Minnesota Coastal Waterfall Day Drive

We started in Duluth and drove north to the Scenic Byway.  In Two Harbors we made our first stop at Betty’s Pies. This is a popular stop for tourists and locals alike. You can enjoy many food options and of course their homemade pies.

Next we headed about 10 miles up the road to Gooseberry Falls.   There is an upper, middle and lower falls and a 1.5 mile loop from the parking lot we saw it all! Please do not miss this amazing park if you are anywhere close by.

Our next hike was just 10 more minutes up the road at High Falls at Taguchi State Park.  The easiest way to get to the falls is to grab your day pass from the visitor center and then drive down into the park to the trailhead.  From there, it is a one and a half mile hike round-trip.  The first.15 of a mile had a significant elevation change and the terrain was very rocky.  At this point, I began questioning my life choices.  At the top of the hill, the path evened out and became an easier stroll.  From there, the terrain takes a lot of ups and downs. 

Once we got to the Falls, we realized that we had made a huge mistake . If possible, we should have parked down at the campground and started in from there, which would’ve saved us half the distance to the falls plus, we could have taken a different trail and seen a better view of the falls from the other side of the river.

From here, we drove 10 more miles up the road to Caribou Falls. It is an easy half mile in to the falls. At the end of the half mile there are 38 steps to the first viewing platform. And another 82 steps to the very bottom.

We missed out on several waterfalls that were further north up the road. In order to get it all in we would recommend staying somewhere more central to all of the hikes and take a few days of hiking in the area.