Our last Day in Minnesota

I did not plan to write any more postings from Duluth, but we had an interesting dayyesterday when we traveled to an area south of Duluth. We knew before heading out that parts of Interstate 35 were out either because of construction or flooding. However, we thought we still could get to the town of Moose Lake using county roads. Moose Lake is the town were we had planned to visit a friend of ours. We told her we would arrive at 11 AM, but did not make it there until about 1:30 PM.  We encountered many road closures because of flooded rivers and lakes. We did make it to within two miles of our friend's house when high water on the road prevented us from going any further. We had to turn around and find an alternative route, a route which took us about 20 miles out of our way and still required us to drive through a flowing current of water. We were determined to make it, that was for sure. Fortunately the first road closure was navigable for our return trip home. We still had to drive through a bit of water, however. The section of road pictured below is between two lakes and just outside of the town of Barnum.

We stopped in Barnum to view the Moose  River which was over its banks, as you can also see in the picture below. We were informed by a town resident that earlier in the day the river was 2.5 feet higher.  Many of the town's residents have flooded basements. While we were there people were moving around on  some of the streets in canoes.

On our way back into Duluth we took the Skyline Parkway which is a scenic by-way above the city.  Enger Tower is on the parkway and we wanted to see that before leaving town tomorrow.   From the tower we had a good view of Lake Superior, the harbors, docks and city. It is different perspective of the city than the one I posted a couple days ago, in this picture we are looking down at the city from the tower.  In case you are wondering, the water in the lake in the foreground is a brownish color because of the recent storms.  Surrounding Enger Tower is a beautiful park where I was surprised to find a fragrant blooming camelilla bush. Other flowers in bloom included azaleas and iris- guess it is still spring in this area.