Our Watery Tour of Northern Wisconsin

Our Watery Tour of Northern Wisconsin

Winter came down to join us the other day at Sara Balbin and Gary Crandall’s place in the north woods of Wisconsin. Sara is an artist who works in many media – metal, oil, leather, fabric – but the theme that runs throughout her work is a sense of motion, of fluidity. Gary runs the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival – an annual mountain bike race and festival. Gary and Sara are inspirational because they’re making it work – they’re both successfully pursuing their passions in an unusual part of the country (well, I consider Northern Wisconsin unusual). They’re also excellent hosts. Gary should moonlight as a tour guide, because he put together a great north country circuit that made me re-think what it meant to be in Northern Wisconsin. Here are a few photos of our watery tour of Northern Wisconsin.

Brownstone Falls at Copper Falls Park
Brownstone Falls at Copper Falls Park – in Wisconsin.
The gorge at Copper Falls Park
The gorge at Copper Falls Park – still in Wisconsin.
Clay cliffs along the coast of Lake Superior.
Clay cliffs along the coast of Lake Superior. We had to walk sideways to evade the pelting rain.  Thanks Canada!
A windy, blustery day on Lake Superior.
A windy, blustery day on Lake Superior.
The 'trail' to Superior Falls.
Paul on the ‘trail’ to Superior Falls. They just dumped a truck full of cement down the hill and let it flow.
The Lake Superior coast.
The Lake Superior coast. I thought it looked a lot like the northern Pacific coastline.
The risk of ever present death at Superior Falls.
The risk of ever present death at Superior Falls.
Not sure who would want to trespass here.
Not sure who would want to trespass here.
Superior Falls.
Superior Falls. Two guys were catching very large salmon here.
Artesian water.
Paul filling our jugs with artesian water. It was yummy.

We also stopped at a few other places that didn’t make the photo cut including Potato Falls, a black granite quarry that was the source of the granite for JFK’s tombstone (and is now a scary deep swimming hole), a HUGE iron ore dock that juts into Lake Superior in Ashland, WI, that is in the process of being demolished, and a so-so brewery and restaurant in Ashland, WI (no names, please!).