DULUTH, MN...JUNE 16, 2012

We are in Duluth, Minnesota.  Found a nice campground in Saginaw, Mn not too far from Duluth.  Today we did the North Shore Trail of Lake Superior which goes from Duluth, Mn to Thunder Bay, Canada.  The trail is 150 miles one way up the coast of Lake Superior.  We only did about half of it, then it started to rain so we decided to head back to the campground.  It was still a very full day.  We stopped at Two Harbors and saw a beautiful lighthouse.  There was also a lightstation at the end of a long pier so we decided to walk to the end of the pier to see it.

Two Harbors Lighthouse 

Two Harbors Lighthouse

 Across from the lighthouse was an Iron Ore Dock.  While we were there a big ship pulled up alongside of the dock and they began to load the ore from the dock to the ship.  They bring the loaded railroad cars in on top of the dock and unload the cars from the bottom.  There are large conveyor belts that the Iron Ore falls on and stores in the docks. On the sides of the dock they have conveyors that lower down to the cargo bays of the ships and load the ore from the dock to the ship.

                                            

                                    Iron Ore Dock with railroad cars on top being unloaded

 Iron Ore Dock.  On the left side are the conveyors that drop down on the top of the ship to load .

                                           Close up of the conveyor belts to load the ships

Ship being loaded from the Dock

After this we stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park.  There were 3 sets of falls here,,,Upper, Middle and Lower Falls.  They were beautiful.  We took a nice hike all the way around the Falls.

Upper Falls

 Middle Falls

 Lower Falls

 Split Rock Lighthouse

 Split Rock Lighthouse

We got to tour the lighthouse and go up to the top.  There was also the lightkeepers house here.  We got to go in it and see how he and his family lived while tending the lighthouse.  It was very interesting. They manned the lighthouse from April to December then the lake freezes over and shipping stops. 

Another great day.