A few weeks back I had a day off so I decided to head north to take some pictures of the fall color. I ended up on the north shore of Lake Superior so I decided to head over to the Split Rock Lighthouse to take some pics. Now I know that many of you come to this blog because you love nature, like I do, but I have always had a fascination with lighthouses so when ever I get a chance I like to stop up at Split Rock.
These two pics where shot from different angles. The first pic was taken from below, down by the lake. The shot above was taken from one of the neighboring bluffs.
Imagine what life was like for the lighthouse crew back before there were roads in the area. People as well as supplies traveled to the lighthouse via boat across the lake and then had to be hoisted up the cliff face. With my fear of heights I probably would not have made any visits back then.
Growing up in the middle of the North America you can miss a few things. Like you do not find any mountains in Minnesota, the closest that you find are the Black Hills in North and South Dakota about 12 hours away. Your also quite a distance from the nearest ocean. I did not see an ocean until I was in my thirties. We may not have any oceans near Minnesota but we do have the next best thing, Lake Superior.
Lake Superior has the largest surface area of any lake in the world. Large ships traverse up the great lake from the ocean and pull into ports on Lake Superior like Duluth and Two Harbors. Along the rugged shore of the lake there are many lighthouses to help the ships avoid the rocky edges. This is the lighthouse that stands at Wisconsin Point. Built back in the early 1900s this lighthouse sits at the edge of the largest opening, there are only 2, in the long sandbar that runs between Duluth, MN and Superior, WI. The lighthouse was automated back in 1970 and as you can see was under basic maintenance at the time I took these photos.
