Murdock Muse
July-August 2005, Part 3

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The Falls at Minneopa North Shore wildflowers North Shore squirrel Willow River cascades Shovel Point

MINNEOPA Darrel Murdock May 19: We had used all the Spring Thaw weekends up securing the entire North Shore, not leaving any time to get to the southern Minneopa State Park, amongst others. We wanted to wait and get some nice new foliage there anyway, as we had many fall and winter pics with the baring and bared trees and shrubs contrasting the otherwise pretty falls and surrounding landscape. The weather had not been cooperative the weekend before, then it had rained all week and was going to continue through yet another weekend. Frantically I searched the weather maps, but the rain was visiting the entire Midwest. With only hours before it would be time to either find a target or abort another weekend shoot, I discovered a tiny break in the action scheduled for Mankato, MN at about 10am; the city by Minneopa! We immediately headed in that direction, driving through so much overcast and rain we had already decided that if nothing else, this would be a chance to practice getting good pictures in the rain with our new cameras. It was a local trip, by our standards, so we didn't have to feel remorse spending a lot on gas and coming up short on gold. But as we neared our location, the sky indeed began to brighten up, allowing us at least a better chance at scoring a few hits, I thought. I began to realize that since it had been so darn rainy, we might get to see Minneopa really kickin' like the Spring Thaw time we had missed, and maybe even get a lot more green than if we had gone 'on time'. Yes, this could be the best of two worlds.. FINALLY, A SHOOTABLE DAY Darrel Murdock May 31: We had been stymied for three weekends in a row, as we waited for the darn weather to be nice enough to take Michigan again. We couldn't afford to go that far without sunshine to brighten the pictures. Memorial Day weekend was looking like another dud, and Saturday proved that was true. We made the best of it, comforting ourselves by thinking it was a nice break to get things done, but that usually only works for one weekend, not three. But as Monday unfolded, it looked like we could go somewhere, anyway. We figured it was time to revisit the second closest location to the Twin Cities, Willow River State Park. We had only been there twice, once in late fall and once in winter, and had been provided with very interesting icing and iced pictures. One of them showed Kathy in the middle of the river by the largest drop, dwarfed by the mammoth ice structure behind her. But it had been a cloudy day, and we wanted to add sunny pictures to that set. It was clouding up as we left, yet we were heading straight East and hoped to drive right out of that into blue skies. Luck was finally with us again, we not only drove into happier weather, but it stayed that way until we were done shooting. Even the one-and-a-half mile walk downhill was picture worthy, as the clouds were perfectly scrumptious in the very blue sky with all the trees in the green again. Along the path we were treated with many Columbines and Wild Geraniums, affording us a few shots for our Wildflowers galleries. We were pretty excited by the time we heard the sound of rushing water. What would it look like with this weather and at this time of year? Would it still be running strong, like others had been earlier in Spring? We were just about to find out! Yes indeed, it was looking mighty fine! And as an added bonus we were able to crawl and scratch our way along the slippery, narrow bank up to see the beauty hidden above the three large cascading falls. here is the top of the three as we climbed past it. And there was the top, the place I wanted to stay at forever once we got there. What a nice day it turned out to be! We hardly even noticed the long, steep climb back up the ravine to our vehicle. We had greatly improved our Willow River collection today. SPRING'S LAST WEEKEND, PART 1 Darrel Murdock 6/21: After a strong set of storms set the stage in the Great State of Minnesota, we were absolutely thrilled to see the weather turn sunny and dry just in time for our next big shoot. We eagerly set out early Saturday morning with no idea which of our favorite locations we would target, just head for the North Shore and start anywhere! We had planned to get as many new wildflower and critter shots as we visited our nearly sacred rivers, and while we were there we might take a shot or two of the waterfalls, too. Let me tell you, we got our money's worth several times over. I thought I might have a winner when I snapped a seagull landing, but the Critter-Shot-of-the-Day award goes (again) to Kathy. Click here for photo. SPRING'S LAST WEEKEND, PART 2 Darrel Murdock 6/22: To get to the North Shore you have to pass through Duluth, then hop on the scenic Highway 61. We had just entered into Duluth when we saw signs saying there was a major delay on 61, which we learned later was due to the famous Grandma's Marathon Race scheduled for that Saturday. We would have to go around, which we did, watching highways turn into gravel roads and even mysteriously ending up where we had started once. Somehow we made it through the maze without burning too much of the time up, and we did get some great Wild Lupine photos, which had been on our hit-list and would have been missed without the detour, as the ones on 61 had already passed their fleeting prime. As we saw the Big Blue Beautiful Lake Superior become the horizon, the anticipation heightened; we were minutes away from discovering what our rivers look like after heavy rains, with all-fresh foliage that had been absent in our Spring Thaw Madness marathon shooting. The first stop was at the Knife River, which