Exploring Grand Marais, Minnesota (Devil’s Kettle Falls, TACOS, & the Gunflint Trail!)

yesterday we kicked off our north shore road trip here in minnesota with waterfalls history beautiful views and even a bear sighting in grand portage and today we're continuing our north shore road trip down to grand marais with the goal of exploring the town and also heading up into the north woods and our first stop is to devil's kettle falls at judge c.r magney state park [Music] [Music] we have just about a two mile hike to the falls but these falls aren't like your regular falls for many many years there is quite a big mystery surrounding them which we'll explain when we get to them [Music] do [Music] so [Music] this is devil's kettle falls and as you can see the river splits into two in an outcropping of rhyolite which is a volcanic rock and half of the river goes down and just kind of like a standard waterfall and just flows into the blower part but the other part just disappears into this big hole and that has been the mystery where does it go there have been many theories of how this happens over the years and one of the more popular ones was that they thought that the one on the left just drains underground all the way to lake superior and i guess after many years of research they finally figured it out that it simply just goes into that hole and then comes right back out underneath but the water rushing through is so powerful that they just couldn't tell for the longest time so mystery solved apparently people used to like throw stuff down there like sticks to try to see where it came out and they never would see it again but i think the water was just so powerful that it would just stay under water for a while so so yeah that's the mystery it's all [Music] [Music] so [Music] we headed about 15 minutes southwest to the town of grand marais which is right on the shore of lake superior it is a creative artsy and outdoorsy town that has been named america's coolest small town a top 10 beach getaway and the next great adventure town i grabbed coffee from a place called jabba moose which is right across from lake superior here on the inside it had like these cozy cabin vibes really cool spot and we both got a maple lattes oh that tastes like just out of this world like maple syrup coffee sweet maple syrup is a big thing in minnesota and the north so we kind of feel like it's kind of local yeah we had to get it's local maple syrup as well we're just sitting here on the lake it's right on the beach here hearing all the birds it's just the water lapping up it is a perfect spot it's so beautiful here [Music] so [Music] one of the top spots to check out here in grand marais artist point it's a broad tombolo which looks like a peninsula that just juts out of town right on lake superior there's all this rocky coast shoreline that you can walk along there's a lighthouse back there you have great views of town and it's really popular with artists we actually saw someone painting right in the harbor which is just so cool [Music] [Music] we keep getting very confused it feels like we're at the ocean or the beach it's just a huge lake so it feels like looks like the ocean you hear the waves crashing there's seagulls smells like it it's a it's a real mind trick [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] we grab lunch in town from a place called hungry hippie tacos and they are known for their indian fry bread tacos which is a fried dough that originates from the navajo nation and it has a very sad origin story it was created when they were forced to make a 300 mile journey known as the long walk and relocate to new mexico onto land that couldn't easily support their traditional staples of vegetables and beans to prevent the indigenous populations from starving the government gave them canned goods as well as white flour processed sugar and lard which they used to create this fried dough yo we're very concerned last time we only got one taco each so don't you worry this time we got two tacos each and we got tachos so this is the fried bread taco here the shell is the fry bread and then i got a pork one so there's tons of pork in there there's lettuce that's a chipotle crema jalapenos supposed to come with onions i think but they were out today they said and then there's tons of cheese on there as well and corn too i see heck yeah i also got the special taco for the day this is a shrimp and pineapple it said it was a caramelized pineapple salsa somewhere down in there behind all this dang lettuce and i got lettuce tacos i'm just kidding you just can only see the lettuce on the top but this one is brisket and this one is their pork which we saw them like shredding the pork in the back and just falling off the bone it looks so good and as we mentioned we got tachos which are tater tot nachos there's cheese on here sour cream all the taco fixings are on there some salsa and then oh just delicious oh tater tots we were feasting clearly today for lunch that taco is awesome starting out with the pork is nice and tender and flavorful cheese in there is awesome lettuce is nice and fresh the chipotle crema there gives it a nice smokiness and then the fried bread is really awesome it has a little bit of crisp on it but it's still very nice and doughy and just kind of very comforting i'm digging a fry bread taco the second i bit into that i immediately tasted the chipotle sour cream it was so good and the pork is so tender you can get regular orchard sour cream you have to get the chipotle the brisket is super good as well it's kind of more like a pool like roasted beef it's just kind of a shredded beef but it is so tender as well oh i'm just loving on the toppings i put in this the corn gives it a