Tuesday 9-18 Hiking the Trails at Gooseberry Falls Park

We had an outstanding day of hiking in Gooseberry Falls State Park. 

We woke to a brisk morning (it was in the 50's) with wind. We had breakfast and got ready to go hiking but as we stepped out the door it started misting quite heavily so we went back inside. We read the rest of the morning.

After lunch we headed back out to do a bit of hiking, we hiked almost 6 miles. We walked by some of the structures from yesterday and down to the visitor center and by the falls. After walking by the Castle we took the trail to the fifth fall, it was a 2 mile loop. The terrain was challenging considering you had to hike over tree roots and rocks. We walked on some wooden planks and over bridges. We climbed stairs. Because of all the trees there was not a great view of the fifth fall but we did see it and you could definitely hear it. As we hiked we met other hikers of all different ages. When we got to the visitor center we rested a bit and bought a few more caramels. Then we walked to the statue of a CCC Worker. Afterwards we headed back to the campground. We walked by where we saw the beaver yesterday but he wasn't there. I guess it's because it was during the day. We had a great hike.

Lady Slipper Lodge, first building built by the CCC in 1935

Lakeview Shelter built by the CCC

Water Tower built by the CCC

Picnic tables restored

Upper Falls

Gooseberry Middle and Lower Falls

Standing by the CCC Worker statue

We relaxed and read for a couple of hours. Larry barbecued hamburgers for dinner and then we went for another hike. We hiked another 4.miles. There were two more loop trails we had not hiked so that's what we did. One was short and mostly stairs while the other was over a mile. The longer trail was called Gitchi Gummi, it went up the side of a hill and you had beautiful views of Lake Superior. The trail went through a lot of growth and the terrain was steep in places. We saw the two CCC Shelters and hiked the CCC Switchback Stone Stairway. We had a beautiful hike.

Lake Superior

By the end of the day we had hiked a total of 10 miles, took about 5 hours. I'm a little sore because of the stairs but it was worth it. We had an outstanding day of hiking at Gooseberry Falls State Park.

Lake Superior sounded and looked like an ocean because of the surf being strong.