2008 Northern Minnesota Vacation

Jeff and I decided to plan a weekend away this year to go enjoy the changing of colors in northern Minnesota. Jeff planned a fantastic trip up to the Lutsen area of Minnesota in Cascade River State Park.

We left on Friday morning and slowly made our way up through Duluth, Two Rivers, Finland, and Tofte. We made several stops on our way up to visit historical markers, the Glensheen mansion, Split Rock State Park to see the light house, and any waterfalls we happened upon along our way.

The drive was gorgeous as all of the leaves are just starting to peak in color. As this was my first trip north of Duluth, I was incredibly surprised at how gorgeous that part of the state can be. It is as close to Colorado as Minnesota gets.

Friday night we stayed in Tofte at a hotel. We spent the night sampling local pizza, some beer, and prepping for our hike and camping trip the next day. Saturday morning we woke up very early, checked out of the hotel, and headed north. Before heading into Cascade River State Park, we made a quick stop at Caribou Lake and climbed a path up to the top of a mountain on White Pine trail. The view from the top was AMAZING! If we ever win the lottery, I picked out the perfect spot to put up a cabin home.


After the hike back down, we headed into Cascade River Park, packed up all our gear into our packs and hiked 1.5 miles into the park, up a mountain, to our campsite. A mile and a half does not seem like far, but having all our gear on our backs and hiking up a mountain took us approximately two hours. Ruby played the navigator and led the way.

The views were fantastic, as a lot of our hike was along the Cascade River and we had the waterfalls as a constant soundtrack to our trip.

Making it to our campsite felt like success and we took some time to sit back and relax at our "home for a night" before setting up camp.

After the tent was up, we headed out on a hike back down the mountain and further up the Cascade River. We were approximately 100 feet up the bank from the river and the views were like nothing I have ever seen. We wanted to go much further up the river, but daylight was starting to fade on us. We headed back down the river and took a separate trail up the back of the mountain to our camp. Jeff got a roaring fire going and sawed a birch tree apart to keep the fire going into the night. As Jeff and I prepared for dinner, Ruby started scratching at the front of the tent and we let her in for a quick puppy-nap before dinner.

We made spaghetti for dinner and even Ruby woke up to enjoy some spaghetti with her food. After dinner, we cleaned up and headed down to the lookout point about twenty yards from our site to watch the sunset over the forest. We spent the rest of the night making smores and playing Yahtzee near the fire.

Even though the weather got down to 30 degrees at night, we stayed very warm. Between the fire and Jeff's fall/winter sleeping bags, we were not cold once during the trip. We had perfect weather at night and fell asleep to the sound of the Cascade River roaring in the distance.

We were so tired from all the hiking that we did not have any trouble falling asleep or staying asleep all night. Ruby and I woke up early to go for a quick morning hike while Jeff slept in. We spent some more time at the mountain lookout watching the sunrise. On one of our hikes, Ruby and I even saw three deer cross our path twenty yards in front of us. When we got back to camp, it was already time to pack up and start to head out. Even though it took us two hours to get to camp, it took us just over an hour to make it back to the car. (That should tell you how steep the hike was on the way up!) We made a few quick detours back to the car in order to see more waterfalls along the river. The car was a welcomed site after a long hike back and it was great to get our packs off of our back. (Jeff's pack was 50 lbs and mine was 30 lbs!)

We slowly started our car ride back home, enjoying the colors as we wound our way along Lake Superior back to the Twin Cities.





We made a quick stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park to see another waterfall, but it was very packed with tourists. We snapped some quick pics on top of the waterfall and headed back.


It is very sad to say the weekend is now at a close, but we have some amazing memories and pictures of the fantastic fall colors. I hope you enjoy all of the pics from our trip!