Eagle Mountain

Thursday morning, we woke up before sunset and hiked across the road to the rocks along Lake Superior to watch the sunrise.

It was really beautiful as the sky lit up with orange and pink.  The lake was beautiful as well some pretty big waves.

Cascade Restaurant didn't open for breakfast until 8, so we took the short hike from the cabins into Cascade River State Park towards the waterfalls.  There was some western pearly everlasting blooming along the trail.

We first came to the Cascades, a series of 5 small waterfalls crashing through a narrow gorge.

A bridge across the provided views of more of the drops.

Looking downstream, the bigger drop was just out of sight.

We followed the trail down the gorge on river right side.

There were several smaller cascades on the river.

But no mistaking when we got to the big one.

The view from the trail was pretty good and it didn't look like any feasible way to get to the base.

After some pictures we hiked back.  Some common tansy was blooming along the trail.

We stopped at the cabin and enjoyed the cool morning.

At 8, we met with Chris and Mel at the restaurant and had breakfast.  Then we drove north into Superior National Forest to the trailhead for Eagle Mountain.  The trail headed north and entered Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness after about a mile.  In another mile, we came to Whale Lake.

The lake was very scenic and Pyro played in the water some.

Right past the lake, the trail turned and climbed up Eagle Mountain.  There was an viewpoint part of the ways up.

A little further was the best viewing spot on the mountain.

The actual summit was just a little ways further up, but no view from up here.  At 2,301 feet above sea level, it's the highest point in Minnesota.

We headed back down to the lower viewpoint and had lunch here.  I scrambled around on the rocks to find some more views.

After lunch, we made the hike back down the mountain and back to the trailhead.

From here, we headed back to the paved roads and continued up the North Shore to Judge C. R. Magney State Park.  From the parking area, the trail crossed Brule River above some scenic cascades.

It then followed Brule River upstream high above.  In just under a mile, a set of stairs descended down to the river at the base of Upper Falls.

Upper Falls is about 25 feet and just downstream of Devil's Kettle.  I think there's a lower falls downstream, but not sure how to reach it.  After some pictures, we climbed back up the stairs and it was just a short ways further to an overlook of Devil's Kettle Falls.

The Brule River splits into two streams.  The river left stream tumbles down about 50 feet like a typical waterfall.  But the river right stream falls into a pothole, the Devil's Kettle, and no one knows for sure where the water goes.  I continued on the trail to the top of the falls and climbed out on the rocks for a close up view.

Then we started making our way back.  I spotted some scaly pholiota on a tree on the hike back.

By the time we finished, it was getting pretty late.

We drove back to Cascade River Lodge and had dinner at the restaurant again.  After dinner, I ran across the street to the lake for sunset.  Couldn't see the sun itself from here, but the sky lit up in beautiful colors.

After sunset, we headed back and started getting packed up.