Ultimately, we decided to go for a little drive down to the end of the peninsula to see what we could see. It was extremely windy, so there wasn't much activity in the little waterfront village.
The actual Provincial Park is pretty large, it covers a good chunk of the peninsula. We came across the southern boundary as we were exploring some of the cottages along Superior.
We headed back to check out the visitors centre and have one last crack at the playground. This time Jordan mimicked a few boys she had seen earlier and starting climbing everything in sight, including the trees.
You probably can't see the panic on her face, but right about this time the park rangers were flying around in their pickups and UTVs, wearing construction-yellow vests and orange helmets. There had been multiple confirmed bear sightings, and they were chasing one toward their live traps. I envisioned it ending something like this.
On our way out of the park, I had remembered one little stream crossing that had a great view of Sleeping Giant on our way in. We ultimately found it and did a panic stop since there was no turnout that we could fit into. This rushed, barefoot shot from the middle of the road captured the reason for the park's name quite well.
Now it was time to follow up on Bev's advice and swing by the Sleeping Giant Brewery. It was minutes off our route, so we stopped by to check it out.
The outside was fairly nondescript, as it is in a strip mall in an industrial complex. Inside, it was small but clearly busy. The phone was ringing nonstop and at least 3 others stopped in to refill growlers or buy takeout since they didn't have a taproom yet. Oh, and any place with that little space that decides to dedicate some to an old BSA is alright by me.
We grabbed a growler of their Skull Rock stout and were on our way (yes that's a Mulletude shirt. Tripelroot travels wherever we do).
Off to Tettegouche. This time our border experience was very smooth. The agent just needed Jordan to climb out and show her smiling face, and we needed to list off all the fruits & veggies we had on board. He didn't seem terribly impressed with my visegrips in place of a cotterpin on the towing setup, but other than that we were back in the states.
The drive along 61 on the north shore of Superior is amazing. Similar to US2 along the south edge of the UP, but today the wind was howling and we got to drive along crashing waves for a couple of hours. There are worse ways to pass the time. Then we saw the sign for Tettegouche, then the visitors center. Wow.
If you get anywhere near this area, do yourself a favor and stop here. It doubles as a rest area, and it is impressive. MDOT taxes must be incredibly lucrative, because they spared no expense. The back of the building overlooks Superior, and has an amphitheater, outdoor fireplace, trailhead, etc.
After getting our site info, we headed up to the campground. Our site was equipped with power (3 ft away, a bit different than our Canadian friends), but was more set up for tents. The curb allowed the Big Truck to only use the front 1/3 of the site, so we had a large grassy area to play tag. Jordan had been cooped up for a while, so we had a rousing game of family tag for a while. Few things are more amusing than watching a kid start to add rules to the game using the lay of the land. Deer trails became 'safe zones', etc. Good times. Of course, tag usually escalates quickly because in my head this is what we are actually playing.
After our game of tag, Jordan wanted to do some hiking. There are a couple of trails that originate right out of the campground (very small, less than 30 sites), so we decided to go see some waterfalls.
The trails are quite well marked, and led this within a half a mile.
We played around on the rocks for a bit, gave up a peace offering of blood to the black flies, and headed for the next falls. Along the way we joined up with the Superior Hiking Trail, which would be an incredible nearly 300 mile through-hike. Bucket list.
At the top of these falls, the enginerd in me started freaking out. There was an old suspension bridge spanning the river, so I just stood there staring and trying to explain statics & dynamics to a 7 year old who was playing with a dead crayfish. Not sure how much she retained.
As we hiked back, we started formulating a new plan for the next couple of days. Since we had just seen 3-4 'root beer falls' as these are described in our household, we discussed bypassing Copper Falls State Park in favor of the Apostle Islands. More to come tomorrow.
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