Minnestota Sample, Wolves and Lake Superior

To Ely and North Shore





The first stop was a Holiday gas station for coffee. I love their 'make it yourself' iced coffee. The only problem is that there is no iced decaf so I have to ration the caffeine!





Soon we were driving through the northern woods to Ely, about an hour or so away. The planned stop in Ely was the International Wolf Center. Interestingly, the Nuvi gps indicated the center was located in town, right at the spot where the sign indicated ¾ mile further. It is getting harder and harder to trust that gps...





We arrived just as the center opened. One main exhibit was closed for refurbishing, but just watching the wolves was great. There was always someone available to identify which wolves were visible and to provide answers to most questions. We watched a movie about saving the endangered red wolves and then attended the Wolf 101 lecture and slide show. It was all very interesting and the six wolves in the enclosure were all fairly active.








Driving through town we had noticed a coffee shop with free wi-fi, so that is where we headed next for a sandwich and email check. Then it was another drive through the north woods, this time on a narrower, windy road that took us to the North Shore of Lake Superior. Though we felt like we were driving due north, the shoreline is in a northeast direction which made me slightly disoriented directionally for the whole time we spent there. The first few miles were through stands of birch that had been damaged in a spring ice storm. Some trees were bent over, on others branches and even trunks were stripped bare, while others appeared to be undamaged. Interesting. It reminded me of a June snowstorm in Vail one year that snapped whole aspen trees. We stopped once to hike up to some waterfalls and take a few pictures as the sky was blue and the scenery wonderful.





As we came into Grand Marais, Nuvi the gps wanted us to turn left when the 300 site campground was obviously on the right. Ahem. We were given a list of campsites available and told to look at them. Only after choosing one did we find out that it was $5 more a night because it was on the water. Actually, there was NO water view, just a nearby path to the rocky beach. At least the bathhouse was the nicest in the park. Each night in this city campground cost as much as two nights in the Gilbert city campground.