April 10th and 11th Overnight In Tettegouche State Park Campsite E

Sleeping on a cliff above Lake Superior. Is it on your "to do" list? If not, add it. Last winter I participated in the Checkpoint MN scavenger hunt and walked away with a super nice Granite Gear Nimbus Trace Access 70 pack. It's probably more pack than I really need, but it works good for toting a night or two worth of gear and some photo and video equipment. So, up 61 again about 60 miles north of Duluth is Tettegouche State Park. Got the cart in / pack in site I wanted (site E. Normally I would avoid this park like the plague during peak tourist season, but having natural ability to tolerate cold I take full advantage of the less desirable times of the year. By doing this trip on a Friday and heading back on Saturday, I only saw one other person on a trail (the one which goes to the cart in / pack in sites) plus one more in a parking lot. Pretty nice I'd say.

Hmmm. Being I checked in on 4-10, does this mean I could have stayed for 2 months instead of one night? I didn't say anything as I highly doubted there would be much if any competition for sites.

Campsite E. Basically on a point with Lake Superior on one side and the Baptism River on the other.

Looking north/northeast towards Shovel Point from the campsite.

Hiked up the north and east side of the Baptism River stopping at Two Step Falls.

For the record, there are 202 man made steps to climb back up to the trail on the spur. This doesn't include dead falls, rocks, etc.

Hiked up to he High Falls. Pretty impressive as there are the highest falls fully contained within Minnesota. Beautiful scenery!

Went to where the state park trail meets up with the SHT then headed over the bridge back towards the drive in campground in Tettegouche.

Because 1/2 mile is a loooooong way?

After dinner, the auroral oval was really evident in the north sky over Shovel Point.  I took a few shots and called it a night.  Evidently the lights got a lot better as Travis Novitsky had some nice shots from his place up by Grand Portage.

The Marmot Limelight 2 did great. No condensation on the inside as the temps dropped down to 23° on Friday night. I did have a fair amount of ice on the fly so the warm April sun did it's thing to thaw and dry it before packing up.

While I was waiting for the fly, I took some shots from around the campsite.

The Lake Superior side of the point.

The Baptism River side of the point.

It was a great first outing of the non-snow season. Very much looking forward to checking out more spots along the SHT and other vistas before the high traffic times hit as the weather continues to warm!