Day 3 (Sunday) -- Gooseberry Falls

After a just-okay, diner-typical breakfast, we decided our first order of business, now that our "real" vacation time was beginning, was a nice, long hike. Gooseberry Falls, here we come!

This sign is so "Minnesota:"

Yeah, we don't put signs in our state parks that read, "NO SWIMMING." We are too "nice" for that -- we prefer to say, "Swimming Not Recommended." Sheesh. :)

Gooseberry Falls:


After hiking down along the falls, we decided to continue along the river, all the way to the lakeshore. Saw these cool tree roots as we hiked:


This was a hike peppered with signs of wildlife. Clearly, a beaver was here!


More wildlife -- this little squirrelly friend was interested in us, but smart enough to keep a safe distance. Thank goodness, since I am more than a little frightened of overly friendly squirrels!


Gooseberry River:


Lake Superior!

You can just barely make out the "line" in the water -- where the brownish, clay-rich river water butts up against the clearer blue lake water. This obvious distinction between the two was just fascinating to me!

There were a bunch of these driftwood-made tee-pees along the beach:

Dan was afraid he was too tall for the tee-pees, so I decided to climb in and check one out.

Dan, communing with the rocks and water:


Another wildlife interaction. On our hike back, Dan suddenly yelped and grabbed my arm back -- I jumped about a foot, until I noticed what I almost stepped on:

Thanks to Dan's attention, I didn't step on this little snake dude. Dan helped him off the path and back into the forest using a small stick.

After our hike, we looked forward to a sit-down in the car, while we continued to drive further north.