Over Memorial Day weekend, we went camping at Indian Lake Campground in the Cloquet Valley Forest. The campground is about an hour and a half north of Duluth and is first come first served.
Our plan was to arrive on Thursday, before the crowds, and stay until Saturday. When we arrived, the campground was pretty empty so we chose site 21, which is down a hill on the lake.
View from campsite #21
Unfortunately, the people next to us were up pretty late drinking and talking so we didn’t get much sleep.
On Friday, we did some hiking. Our first stop was Caribou Falls. You can get to the falls from the trail head parking lot at Caribou Falls Wayside on Hwy 61. It’s about a mile and a half hike up and down hills.
Next we stopped at Palisade Head, which is part of Tettegouche State Park. There isn’t really any hiking here, but we did get out and take some pictures.
On the way back to the campground, we stopped at Split Rock State Park and walked along the lake.
We got back to the campsite and relaxed, napped, read and had dinner. By early evening, the noisy site next to us had more people who were even louder. By the time we left, there were at least 12 people at their site. We didn’t want to spend another night listening to them so we cut our losses, packed up and headed to a hotel. Surprisingly, we were able to find someplace that accepted dogs on such short notice on a holiday weekend.
The next morning, we decided to cut the trip short and head home. We stopped at Enger Tower in Duluth on the way back.
View of Duluth from Enger Tower
Common Strawberry plant
Minnesota Camping & Hiking 