little bit of like a fresh like crisp like not crisp but like just juiciness i don't know that taco is amazing you instantly get the freshness of the pineapple and the shrimp the shrimp are nice and plump and juicy it just mixed so well with the chipotle crayon this this taco just tastes super fresh and refreshing and sweet spicy a little bit of smoky here's your weapon set [Music] oh yeah oh look at this brisket right here now we're talking cheers [Music] oh my god get the tachos they are off the charts so good oh man this is this is the winner right here this might be my favorite thing [Music] [Music] for our last adventure of the day we're going to drive the 57-mile gunpoint trail which is a national scenic byway it connects grand marais to the boundary water canoe area wilderness it's said to be a great place to see wildlife and there's lots of hikes and sights along the way [Music] [Applause] so the gum clint trail is a very forested drive you're surrounded by tons of trees as you drive down the road so to see some of the sights along the way you have to go on some side roads because there aren't a ton of views from the actual road we're making a pit stop at honeymoon bluff which is i read a 0.4 mile hike but the sign said 0.7 mile hike either way super short and we should have an awesome view if i think it's called hungry jack lake [Music] [Applause] [Music] that overlook was pretty dang awesome that blew my expectations out of the water i i'll admit i didn't know a ton before we got here but you can see a really big lake right in front of you and then a bunch of what looked like a bunch of other little lakes off in the distance [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] our next stop on the gunflint trail is magnetic rock which is about a three mile hike round trip and this rock has some magical powers that we're excited to see for ourselves you might already know what it is based off the name but it should be pretty cool [Applause] [Music] we said that you can see wildlife on the gunflint trail we haven't seen anything yet until now there's a beaver he just went underwater see his bubbles oh my gosh we've never seen a beaver in real life before and he was just using his little hands and eating the grass it's especially cool to see a beaver because that is a huge part of the fur trapping history in this area so it may not be a bear or a moose but we've been learning all about beavers recently so this is very cool [Music] oh wow oh yeah it's huge it's massive [Music] [Applause] if you haven't guessed by now the magnetic rock special power is it's magnetic apparently the only uh magnetic really thing we have is this little slider for our yeti lids i guess there's a little tiny magnet in there do you think it's going to stick i think so i don't but we'll see it really sticks i mean i thought i thought this magnet was going to be too weak for this i thought maybe yeah it's really magnetic but wow [Music] we made it to the end of the gun flint road the boundary waters although there wasn't really much to show because it was mostly just campsites and then parking if you're gonna go canoe but that's okay so the boundary waters are a vast wilderness that extend 150 miles along the u.s canada border and encompasses over 1 million acres you may have heard that minnesota is called the land of 10 000 lakes but did you know that there are actually 11 842 lakes and over 1100 of them are in the boundary waters and also in the boundary waters there's over 1500 miles of canoe routes we really want to canoe the boundary waters but just logistically with kona it wasn't going to be possible this time so we'll have to come back and maybe when we come back we'll be able to do voyageurs national park and isle royale national park both of which require a boat to get to it's also just kind of logistically challenging this time but we will take any excuse to come back to this part of the united states [Music] one challenge that we're going to have now that we're moving east is sleeping at night out west there are tons of free campsites many of them with amazing views but in the midwest and the east we pretty much sleep in parking lots every night and while we're really grateful for a free place to stay or somewhere cheap like last night it's definitely not glamorous but best western hooked us up with a few nights at best western plus superior inn right here on lake superior we are so pumped for hot showers free coffee free breakfast ac ac kona freaking loves it here she's flipping all over the ground and we got a room right here on the beach here we can enjoy the beach all we want and the timing is pretty perfect because tomorrow's actually my birthday and our plan is to do nothing but just hang out at the hotel and relax a bit so a big thank you to best western for not only making my birthday extra special but for giving us a little bit of a vacation while here on the north shore we are so excited to continue exploring more of this area and after resting up a bit tomorrow we'll be back on the road to see more of its beauty [Music] jenny's yes i'm 92. oh thank you [Music] you

Channel: Adventures of A+K

Views: 67,781

Keywords: up north minnesota, north shore minnesota, minnesota north shore, things to do north shore minnesota, what to do north shore minnesota, what to do in minnesota, what is there to do in minnesota, things to do in minnesota, things to do in minnesota summer, minnesota travel, minnesota travel vlog, devils kettle falls, gunflint trail, grand marais, grand marais mn, grand marais minnesota, things to do in grand marais, what to do in grand marais, hiking in minnesota

Id: 9l6s3xVBGkk

Length: 19min 43sec (1183 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021