On the Road Again - Day 1 - Corn Palace and Badlands

On the road again!  First stop Mitchell SD and the Corn Palace

 It's kind of corny

The building is both under repair and they are setting up the 2016 theme of Rock of Ages

 The Corn Palace is covered with murals that are made from colored corn that they grow themselves, they are not dyed,  each ear is cut in half by hand

Next Stop the Badlands

 Pretty Awesome place

 It's such a beautiful drive

 I think this is my favorite part of the park - a little splash of color

 It's a convoy!

 Tucson makes more new friends

 We take time to take in the view

 Our $5 campsite

 and sunset

 Tucson finds a bunny

Farewell to Schroeder

The End of my time at Lamb's is almost over.  Take advantage of the quiet and grab one of the lakeside sites to have a campfire

Too dark to see the Lake, maybe you can hear the waves.

After work the next day,  we ran up to Grand Marais to check out the Moose Madness and ran into Murray the Moose

The last morning of cleaning the bathhouse!!!!!

 

 Last Sunset

 The last day of work, the owners took us out to dinner at the Trestle Inn

 

 It also happened to be Gary's Birthday

 

Woke up to some ice guess its time to hit the road.

On the road!  It's a convoy!

Hike up Eagle Mountain

Only six more days here and I still haven't hiked to Eagle Mountain, the highgest peak in Minnesota.  It's now or never!  Good day for a hike, high in the mid forties.

Dog is our co-pilot

 Paved road turns to dirt.

It's hunting season so we were advised to wear blaze orange, got Tucson decked out as well in case fox is in season

Eagle Mountain is in the Boundary Water Canoes Area Wilderness

Tucson's blaze orange vest was done in during a squirrel hunt

 

It is truly wilderness with lots of those 10,000 lakes Minnesota is famous for.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, is a 1,090,000-acre wilderness area in the Superior National Forest under the administration of the U.S. Forest Service.

Gary bringing up the rear

Tucson always in the lead

Tucson spots a deer in the distance just past the tiny pine tree

Lake Brule

The trail isn't steep but is very rugged with roots,

Rocks.  We've been hiking about 2 hours and come across a young couple walking the other way.   They tell us we're about 1/2 hour or so from the summit which would put us right around our planned latest turn around time. 

 

we reach the turn off for the summit

 More rocks

Tucson making sure all in the party are present and accounted for.

I think we're coming to our view

View number one.  According the the couple we'll be at the summit at the next overlook.

10 minutes later.  What a view of the Boundary waters canoe area, it extends nearly 150 miles along the International Boundary adjacent to Canada’s Quetico Provincial Park and is bordered on the west by Voyageurs National Park.

Gary brought along Winferd his Grandson's stuffed dog for a photo op to send back.

Another great hike in Minnesota.  Time to get moving though if we want to get back before dark. 

Back to the parking lot just as the sun is setting.