Today, we had two back-to-back activities. First we stopped at the Grand Portage State Park and did a short hike to the High Falls. A fun fact about that Park is that it is along the Pigeon River which also happens to be the international boundary between Canada and the USA. Below is a picture of the falls. The right hand side of the falls is in Pigeon River Provincial Park, In Ontario Canada.
From there, it was just a short drive to Grand Portage National Monument. Fun fact, it is the first National Park Service unit to be co-managed with a Tribal Nation, in this case, the Ojibwe and Anishinaabe tribes. It is a small footprint location, with the main attraction being the “historic depot”, which is a historically correct reconstruction of the facilities available to the people who would transport supplies by canoe all the way from Montreal! This location was the end-point of an 8.5 mile “portage” of the canoes and their contents, to bypass the waterfalls, like the one pictured above. The facility features “living history demonstrations” made by staff dressed in period costumes.
Claudette’s Two Cents.
One of the things I love about traveling in the summer is all the flowers we get to see—it just makes me so happy. Of course, summer travel isn’t all sunshine; the “skeeters” and “no-see-ums” are definitely a downside (along with traffic and crowds).
I always enjoy stopping at visitor centers because we learn so much about the places we’re exploring. For example, we discovered how influential the French Canadian voyageurs and fur traders were in this region. At one time, moose were plentiful here, but now the population has dropped to around 3,300. The Ojibwa are currently responsible for hunting regulations in an effort to rebuild and protect the moose population.
Originally, our plan included visiting Isle Royale National Park, but after some discussion, we decided to postpone that trip—at least for this year. The only way to get there is by boat across Lake Superior, and we weren’t quite comfortable with the size of the boats available.
Here are some highlight from today:
This is our visit at Grand Marais
Camping at Judge C.R. Magney State Park. Yep, another dry site!
High Fall Hike and our visit to Grand Portage
- Welcome to Portage
