Road trip down Minnesota’s North Shore | Bean and Bear Lakes, Tettegouche State Park, Pie, & MORE!

For the last few days we've been road tripping down Minnesota's north shore visiting waterfalls and historic sites, eating delicious food, exploring town, and seeing beautiful views from the US-Canada border all the way down to Grand Marais. And today we're continuing our trek southwest and squeezing in as many adventures as we can including another state park, beautiful hikes, more waterfalls, lake views, and a delicious treat starting with a hike to Bean and Bear Lakes. This trail is between six and a half and seven miles and has a little bit more than a thousand feet of elevation gain. And one thing we haven't mentioned yet is there's a really long trail here on the north shore called the Superior Trail. It runs for 310 miles along the shores of Lake Superior and you can do the whole thing as one big through hike or you can do individual sections of it. We've already done a portion of it when we did Devil's Kettle Falls and this trail is on the Superior Trail as well. So far the trail is not too bad. It's a mix of ups and downs, some rocky parts, they have some boardwalks, some parts where you're just kind of on a standard trail. It's mostly through the forest but you do get little peaks of views every now and then. Alright, first lake views. We made it to Bear Lake. We're actually on this overlook overlooking both lakes. The one closest to us is Bear Lake and then off in the distance is Bean Lake where we just came from. And what a view. This hike has been so gorgeous. We've seen so many photos of this hike. It's one of the more iconic ones in the area but still totally exceeded our expectations. Minnesota is just so gorgeous especially this kind of north shore north woods area. It's completely just blown us away. It's such a gem. It's definitely going on our list of states that have completely surprised us by how gorgeous they are. It's kind of a cloudy day and to be honest we haven't had the best weather since we've been here. It's either been cloudy or smoky but it's kind of just giving us fall vibes. It's early August right now but the weather's cooler. It's kind of gray out and I don't know if you can tell, some of the trees are already turning yellow. We really would have loved to have been here in the fall so this is kind of a good consolation prize. On the way back you can either do this trail as a loop or you can go back the same way you came. We want to go back the same way we came because there's actually a little spur trail that'll take you down to the lake. We want to check that out and have lake views along the way back to the van. But after that we're going to book it back because we have a lot more to see today. We're at the area just right where there's a visitor center and this area is actually free to explore. And first up we're going to do a 1.2 mile hike to Shovel Point. We're maybe 60 seconds into this little hike to Shovel Point and we came across this viewpoint. Waves crashing under against the shore here. There's these little caves it's carving into it with the trees and just jagged cliffs. This is a beautiful spot. The waves are massive. They are crashing so hard. Waves are crashing. We got sidetracked again going to Shovel Point. This is Superior Beach. This is insane. The waves are huge. They're just like pounding onto the rocks splashing up everywhere. If you didn't tell me we were in Minnesota I would think we were in like Oregon or Washington on the coast. Like this feels like the ocean and the waves are just nuts. That was 1,000 to climb to get here. I cannot get over this place. I keep thinking we're in the Pacific Northwest. It's just... I like what you said. You said if you drop us, if you didn't tell us where we were we would think we were in Oregon or on the Washington coast. Yeah this place is really cool. Seriously Minnesota. You've been hiding from us. It's going up on my states list so fast. Next up we're going to go to High Falls which is in a different area of the park. You can hike from here and it'd be about three miles and it'd be free or you can drive to a different trailhead and it's about one and a half miles but it's seven dollars but we're tired so I think we're just gonna drive. We thought there would just be a pay station here where you could just put some cash in an envelope but they have a QR code that you scan and takes you to a website and you can buy a permit online and there's just barely enough service on Verizon to make it work but you'll probably buy one at the visitor center as well. We just were very confused. The hike to the falls is a quick 0.7 miles and you may remember from a previous video we went to another High Falls. That one has another name of Pigeon Falls and it was apparently claimed to be the highest waterfall in Minnesota but that one's on the border with Canada. This one is fully inside the border of Minnesota so I think it's technically the highest one completely in Minnesota. High Falls was very beautiful also very busy. We saw a sign for another waterfall called Two Step Falls so we're gonna go check that one out too. This one's way cooler than I thought it was gonna be. I thought we were gonna go down these 200 steps and it was gonna be a little dinky one. We made one more quick stop in the state park. We came to Palisade Head which is a 300 foot cliff with Lake Superior just crashing against the rocks way down below. It was crazy. There were some people out there going over the edge and climbing down and climbing back up. Nope. So this is a super quick stop. You just drive up the road, park, get out and look at it. So it doesn't take much time at all. No hiking required unless you're us because it's a no oversized vehicle so we had to park at the bottom and walk up the whole road. So for most people it's quick but for us it was kind of a workout. We made it to one of the most unique stops on the North Shore, Black Beach which as the name implies is a black sand beach