My Reflections: North Shore Wanderings - Day 4

After leaving Kakabeka Falls, on the morning of May 9th, we headed towards Mount McKay--a huge bluff towering on the edge of Thunder Bay we had been excited to explore. Sadly though the fog was really thick and we couldn't see much of anything that morning.

We drove up the cliff as far as possible, but the gate for the lookout wasn't open for us to drive all the way to the top. If we felt like hiking in the rain, we could have gotten out and walked a mile or two, but considering it was so foggy and raining we decided to pass. We were still able to see a good deal from the road though, it was worth the drive!

Once we got back down to the bottom, we took a scenic road and drove around the perimeter of the cliff.

There was still a lot of ice on the water in the bay areas surrounding the bluffs.

It was seriously such a dreary day out. We were a little bummed, but made the most of it and still enjoyed exploring the rest of the area as planned, even if it was from the dry interior of the car ;) haha

We said farewell to Thunder Bay and to Canada, crossed the boarder and made our way to Judge Magney State Park.

It was around 2:30 that afternoon by the time we got to the park and it was still raining, but only lightly, so we decided to brave some hiking and hope it didn't start pouring on us ;p

Our main goal was to go see Devil's Kettle Falls, though the park has quite a few hiking trails.

I will say, the fog really added to the beautiful views!

Deborah is a pro selfie taker

There were definitely some spots in the trail that were pretty wet and muddy, but for the most part we were able to avoid the puddles.

It wasn't long before we reached the river overlook, but we still had a ways to go before we could see the falls.

The walkways were a little freaky, not only were they a tad slippery from being wet, some of them were at these strange angles that made it hard to walk on without feeling like you were gonna start sliding down the whole thing. We had a fun time laughing far too hard, and looking only slightly pathetic as we crawled our way down the boardwalk. ;p hahaha

Once we reached the bottom we got a pretty view of the river and lower part of the falls.

Then to walk up 700 stairs! (I actually don't know how many, I'm just guessing that's what 700ft means ;p ) haha

The view of the falls was very much worth the rainy walk and the stair climbing! It was a beautiful overlook, especially in the fog.

I love how the rain looks as it collects on the trees, little details like this make me happy :)

We were able to walk along the river a little ways and see some pretty views of the river and the gorge.

Shrooms!

Crawling back up the trippy boardwalk was easier than getting down!

This hike does have a good amount of stairs, but it's definitely not the worst waterfall hike on the North Shore, (Tettegouche is much worse ;p) we really enjoyed the beautiful walk.

We were at Judge Magney till around 4:30, then got back on the road towards Grand Marais.

We pulled into town and drove down by the bay and took a few pictures of the lighthouse from the car since it was raining... still.

This cute coffee shop was right by the water and totally calling our names, so we went in to get caffeinated! ;)

The coffee was delicious and the employees were super nice :)

Next door was Ben Franklin, so we ran in there for the last 10 minutes and were able to find some post cards, which we had both been wanting.

We tried to find more to do in Grand Marais, but most of the businesses were closed already, we couldn't find anywhere to go other than the health-food store and a very expensive outdoor's store. So around 7:00 we decided to head to our planned camping spot of the night at Cascade River State Park, only a few minutes out of town.