Tettegouche State Park
Silver Bay, MN
This trip was a mixture of new and familiar experiences for us - we were so excited to bring Emily along and show her what we love about the North Shore, try out some new hikes on our bucket list, and revisit a few favorites that we knew Emily would love as well. We decided to try out a new campground and stay at Tettegouche State Park, where we camped for two nights.
It was our first time camping on the North Shore during the fall season in almost two years, and we were reminded that there’s nothing quite like the crisp fall air, blue skies, and bright fall colors of this special place.
Day 1: Oberg Mountain, Leveaux Mountain, and Shovel Point
We left Minneapolis a little after 6am headed north with a full day of hiking on our docket. The weather was looking wonderful - crisp and sunny. The first trail on our list was Oberg Mountain - we knew this would be a popular hike, especially in prime fall season with the beautiful weather, but nothing could have prepared us for the sheer volume of people (and cars) in the parking lot for this hike. Somehow we lucked out and found a parking spot almost right away. Oberg Mountain and Leveaux Mountain start from the same parking lot, and we had both on our list. Oberg is the far more popular hike - shorter, easier, and more viewpoints. We decided to start with this hike in an effort to get it done before even more people flocked to this not-so-hidden gem.
It was a nice, easy hike through a beautiful fall-colored forest, with seven big viewpoints along the way. For the amount of cars and people in the parking lot, there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of hikers on the trail - lots of families, dogs, big groups, and kiddos though, which required a little bit of patience and strategic passing along the way. The trail started off on the SHT, then broke off on the Oberg Loop which took us to some fantastic inland and Lake Superior views. We went with the flow and hiked counter-clockwise, and the great views began almost immediately. Along the course of the trail we saw views of Leveaux Mountain, the Lake Superior shoreline, steep cliffs around Oberg Lake, and wonderful fall foliage as we hiked through the forest. Overall it was a nice hike, but next time we will try to get on the trail much earlier in the day, or late in the evening to avoid the big crowds. We were relieved when we made it back to the big parking lot, and walked straight across to the start of the much quieter Leveaux Mountain hike.
Leveaux Mountain was about a mile longer, steeper, and far less populated than Oberg. There were several great overlooks along the trail, with a lot more orange foliage! We started hiking through a mixed forest with a gradual but steady climb, then started clockwise on the first of two loops. We were rewarded for our climb with a big inland overlook full of orange colors, and decided to stop and have lunch. Our spot proved to be too windy and cold, so we moved along the trail a little and finished our lunch in a warmer spot. We made it to the second loop and came upon our favorite view so far - gorgeous bright blue Lake Superior shoreline, Carlton Peak, and a sea of green trees gradually fading to yellow and orange as they strayed away from shore. We spent some time at this view point (wishing we saved our lunch for this spot), then made our way back to the car.
We checked in at the park, set up our tents, and relaxed at camp with a cold beer in hand. The night was still young, and we decided to do one more quick hike before calling it a day. We chose Shovel Point in Tettegouche State Park - a hike we did two years ago, later in the season, and is easily in our top five hikes we’ve ever done on the North Shore - we have a picture of the view hanging in our home! It was a nice 1.2 mile lollipop loop, and we stopped often for pictures and to enjoy the views of the rugged shoreline. We were surprised that this hike was still pretty green, but it was still just as beautiful as we remembered.
We headed back to camp, roasted brats, and failed our attempt to make Jiffy Pop…made an extra trip to the liquor store, then talked and drank around the fire until we retired to our tents. It was a chilly night which made for cozy sleeping weather. It was so good to be back!
Day 2: Twin Lakes Trail
Twin Lakes trail overlaps with an SHT section that we backpacked earlier in the year. While hiking this section of trail we fell in love with the amazing viewpoint overlooking Bean and Bear Lakes. If you recall on that trip, we spent all of two minutes taking in the views due to the impending downpour…so we decided to give it another try this weekend hoping for a twist of fall foliage! We woke up, had some coffee and oatmeal (which we had to eat using granola bars as spoons seeing as how the silverware was at home) then took off for the trail, hoping for an earlier start than the day before. We found the trailhead easily, only a short drive from our campground, and were pleased there was only one other car in the parking lot. There are two different access points to the trail though, as well as a stretch of SHT, so we knew we would encounter other hikers. We started at County 5 - it was a gloomy day, a little bit cooler than the day before, but no rain! We started out on an ATV path then turned off onto the main trail. The fall colors were amazing along most of the trail with bursts of bright yellow, orange, and the occasional red.
The trail alternated between gentle ascents and descents, then we reached the main loop and took it clockwise. We took a spur trail to Elam’s Knob which had nice views of Lake Superior and Silver Bay. We got back on the main trail, hiked through some really muddy sections which tested the waterproof-ness of our boots, and eventually started another series of steady climbs and descents. We joined the main SHT and from here the trail was familiar to us from our backpacking trip in June, only this time we were hiking in the opposite direction. We climbed higher and higher, and came out onto the big open ridge above Bean Lake, with rocky reddish cliffs on both sides, and spots of fall colors in a sea of green trees. We continued along the ridge headed for the famous overlook.
Finally we made it, our sore legs and empty stomachs worth the extra effort. We enjoyed a little bit of fall color along Bear Lake, and big views of deep orange and yellow down a valley on the other side of the lake. We had a beer, lunch, and relaxed there for a while, happy to be able to spend lots of time taking in the great views. It was windy and cold, but it was worth it to be able to do such a great hike with a LOT fewer people than the day before, and we had the overlook to ourselves for a while. We finished our loop and hiked back to the car, then stopped for some pictures at Palisade Head. We rewarded ourselves with pizza, beer, and cribbage at Castle Danger Brewery, then headed back to camp and called it a night.
Day 3: Heading Home
We woke up in the morning to a cold, steady rain, and grumbled as we packed up the wet tents and the rest of our gear. We thought the worst was over once we were settled in the car with the heat blasting, all packed up and ready to go…until our windshield wipers flew off the car while we were driving along the highway! Somehow Joe managed to find one of them on the side of the road, and we made it to Two Harbors where a VERY friendly employee at an auto parts store helped us out. Last but not least, we realized I (Ashley) had left my wallet at the brewery the night before - luckily staff were in the building and we had the wallet within half an hour. Rattled, annoyed, and very tired, we continued our trip back to Minneapolis which thankfully was uneventful.
It turned out to be a great trip with gorgeous fall views (despite the rainy send-off and the hiccups on the drive home). We didn’t know it at the time but it would turn out to be our last hike of the season due to bad weather in October. Lessons learned here? We decided after the fact we should have headed back to Minneapolis Sunday night after our hike, rather than spend another night knowing full well we would be packing up in the rain the next morning…we underestimated how difficult that would be, not to mention the pain of drying everything out once we got home! There are some cases where you just have to embrace the rain - this was not one of them (work smarter, not harder, right?) Another lesson, which we already sort of knew going into the trip, was that beautiful fall weekend days draw BIG crowds - find a trail off the beaten path if you want some solitude, OR embrace the fact that other people also love the outdoors and want to get outside and enjoy it too.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again - no matter how many times we make the drive north, there’s nothing quite like that first glimpse of Lake Superior as we come over the hill into Duluth. The whole North Shore is such a special place to us, and we feel so grateful to be able to enjoy it as often as we do. Until next time!
Thanks for stopping by - check out more pictures in our gallery.