which we've only ever seen in Hawaii and now in Minnesota. The color comes from taconite which is a low-grade iron ore. Local miners dumped it into the lake years ago and I guess it turned the beach black. This is so cool. It's more like a black rock beach not sand but still really cool. If you haven't been able to tell by the majority of this video it is crazy windy out today. We basically cannot talk outside on camera without it just sounding like a giant windstorm. So we were supposed to have a picnic on Black Beach with a special treat that we bought but we're now having it in the front seat of the van. That's okay because it'll still taste delicious. We have a North Shore institution, a treat that many of you recommended, Betty's pies. Betty's pie began back in 1956 when Betty's father built a fish shack on highway 61 and Betty thought it would be a good idea to have some goodies for the fishermen so she started making donuts and coffee for them to enjoy. One thing led to another and she started selling hamburgers and hot dogs and then in 1958 she turned the fish stand into a cafe that she named Betty's Cafe and added pies to the menu. Over time Betty's Cafe has expanded and the pie menu has definitely expanded with lots of options and although Betty passed away a few years ago they're still continuing her legacy on the North Shore. Earlier in the day we took about an hour detour to go to Betty's Pies because we hear that they start to run out of flavors later in the day and we wanted the full pick of the menu. We went in with full intentions of ordering one slice of pie but then y'all know us we have to uh we got to get two so we ordered two and there was an order mix up and so we went to go and switch it back out to get the correct one and for whatever reason they were like this one's small so we'll give you two and so check out what they gave us. They gave us an extra one. We have three pies. I think they were just trying to make us happy and boy did they. So the first pie we got is the Great Lakes pie. This has five delicious fruits that signify the Great Lakes. There's apple, blueberry, rhubarb, strawberry, and raspberry and then there is a crumble like a crunch crumble on top. I think it's oats and brown sugar and deliciousness. And this tall piece of pie is a Butterfinger pie. We're not 100% sure what's in it. It's a cream pie and it looks like it might have pieces of Butterfinger inside of it. Looks like it has a layer of chocolate underneath just above the crust and then Butterfingers on top and a chocolate drizzle. Oh baby. That is so creamy and fluffy. Has a nice crunch from the crust. You get that nice little layer of chocolate on the bottom. I don't know for sure what the actual cream pie is like if it's flavored or anything like that but you get the nice little Butterfinger crunch and the chocolate flavor. Mmm. Love the first bite. Once it hits the lips. So decadent. Nice little crunchy bits in there. Yeah this is like the what's inside the Butterfinger. I don't know what it is. This piece looks so good. Yeah this is ridiculous. The crust is so flaky too and buttery. Pumped for this one. I love fruit pies and then this crispiness part on top is gonna be awesome. I can just already tell. It tastes so sweet and so fresh. You have nice big chunks of fruit in there. Mmm. That is actually way better than I thought it would be. It has like the sweetness like Adam mentioned but I even got like a little bit of tartness in there too. It's just lots of flavor in there and that crumble on top. It has like a really fresh refreshing. Is refreshing a word to describe pie? I don't think so but it tastes kind of refreshing. You're probably not going to be surprised but we destroyed both of those pies. We do have a third one that we're going to save for later. Let us know what the chances of it making it through the night. I think the the chances are pretty slim. We're in a slight pie coma but we do have one more stop we want to make on our Minnesota North Shore road trip. Our final stop on the North Shore is Split Rock Lighthouse State Park and there are a couple different ways you can explore the state park. You can either pay eight to twelve dollars per adult to get access to the lighthouse grounds where you can do a self-guided tour and kind of see the lighthouse more up close and personal or you can pay the seven dollar entrance fee for the state park and get access to the areas outside the grounds. I believe we parked at Pebble Beach and we're currently on the hunt to find this lighthouse but we have not seen it yet but we also learned while we were here that since we paid the seven dollar entrance fee at Tettegooch State Park earlier that covers us for the entire day at all Minnesota State Parks. So only to pay for one park but we're getting to access two. Split Rock Lighthouse was built in 1910 on a 130 foot tall cliff. It was meant to guide ships through the stormy waters of western Lake Superior and its light can reach 22 miles. What a day that was a jam-packed day. We probably wouldn't recommend doing everything we did in one day and we originally had two days to do this but we had a change of plans and so we only had one day but we wanted to see as much as we could so we did it all. There is one spot that we were hoping to check out but we just don't have time for and that's Gooseberry Falls State Park which is one of the most popular state parks in Minnesota. So go check it out if you're in the area and we'll have to come check it out next time because there will be a next time. Oh yeah. Love it here but for now we're going to continue our trek down the north shore to Duluth and then tomorrow we're going to spend the day eating and exploring all around the city. Minnesota's new slogan should be nature's stairmaster although they built the stairs so Minnesota land of 10,000 steps. I guess it turned the beach black in 1958. Turned into a cafe. Vlogging behind the scenes. We're hiding in a bush because it's too windy to talk anywhere else.