Gooseberry Falls State Park

After visiting Amnicon Falls State Park we drove through Duluth on our way up to Grand Marais on the Minnesota North Shore. Our first stop was Gooseberry Falls State Park. It is the most visited park in Minnesota. There had been a lot of rain during the previous week and the water was high in the Gooseberry River. I have been dealing with an Achilles problem so we limited our hiking.

Our first stop was upper falls.

This shot of middle falls shows the amount of water flowing in the river.

This is a classic show of the trees lining the river when the water levels are high.

A bench overlooking the beach area where the river flows into Lake Superior.

Normally not a shot I take at Gooseberry but I though it made a nice composition given the light and the colors on the trees.

Gooseberry Falls State Park

Quite a bit of water running at Gooseberry Falls State Park this spring. I spent most of my time taking intimate shots of the falls.

 

Gooseberry Falls State Park

Normally we don’t drive up the North Shore of Lake Superior on a weekend because there are just too many people around. However, it was a beautiful day and we had been kicked out of our condo garage because it was being cleaned. We decided to get up early and beat the crowd. When we arrived at Gooseberry there were about 20 cars in the parking lot. We walked up to Upper Falls and took a few photos. I was a little surprised there wasn’t more water flowing in the river.

Tough taking waterfall photos in the bright sunlight. This is a shot of Middle Falls.

There was a spray coming off of Middle Falls and it was cold enough to produce an ice covering on some of the vegetation below the falls.

There were also quite a few fishermen below the lower falls. I didn’t see anyone catch anything.

When we returned to the car the parking lot was starting to fill up.

Minnesota Fall Leaf Tour – Gooseberry Falls

The first stop on our Minnesota fall leaf tour was Gooseberry Falls State Park. Conditions were not good for photographing waterfalls but I did manage a few shots.

Gooseberry Falls

The last time we drove to Duluth, Minnesota there were 40-50 mph winds blowing so we decided to continue on up the North Shore and see if we could catch some big waves. The winds were blowing from the South East and  there were no big waves. We stopped at Gooseberry Falls to check out the conditions.

Upper Falls

Upper Falls

Middle Falls

At the time I thought we should have driven to Grand Marais, Minnesota but we didn’t have time. Paul Sundberg was able to capture the furry of the storm in the harbor.

Ice Climbing Gooseberry Falls State Park

Gooseberry Falls State Park is a popular place for ice climbing but this is the first time I had seen any climbers. It looked to be an instructional session. This was taking place at the lower falls. The lower falls splits and this section was an ice wall and the other section was a waterfalls. More photos from Gooseberry Falls can be found on my website.

Gooseberry Falls State Park

After a brief stop in Two Harbors we headed up to Gooseberry Falls State Park. It was going to be a warm day and we hopped there would be some water running. There was a bit of water flowing but the river was mostly ice. More photos from Gooseberry Falls can be found on my website.

There was some nice ice out at the mouth of the river. There had been an ice storm earlier in the week but much of the ice was already melted.

 

Gooseberry Falls State Park

Our next stop on our North Shore venture was Gooseberry Falls State Park. The cold weather had created a lot of ice and all of the waterfalls were covered in ice. Strong winds the day before had covered up any tracks around the falls and conditions were pristine on a beautiful sunny day. Once again we were dissapointed at the lack of ice along the shore.

More photos from Gooseberry Falls can be found on my website.

Upper Falls

Lower Falls

Gooseberry Falls State Park

On our way back from Oberg Mountain we decided to stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park for a short hike. There were way too many folks around to photography the waterfalls so I concentrated on intimate photos of the fall colors.

Gooseberry Falls State Park

Our next stop was Gooseberry Falls State Park. Unfortunately it was a beautiful sunny day which made it difficult to photograph the waterfalls. There was a fair amount of water running in the river and there were quite a few trout fisherman working the stream below the lower falls. Unfortunately they were not having any luck.