After driving down to Cascade River State Park we drove back to Grand Marais and then out to the harbor to take a few more photographs. There were some nice waves hitting the breakwater. A few years ago the area just outside the breakwater was not covered with water. Folks were out building structures with rocks. The high water on Lake Superior has dramatically changed the landscape.
It was late in the day and cloudy creating ideal conditions to photograph at Cascade River State Park. I was a little surprised at the low water levels given the high water on the southern end of the North Shore.
While we were in Grand Marais the wind was blowing and the waves were pounding the beach. I took a few shots of Artists Point.
There was some great light and clouds over the harbor.
We drove around to the south side of the harbor to get a few photos of the waves pounding the rocks along the shore. Several other photographers had the same idea.
We were on a fall trip to Grand Marais, Minnesota looking for fall colors. The trees hadn’t turned much along the shores of Lake Superior but they had turned in the interior. The visitors center informed us that some of the fall color tour roads were closed due to strong winds the night before. Some of the roads south of Grand Marais were open so we headed back toward Duluth driving some of the interior forest roads.
Late in the day we drove over to Duluth for the evening. The following day was going to be the only nice day for a two week period. We decided to drive up the North Shore to Grand Marais with a stop at Oberg Mountain. Overnight there were some bad storms that brought many of the leaves down. Nevertheless there was some nice color. Most of the trees in the interior were on full display. There was still a lot of green along the lake.
Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea. Oberg Mountain was crowded. It was standing room only at the overlooks and the I had never seen so many cars in the parking lot. On the way around the top of Oberg we started talking with a young man that had driven from the Twin Cities overnight. He is shown in the lower left of the last photo. He was on his way to Caribou Lake and invited us along.
The following photo appears in the November 2018 Lake Superior Magazine. The article is entitled “Transitions – Celebrating Our Seasons of Colorful Conversion”.
Full color at Oberg Mountain is almost upon us. More photos of what you will find can be found on my website.
After lunch we headed back to Duluth with a stop at Cascade River State Park.
On the way back from High Falls we stopped at a couple of turnouts to photograph Wayswaugoing Bay and Teal Lake. The lake side was much greener and had not yet reached its peak.
Teal Lake
Teal Lake
Wayswaugoing Bay
It was late in the day when we arrived at Grand Portage State Park for our hike to High Falls. As I mentioned the previous few days had seen heavy rain so we were braced to get drenched from the mist coming off of the falls. We were not disappointed. It was difficult to photograph the falls because the lens kept getting covered in water droplets. This is a common problem at this location.
Our main destination for the day was Oberg Mountain. We always stop for a fall hike and some spectacular views of Lake Superior and the interior colors. We were a bit late for the interior colors. There had been strong winds and heavy rain in the previous few days so many of the leaves were down. The trail was in poor condition because of the mud.
Philip Schwarz Photography Blog 