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.