The North Shore

There is no place I like more than Minnesota’s North Shore. Yes, there are more spectacular places to visit, and more exciting places to visit, but there is no place that speaks to me, or that I connect to, more than the land north of Lake Superior. When work was going to bring me to Eau Claire, WI for a few days in mid-April I snagged the opportunity to extend my trip by a few days and head north to Grand Marais for a few days of alone time with my camera.

As anyone does in the days leading up to a trip that is very impacted by the weather, I became an avid consumer of 10 day forecasts. In the week leading up to the trip one thing was clear… it was going to be hot in Eau Claire. And as the trip drew nearer the forecast for the three days I’d have in Minnesota became more ominous. Like, blizzard-ominous.

The river in Eau Claire was at record flows as a result of the rapid melting.

As I pulled into Eau Claire thermometer in the car said it was 90 degrees, and more of the same was predicted for the following days. My suitcase was packed with all the shorts, t-shirts, flip-flops, etc. that you’d associated with temps like that, but in my backseat I had snow boots, a winter coat, hats, gloves and all the things you’d associate with winter. On Friday afternoon after my work obligations were done and I was driving north, the temperature started dropping, fast. And the rain started to fall, hard. The rain would fade as I passed Duluth, but the temperature stayed low, and the forecast for the next few days had not improved.

The hot weather meant LOTS of runoff on the rivers emptying into Lake Superior

I made a quick stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park and managed to grab a state parks pass from the visitor center as they were closing, knowing that I intended to visit many of the state parks over the next few days. I pulled into Grand Marais and grabbed a quick dinner before proceeding the few miles up the road to my AirBnB. The forecast for the next day: freezing rain, turning to snow, turning to blizzard conditions with 50mph winds the next night.

I had come north to take pictures, and that was what I was going to do, regardless of the weather.

In the morning I got up early, checked the weather and headed down to the shoreline. It appeared I had a slight chance of seeing a tiny bit of sun before the storm hit so I was going to try to capitalize on that. Did I? Well, this is the only picture from the weekend that I took that had any color in it at all.

What followed was a trip to the Pigeon River to see High Falls on the border with Canada, knowing that the weather would get worse and worse. I made the short walk to the falls, which were raging and throwing so much water into the air that photography was virtually impossible. I was getting so drenched from the spray that I didn’t even notice that it had started to rain. And it was 29 degrees out.

By the time I made it back to Grand Marais for a leisurely breakfast and hot coffee the rain had turned to snow. Given the low visibility and wind there wasn’t much to do but wander the few blocks of downtown and wait for lunch. And then wait some more for an early dinner. At some point I did drive a few miles down the road to Cascade River State Park and got what turned out to be my favorite shot of the whole trip, capturing the meeting of the raging river and the lake.

Saturday night was nuts. I was alone in an AirBnB with 50mph winds and pelting snow and ice hitting the windows. I knew there was absolutely no reason to get up early given the conditions so there were no alarms needed. Then as I was getting ready for bed the power went out, so I got to get fall asleep wondering if there would be power in the morning… and how cold it might get inside overnight… and how hard it would be to dig out my car in the morning. Sometime in the very early morning hours the power came back on, meaning every light came on and appliances beeped and, well, I was awake again listening to the snow and wind some more… but happy in the knowledge that at least there was power again.

In the morning the wind had settled down a bit, but it did take a lot of scraping to free the car of the snow and ice that had entombed it. Driving down the gravel road to the main highway I was very glad to be driving an AWD Subaru. The roads were pretty snowy, but certainly passable and after another leisurely breakfast I headed out to do some snowy photography.

And that wrapped up a couple days of photography-centric solo travel. The only thing left was to get up early to enjoy a real, live sunrise at Split Rock Lighthouse and then drive the 10 hours home.

There was something very relaxing about having the freedom to do what I want, when I want, without any need to worry about other things. In an ideal world would I have wanted to have a springtime blizzard directly coincide with the few days I had and significantly impact the photography I wanted to do? No. But I think I ultimately enjoyed this experience more because of the weather. I certainly remember it well, as I’m sitting here writing about it 7 months later, and ultimately it’s the memories and experiences that are more important than the photos I came away with. And, you’ll probably agree I still came away with a few good shots.