Posts Tagged With: Bentleyville

Waves from Lake Superior crashing at Canal Park, Duluth

Duluth, MN. Sunday Dec. 2

As we peel off our cold weather gear, we can hear the sound of the waves from Lake Superior crashing on the rocks outside our hotel in Canal Park, Duluth MN. The focus for this trip is three nights lodging on the Gunflint Trail, a 50 some mile dead-end road, leading from Grand Marais MN on Lake Superior to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness along the Canadian border. The Gunflint and other upcoming activities will be discussed in the next posts; today was an extra day tacked on to the trip to experience new places and to ease the total drive time of 5.5 hours from St. Paul to the Gunflint Lodge.

Saturday’s major snow storm was heavier south of the Twin Cities so the drive north from St. Paul to Duluth was generally on clear roads. We thought we would stop at Tobie’s world famous restaurant in Hinckley to have a pecan or cinnamon roll for a mid-way snack. Everyone else in the world had the same idea. We picked up a bag of peanut M & Ms (me) and a take-out coffee and donut holes (Chris) and kept going.

Chris and Ed at Amnicon State Park, WI. The park had a stand where you could place your camera or phone to take a selfie.

Our first stop was at Amnicon State Park east of Superior WI. Amnicon is an Ojibwa word meaning spawning ground, evidently relating to fishing. However the railroads and European settlers had other plans for the area; lumbering and quarrying. As the trees and quarries became less profitable, the land was given to the local town and then the state for a park.

Our visit came about because the park is located on top of the Douglas Fault, a geological upheaval running from Lake Superior to the Twin Cities that occurred about a half billion years ago. The combination of that fault, glacial action, and the force of erosion created a series of water falls. We were curious to see the falls, particularly in early winter with the combination of snow and water tinted brown by the natural tannic acid in the area.

We had the park to ourselves. The falls are close to the parking area; a hike to see them was a pleasant diversion. Although the sky was gray, the green fir trees, the white snow, and the yellow-brown tinted water made for a pleasing sight to behold. These falls are not dramatically high, more a pleasant series of rapids. Given the cold weather, the flowing river cuts a channel through ice-lined stream banks and carves little ripples through the ice for the river to run underneath.

Manitou Falls at Pattison State Park, WI

About a half hour to the southwest is a second Wisconsin state park, Pattison State Park. This park is home to Manitou Falls, the highest falls in Wisconsin at 135 feet. Recent rains and high waters have put some of the trails impassable, limiting the view of the falls. Nevertheless, the proximity of the two waterfalls to each other gave us an opportunity to view both with just a limited expenditure of time.

After Pattison State Park, we drove to Duluth and our Hampton Inn hotel in Canal Park. We were a little early for check in, so we spent about 30 minutes watching the waves from Lake Superior crash on the shoreline. An earlier storm this summer was particularly violent and erased most of the paved boardwalk running from the Canal Park area up to the Rose Gardens of Duluth. Today’s wind storm was not as violent, but the crashing waves made interesting sounds and views. It was particularly unusual for us to see the waters of Lake Superior coming on-shore as a deep brown color. Normally, Lake Superior water is extremely clear but evidently today’s wave action is stirring up sediment from the lake bottom as it hits the shoreline.

For dinner, we ate at an old-time Duluth establishment, the Pickwick restaurant. My family frequently ate here when we visited Duluth when I was a kid. The decor was lovely and warm, with a view overlooking the lake. We observed two freighters coming into the harbor and two freighters leaving the harbor during our dinner time. Observing four freighters in the space of 90 minutes was unusual; we don’t usually see that many in such a quick time span. The meal was excellent, their apple crisp was not as good as mine, but was very tasty and more than sufficient for two people. Their prime rib soup, which is a specialty on Sundays, is made with the unused prime rib from Friday and Saturday night specials. It was delicious.

Some scenes from Bentleyville

We finished off our evening with an hour and a half to two hours walking through Bentleyville. Bentleyville is a 15-year-old attraction, started by one man in his backyard. Now it is a 40 night free attraction of millions of Christmas lights located in a Duluth waterfront park visited by over 300,000 people per year. Besides giving away free cookies, hot chocolate, marshmallows to roast, and popcorn, any kid under 10 gets a free stocking hat.

The lights seem to go on forever, with theme areas of rows of Christmas trees made of lights, an homage to armed forces, a Thomas the Train area, 12 days of Christmas, etc. The crowds are large and friendly; no talk of politics to spoil the ambience. This was our first time here and was a major reason to take this additional day to get to the Gunflint Trail.

Ed and Chris Dec. 2