Playing Tourist on the Gunflint Trail

     One great thing about having people visit us at the end of the Gunflint Trail is I get to play tourist. This was the case yesterday when I was able to spend a whole day hanging out with a college friend and her husband.

     I was quite happy when I found out they both wanted to do some hiking.  There’s nothing I like to do more on a fall day than to go for a hike. I decided to take them on the Centennial Trail because I thought they would enjoy the interpretive brochure that is available at the trailhead.  It’s a great way to learn about the history of the area and they enjoyed reading it along the way.  The colors were amazing and after seeing some people at the parking lot upon arriving that was the only time we saw anyone else on the hike. The weather was perfect and the sun was shining brightly the entire hike.

     I thought they would enjoy seeing the view from the high cliffs overlooking Gunflint Lake so that’s where we headed next.  After the somewhat taxing hike uphill they were both in awe as they looked out into the wide open into a sea of fall colors.  They enjoyed sitting on the warm rock and gazing out into the Canadian wilderness.

     By the time we were heading back to Voyageur it was 4:30pm and I still wanted to show them Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center.  We stopped in for a brief tour of the museum and they were both thoroughly impressed with the displays and the building.  We hiked a couple of the trails and enjoyed having the place all to ourselves. 

     We hadn’t seen any moose all day and they really wanted to see one so after dinner we went for a boat ride.  We drove around as the sun was setting and enjoyed the ride but unfortunately we didn’t see any moose.

     It’s great to have friends visit because I love playing tourist in my fabulous backyard.