appears to be nothing more than a little rest stop from the highway. We had originally gotten a tip that there were falls there, and had already taken photos in the fall and early spring. Both times were when we had a large agenda, so we had not explored everything there was to see there. This time we did. After we thoroughly enjoyed Knife River we had plenty of time left in the day, so we decided to head up to Tettegouche to see one of my favorites, Illgen Falls. We had been there late in the day for the Spring Thaw marathon in April, and with the recent rains I thought it would look pretty cool with green foliage. We had only shot it with fall color, winter ice and emerging green so far, and I wanted to wait for rains to catch it in the green. But on the way up there we passed the very accessible and ever-changing Beaver River with the traditional nearly-empty parking lot, so we stopped there first to see what new things were going on around the cascades this week. We discovered trails we had overlooked before, and not only did we see new things, but the main drag was looking pretty sweet, too. LAST WEEKEND IN SPRING, PART 3 Darrel Murdock 6/27: Again very pleased with the captures, we headed to Illgen Falls and when we arrived we were so excited to get there we accidently alarmed some people in a nearby cabin, who called the friendly Park Ranger to investigate. When he arrived we chatted about all the waterfalls on the North Shore running high for this time of year. He said "Have fun and enjoy!", waved and left us to enjoy the place. And we did. As we were leaving I thought we should go down by Lake Superior to check on the cool shoreline at Tettegouche. We did have some shots of it from our old cameras, but could we beat them? Sure we could. But that didn't take very long, leaving time for one more stop; the location that started it all just one year ago: the most popular Gooseberry Falls. It made the news for being especially rapid for the month of June, could we possibly get a shot or two sans humanoids? Sure we could. And that's where we ended our very scenic last weekend of Spring. Click here for photo. Stay tuned for our "First Weekend of Summer Marathon in Michigan" as we nail the largest and most beautiful of the Upper Peninsula's waterfalls. We planned long and hard for this one, and we came back with quite a bounty! MICHIGAN PREVIEW Darrel Murdock Hello and Happy 4th of July Weekend! July 3 - Our long-awaited return to Michigan's Upper Peninsula was very productive. We saw quite a few new waterfalls, re-visited some we saw last December, hiked for miles up and down, in and out of ravines and generally had a blast! We stayed at a nice hotel by the Wisconsin/Michigan border after the long drive and a stop at Superior Falls. It was only $45 a night, complete with microwave, refrigerator and not one but two reclining chairs. The innkeeper gave us some waterfall info as we chatted with him about the area, but we had quite an itinenary already as it were. We left at 6:45 am to see if we could pull off that amazing feat. We had much to see at many places and if we wanted to hit them all, it would need to go off without a hitch. We even rented an economy car for this trip, because it was so many miles, so far away from our Twin Cities; any small breakdown would be a disaster. We finished our shoot just in time for a beautiful sunset on Lake Superior, then drove all the way back, arriving home at 1:00am. We couldn't wait to see our pictures and videos. Besides all the fun we had (oh yeah!) we wanted to see why in the heck anyone would push their body to the extremes that we had, risking life and limb like we did. Once again, we were NOT disappointed. See a preview at my website of just a few of the photos, and more will be e-mailed after I recover from the editing marathon the website required after this big one. [Ed. note: While Darrel is recovering, take a look at the 28 second video clip of 4th of July fireworks, grand finale, that he took at a Minnesota park, lying on his back! It's a .wmv file, about one megabyte. Be sure to have the sound turned on. - - RDM] FUN WITH THE FAMILY Rickey Murdock July 10 - We started this weekend off right on Friday night by going to the park and spending a day teaching the kids how to swim at the pools in the Bloomington area, and finished the night with a trip to the homemade ice cream shop in downtown Minneapolis. The following day we went to the Como Zoo in St. Paul. We started with a picnic in the little picnic areas at the front of the Zoo. We then headed over to the new little carnival there and spent half the afternoon riding a bunch of rides. We walked into the Zoo and saw the giraffes, wolves, zebras, lions, tigers, and bears, as well as the other ones in aquatics and gardens. We and the kids learned a lot and ate cheese curds fried, and state fair style corn dogs, and all together had a awesome time there. Sunday we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota and saw the new exhibit called "Grossolgy" and "backyards" and saw the dinosaur exhibits as well as the others. We also got the chance to see the "Animals in 3D," very fun and educational. We got a couple items from the gift shop and headed home in time for our Three Cheese Potato dish and fired up the grill for some T bone steaks, chicken, N.Y. strips, corn on the cob, and hamburgers. Deanna made the Potato dish and made some greens, salad, and cut the watermelon. Our neighbors made cake and tropical drinks for Deanna and me. The weather was perfect all these days in a row which was a nice break. Last week we went to the Mall of America and Camp Snoopy, as well as the Hard Rock Café in Downtown and briefly visited the Taste of Minnesota on the Fourth of July. Next weekend Tanaya and I are going to Valleyfair. Top / Muse Home / Who's Who / What's New