More from the Two Harbors area and beyond

This is the mouth of the Baptism river, where it flows into Lake Superior. The River itself is comfortably cold, but the lake HURTS it's so cold. The Rivers are clear, but brown colored, from all the iron in the area.

After we left the very crowded campground at Two Harbors, we drove just alittle way up the coast to Tettegouch State Park. They had no vacancies, but the very nice ranger told me about a state forest campground just a few miles from there, on the Baptism River. It had no facilities, and we stayed there for 3 glorious nights. This was our very large campground. The sites were far apart, and distanced by lots of trees, and we loved it. Sam never tired of trying to catch the squirrels. I could have stayed here for weeks!!! All that was available was water in 3-4 pumps scattered throughout the campground. This was in Finland, MN, and it's called Finland State Forest Campground. And actually, Finland, MN, was named before the country of Finland was named!

A scene from the rocky shoreline of western Lake Superior. It's a very difficult coast to navigate, with rocks, both above the waterline and below. And the wind can come up instantly. One day in November, 1905, they had a sudden unpredicted Noreaster, and 30 ships sank on that day. That's when the steel companies (very powerful) petitioned congress to allocate money to build lots of lighthouses on this coast. And of course, it happened.

This was a member of the MN Historical Society, who was dressed as, and portrayed the first lighthouse keeper at Split Rock. All the guides were very good!!

While we were at Two Harbors, we also visited Split Rock Light House. This is the most beautiful lighthouse I've ever seen. (My favorite is still Okracoke, in the NC Outerbanks, but this one is prettier.) This is just a view of the beautiful Lake Superior. Blue Green water, which is surprisingly clear. Visibility for 60', I read. It holds more water than all the other great lakes combined. And it's deepest place is over 1100'. It's average temp is 40 degrees. But the shore water where we were was between 55 and 60, very difficult to stand in, I promise.