Our first time on Minnesota’s North Shore: Grand Portage State Park & National Monument!

We can't stop freaking out about how awesome that was oh my gosh a bear Welcome to minnesota our first new state of 2021 over the next month We're going to be road tripping through the great lake states And first up we are on the north shore of minnesota Which is 145 miles stretch of shoreline on lake superior and our plan over the next week is to drive down the entire north shore And we're starting as far northeast as you can possibly go grand portage state park, which is on the u.s Canada border we can literally see the border crossing right there. It's so close I think we have about a week till we're allowed back in. Oh, it's torture Today we're hiking the high falls middle falls and pigeon falls loop Which is about five miles and will take us to the highest waterfall in minnesota And there are a ton of state parks here in minnesota Most of them charge about seven dollars per car to get in but this one's free Oh heck. Yeah. Yes We made it to our first stop on the trail high falls 120 feet the highest waterfall in the state of minnesota This is the pigeon river. This is the international border or boundary for us Canada that's canada just right there. It has been over two years since we've gone international So we're feeling just a lot of feelings and I don't know just about canada being right there and just excitement that hopefully We can go Outside of the u.s soon High falls was a gorgeous waterfall. It's super rocky And so the water's just kind of cascading down the rocks and different layers and going through cracks of the rock. It was just Gorgeous. We've heard that they're in a drought right now So the waterfall may not be as rushing as it can be at other times of the year But we were just glad that there was some water to see We are now on the middle falls and pigeon falls trail and the high falls trail is paved the whole way But we hear that this one is a bit more rugged We have made it to middle falls on the pigeon river Again, that's canada just right there The hike out here was through tons of woods. I feel like I turned into spider-man. I have spider webs all over me I promise this is the last time we'll freak out about the fact that we are on the u.s canada border But we are just enjoying one of the other waterfalls We saw some canadians across the water and it was just so cool to just think about how We live in different a different country from them, but we can see them across the river And we're both just enjoying the same scenery. It's just I don't know. I just think it's the coolest thing We headed just down the road to the grand portage national monument Which is a free national monument that shares the history of the grand portage ojibwe native americans Whose land this is on as well as how the eight and a half mile portage trail contributed to fur trade Enabled european expansion into the northwest and developed an international boundary between canada in the u.s There's a lot of cool buildings to check out here at the park including this recreation of the inland headquarters of the northwest company A fur trading company who came here to disrupt the monopoly on the fur trade by the hudson's bay company And the northwest company eventually grew to dominate the north american fur trade by controlling 80 of it Here's the 1790s and I am dressed like an ojibwe woman because there were no european women here at the time uh, what you see here is a cutting edge 18th century kitchen, for example, the Cast iron that was here was were trade goods that the natives Got from the european men who owned the company the northwest company rented this area From the ojibwe or rented is a 21st century concept they asked the ojibwe if they could stay here because this area is actually equidistant from the east coast and the west coast and so what they would do is they would have the Animal pelts coming from the northwest dropped here. They would have the trade goods coming from europe Dropped here and then everything would be here. So it's kind of like a walmart distribution center is what this was Anyway, the kitchen is big and it there's a lot of Equipment and instruments here because they were cooking seven course meals for these men We're in the great hall, which is where all the fur trappers would eat their meals and in this room They're actually showing the entire process of how to make hats out of the beaver fur. It's so interesting There are four rooms two on either side of the great hall and historically they were used as bedrooms But now today they have them set up with different exhibits, but this one is set up Kind of similar how a bedroom used to be We are really loving this place. It's a lot of fun and very informational. You can walk through all these cool buildings There's lots of cool artifacts in there to check out and there's people inside dressed in period pieces That'll tell you all about the history and we got to meet two of them nancy and peely Nancy's been working here for the summer peely's just volunteering for the day and they were telling us about The kitchen that we were in and they were just the nicest most fun people peely's a tiktok star So he's just so much fun. It was just it just made our experience here even better We just went through the canoe warehouse and now the final set of structures. We're going to check out is the ojibwe village So the name grand portage or also known as the great carrying place was the passage between the pigeon river to lake superior So that 20 miles along the pigeon river is basically impassable Lots of waterfalls as we showed you earlier and other impassable areas to get to lake superior. You can't get canoes down there so they have this eight and a half mile passageway and between 1731 and 1804 thousands of men shuttled tons of supplies and furs over the portage and in and out of warehouse at either end Of the woodland trail and today the trail remains an international road Under the terms of the webster ashburn treaty of 1842 The use of the trail remains free and open to citizens of both the united states and canada We just came upon a bear. It's our first one. We've ever actually seen on a trail. We've always seen them from the car We think it's probably like a hundred feet away or something, but it's in the direction we need to go So, uh, I think we're gonna turn around here that Was so freaking cool. I saw it off in the distance and I was like adam adam He was like what I was like stop Oh my gosh I kind of had a feeling in my gut you'd see a bear while we were up here because we hear that There's a lot of wildlife up here and we were supposed to be going to the mount rose summit which overlooks the grand portage national monument, but We were keeping an eye on him from afar just to see where he went we still have a good view of him now and we have kona with us, so we're just gonna turn around but that Was amazing We already were in love with this national monument we thought it was just so fun learned so much and then we see a bear like we just We can't stop freaking out about how awesome that was And it was awesome because we were at a very safe distance and we did not feel threatened whatsoever, but oh my gosh a bear We had planned to do a hike called mount josephine, which has amazing views of lake superior and just the surrounding area But one the trail is kind of hard to find and then when you get in to where the trail starts There's a very very small parking lot. It's more just a little tiny area where a couple cars can park It was definitely not sprinter van friendly. We would have been really stuck in there or trap someone else in so we didn't feel good about that So instead we're gonna go check out an overlook that has kind of a similar view along the main highway Check out this gorgeous view of lake superior. We stopped off at this overlook on the side of highway 61 The google the name on google maps we're struggling to pronounce but on the board over there It says it's the susie islands overlook and we'll link to it in the description So you can check out what we're talking about But ever since we've been here the last few days, we have really been enjoying minnesota And we're getting these pnw vibes. I don't know if it's the lake islands all the green trees But minnesota is really blowing us away We made it to our home from last night and again for tonight ridin's border store Which is just a half a mile from the us canada border and from the park. We explored this morning It's a gas station and duty free store and they have a few rv sites and for ten dollars a night You can get water electricity and if you park close enough to the gas station like we are right there You can connect to their wi-fi which has been huge because we have no service at&t verizon. No nothing It's very very remote out here, which we absolutely love but that does mean there are less options when it comes to places to sleep So this may not be the most glamorous place we've ever slept, but we are so thankful for it Especially for that wi-fi it has been so clutch But we had an incredible first day here on the north shore. It is so Beautiful out here, but we're going to rest for the rest of the day because tomorrow we're going to continue our road trip down the north shore It's been such a hard day With no water Hey, i'm pete you can find me at crazy theater teacher on tiktok