitt Minnesota also.
Besides the dark sky event, I have the goal of trying to write blog posts on this new iPhone rather than the iPad I normally use.The goal is to see if I can leave the iPad at home when we take our two week trip to Europe in September. Less items to pack and worry about. so this is a test, and so far I’m having many learning opportunities. dictation is a little glitchy and fat fingers on the small keypad are a true challenge for corrections.
We have been to Voyageurs before.back in October 2019 we spent a month up here volunteering at the national park. We had many opportunities to travel around the area and if you’re interested, you can go back to that time in the archives to learn more about the area.
Friday was mixed weather. Some clouds, some rain, and some sunny skies.travel to some various parts of the park to try some hiking. wet rocks from the rain made hiking potentially hazardous on the slippery ground. we cut that a little short but did get some interesting pictures.
Friday night then was the presentation and sky viewing. It made the trip worthwhile.today we head out for a boat ride onto Namakan in Lake and the Ellsworth rock garden. We were going to go home after that. However, the Friday night weather forecast was so uncertain that we put in additional night. So tonight, will look for the aurora borealis again and then head for home tomorrow.
At breakfast this morning at the hotel, we ran into last nights speaker.he told us the night sky was spectacular last night. Now we know that we may not see the bright colors with the naked eye and to look for a glow instead.
Ed & Chris, international Falls Minnesota, Saturday, August 20.
Chris Klejbuk and Ed Heimel travel adventure 
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