Grand Portage State Park and Trans Canada Highway

 Saturday morning dawned nice and sunny so I decided to hike the Mount Rose Trail at the Grand Portage. It’s only one mile round trip, and you can take a self guided brochure that highlights geology and vegetation along the way.  

The trail gave a nice overlook of the National Monument and also gave a glimpse of the Grand Portage trail.

The Grand Portage gap

 I stopped at a few overlooks on my way up to Grand Portage State Park. The Park is home to High Falls, the highest waterfalls in Minnesota. 

 

They were pretty cool to check out but this is the best thing I saw at the Park:

Can you believe the size of this guy!? He was right behind the visitor center and it took me a second to realize he was real and not some display. I was very impressed. Right next to the State Park is the border crossing into Canada so I hopped on the Trans Canada highway and drove east the rest of the day.

It was stunning! I was just expecting a long day of driving but this road is truly a scenic wonder.

Outside of Thunder Bay I traveled on the Terry Fox Courage Highway and stopped at a scenic overlook that told the story of Terry Fox. I had never heard of him before but his story is amazing. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. He made it 143 days and 3,339 miles before the spread of his cancer eventually forced him to end his quest. He ran the equivalent of a full marathon every day!

I stopped at the Aguasabon River Gorge in Terrace Bay. The river is 43 mi in length, and plunges down 98 ft at the Aguasabon Falls.

The lighthouse in Terrace Bay was odd because it was located in a shopping plaza but you can climb it for a view ofLake Superior. It’s a 50 foot replica of the Lighthouse at a nearby island which is the tallest lighthouse on the Great Lakes at 224 feet above sea level.

While driving along, I started seeing signs for “The home of Winnie the Pooh” and pulled over in White River to find out the story behind that. 

 

I learned that in August 1914, a trapped black bear cub was sold to a soldier in White River, who named it after his hometown, Winnipeg. He was on his way to England to fight in the first World War and had to turn the cub over to the London Zoo when he was called off to France. The London Zoo is where AA Milne came across him and the rest if history.

I’m a sucker for waterfalls so I pulled off at a sign for the scenic high falls in Wawa. It’s down a dirt road and there are fields on either side filled with no trespassing warnings. The falls are only 75 feet but it was a nice spot to get out and stretch. They are surrounded by a fence because of a nearby dam and power station and there are warning signs not to get near the falls because of the rapidly changing waters.

Despite the fact that this was a gorgeous summer Saturday I noticed that there was very little traffic on the road and that everywhere I went I was either the only one there or one of only a few people. I loved it but it was odd because usually scenic highways attract people but I guess not.