A Day of Waterfalls in Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota

Heading down further into the Gorge at Chester Park
 the falls got bigger and the views better

In between bigger trips, I love going on unplanned excursions on a more local scale to check out some more localized treasures. It partially satisfies my incurable case of wanderlust and it's a perfect way to spend one of our precious few remaining summer days outside in the north woods. This spur of the moment adventure was to Amnicon Falls State Park in extreme northern Wisconsin. It's a tiny state park, but picturesque around nearly every turn. The Amnicon River, along with some other streams form a small island in the middle of beautiful forest. There's a half dozen or more waterfalls on this little island and plenty of places to jump in for a cool down swim if that's your thing. Side note, if you're there at the right time you can also check out Now and Then Falls, which is called as such because sometimes it's there, and others it's not. We were there on one of those not there times (dry summer I guess).

Our second stop, Chester Park, was recommended to us by someone we were chatting with in Amnicon. Chester Park is about a half hour away, crossing into Minnesota and up in the hills of Duluth. It's a large park for being in the middle of a city, but has miles of hiking trails and some beautiful waterfalls in a little gorge steps away from the parking lot. If you're a Midwesterner reading this, go check out these places sometime and, if you're really feeling adventurous, tag on a couple extra days to see even more waterfalls (and bigger ones at that) within a couple hours drive in just about any direction. If you're from elsewhere in the US or abroad, make the trip anyways! There's just something about the north woods, even if it's just a couple of hours away, it feels like another world.

With all that being said, here are some of the highlights from our afternoon exploring the North. Enjoy the photos and make sure to give me a follow on Instagram or Facebook for more.

Starting off at Upper Falls
@ Amnicon Falls State Park

Side view of Upper Falls 

Lower Falls from the cliff side at Amnicon Falls State Park

Lower Falls in Color

Climbing on some rocks
towards Snake Pit Falls

I loved the canyon walls here full of colorful moss! 

Snake Pit Falls from above.
I was actually perched on a small ledge which was quite a challenge to get my tripod to balance on!

This was a great spot. The water was gently flowing down the rocks, no bugs within eye or ear shot
and just perfect weather. One can forget about the hassles of life quickly here.

Photography captures a moment in time forever, but long exposure photography
captures multiple moments, or a period of time, and expresses it as one single moment.
It's almost like a summary of time itself in the form of an image.

Just hiking up the stream, had to snap a shot here.
The pebbles in the bottom right really caught my eye.

Duluth is a great city...not everywhere can have so much industry
and be only feet away from places like this.
This park is basically right in town and very easy to access. 

Something peaceful about this in B&W

All the way at the bottom, or at least as far as we made it before nightfall. We were sitting on a dead tree taking in the views and I set my tripod up along side to get a few more shots.
Gorillapods are amazing for stuff like this.

Just about the same composition as the above shot, but I warmed up the temp a bit which gave it a different look.
Not sure which I like more, so I included both rather than making a decision ;)