Silver Creek Cliff (less than an hour from Duluth)
Paul Lundgren kind of stole my thunder on this with his excellent photo-essay on the North Shore earlier this week, but I was out in the same neighborhood for a work project last week myself. Truly I was in a big hurry and swamped with about a dozen things, but I just couldn’t help but stop for half an hour and snap some photos on the way back. It was the same day as the big Vikings-Packers game and I thought if they turned out it might make a good PDD post/tip for armchair quarterbacks on a great (brief) weekend road trip, but … that didn’t happen and now we may be past peak colors up in those woods. Still its a great drive anytime of year. And it’s fun going through the tunnel, too.
My wife is taking a photo class and is getting kind of photo shop happy, so I was gonna try to tweak these myself and see what’s possible but … I have decided that’s not gonna happen. The lesson? Our North Shore is so beautiful that even these basic images look pretty good from a beginner photographer captured by a run-of-the-mill point and shoot digital camera.
Everything was captured along the interpretive trail at Silver Creek Cliff tunnel on HWY 61, just north of Two Harbors. This is how the road used to run when I was a kid. Up until ’94, actually. Yes, it’s breathtakingly beautiful, but in those days the drive was also a bit scary, taking this curve at 60 mph.
The Lake looked great with the cloud cover that day. You’ve just got to stop and appreciate beauty sometimes, even if it requires an unplanned side trip.
beautiful even without photoshop
I loved this “danger corner” when I was a kid. As an adult, I see that “danger corner” should not be in quote marks. I remember fondly, though, the child’s innocent perspective of “aaaah! we’re going off the cliff!” but never thinking you actually could.
The old, scary way around the cliff was … fun and scary. Here’s a photo of what it was like.
Many a bike ride I took up the shore, carrying me past Silver Cliff. There was no shoulder, which made for a survival sprint around the damn thing to dodge the RVs, cars and trucks that seemed to be trying to push you over the edge!
My partner’s dad had to drive that route to and from work at Reserve Mining. Imagine waiting for your husband to come home on a snowy or wet night, knowing how tired he or his carpool buddy would be after a double shift.
Thanks for the Goose! I sure miss the North Shore in Fall. Sigh.
Thanks for the shots. It really reminds me why I live where I do, and why I can’t wait until I’m back home for good….
When I was a kid growing up in Duluth in the 1950s, I recall a newspaper story about a man who was driving his little European sports car past Silver Creek Bluff when he lost control and went over the edge. Because the car was lightweight, it became stuck in brush growing out of the edge of the cliff and it hung there until the driver could be rescued unhurt. This is a wonderful story to tell people, but it happened so long ago and I was quite young and I’m not sure if it really happened. Is there anyone out there who remembers this event and can confirm that it really happened?