Duluth's Enger Park and Tower

One enjoyable free attraction that Duluth (Minnesota) offers is its Enger Park that features Enger Tower.

We enjoy learning about a city or area by finding a high point to gain a "bird's eye" view of the city of area and Enger Tower and the surrounding area provide these types of views of Duluth.

Enger Park in early October 2022 featured beautiful changing leaves' colors.

Enger Tower itself is also interesting.

As interesting as Enger Tower is, the view it provides is even more spectacular.

Another beautiful attraction at Enger Park is the American-Japanese Peace Bell.

This Japan-US Friendship Peace Bell is a replica of the bell in Ohara Park in Duluth's Japanese sister city.

Enger Park also features beautiful trees and plants and grassy areas.

Enger Park also has a pavilion with more beautiful views.

There are also some areas just outside of Enger Park that are worth quick visits. One example is a designated trout lake.

There's also a turn-off parking area (identified as Enger Scenice Overlook on Google Maps) with more fantastic views.

Enger Park is a beautiful park with interesting sights and it and the surrounding area are well worth visiting while in Duluth.

Enger Park was particularly pretty with its changing leaves in October, but anyone visiting in the winter should verify that the park is open in the winter. The Duluth Parks website currently states, "The entry gate to Enger Park as well as the doors to the tower are closed every fall when the snow arrives. They are opened on May 1 annually and may be opened earlier depending upon weather conditions."

Duluth: The Great Lakes Port City

We arranged for stays in Duluth (Minnesota) for a night each at the beginning and end of our trip to see Apostle Islands National Lakeshore for logistical and convenience reasons, but were surprised at how much Duluth has to offer for the visiting tourist.

Arguably the most famous landmark in Duluth is the Aerial Lift Bridge at Canal Park.

Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge is particularly beautiful when illuminated at night.

The Aerial Lift Bridge spans the Duluth Ship Canal and opens to allow ships in and out.

The Aerial Lift Bridge is a major contributor to Duluth's success as the "largest metropolitan area" on the largest of the Great Lakes (Lake Superior) and the "world's farthest inland port accessible to oceangoing ships."

There is a wide and flat walkway on each side of the canal that can each be easily walked to the end to see the Aerial Lift Bridge from further back and to be further into Lake Superior.

We ate dinner on our first night in Duluth at Grandma's Saloon & Grill, which is very close to the Aerial Lift Bridge.

Grandma's Saloon & Grill has lots of seating and there was plenty of room to be seated. We enjoyed the food and the service was excellent.

There are museums and other restaurants and shopping in the Canal Park area.

We mostly enjoyed the outdoor park area and walking along the canal.

Because we visited in October, many of the museums and other attractions were not open (open for summer season only) or had such limited hours that we could not visit during our brief time in Duluth on each end of the trip.

We would have been able to see some of these attractions in the Canal Park area with limited hours if we had stayed a full day or two in Duluth (especially on a weekend day) rather than only spending a quick night and morning there.

The view of the Aerial Life Bridge from above is particularly impressive and I leave coverage of our visit to Enger Park and Tower and surrounding area (where we took this photograph) to a separate post.

Apostle Islands and Minnesota's North Shore (Lake Superior)

We had never been to Minnesota or Wisconsin and so enjoyed being introduced to both when we took a short trip to the area with the primary objective of visiting Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

Although we have visited several national parks and national monuments in the United States, this was our first visit to a national lakeshore.

The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore features "21 islands and 12 miles of mainland coast."

We visited the Apostle Islands in the first week of October 2022, but they are well-known as a winter destination due to the sea caves becoming ice caves.

Other blog posts will cover more specific details regarding Apostle Islands, but I wanted to include some description and photographs in this overview post because the Apostle Islands were our primary motivation for this trip.

We chose to go to Apostle Islands in October to avoid summer crowds and that paid off for the most part as the Apostle Islands and Bayfield were relatively quiet during our few days there.

Bayfield got a little more crowded during the day from day-trippers visiting, but it was quiet and peaceful in the mornings and evenings.

To get the Bayfield and the Apostle Islands, we flew into and out of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) on direct and relatively easy Delta flights from Denver International Airport (DEN).

We left on the Saturday morning of Bayfield's Apple Festival. That was lucky (we hadn't planned it) timing because we got a taste of the Bayfield Apple Festival but then left as the crowds were arriving.

To break up our drives between Minneapolis and Bayfield, we stayed a night in Duluth on either end of the trip and it was nice to learn that Duluth had more to offer than we realized.

We also were able to take a day trip to some of the better known attractions along Minnesota's North Shore and enjoyed these beautiful vistas of Lake Superior.

The first week of October turned out to be a fantastic time to visit the Lake Superior area of Wisconsin and Minnesota. After visiting Bayfield and Madeline Island in early October, it was easy to see why that area is featured in 23 Top Places to See Fall Foliage in the U.S.

Future blog posts will be linked to from here with more details and photographs related to our short trip to Wisconsin's Apostle Islands and Minnesota's Duluth and Lake Superior North Shore.

• Duluth
  • Aerial Lift Bridge and Canal Park
  • Enger Park and Tower
• Apostle Islands
  • Bayfield (Wisconsin): Beauty Beyond the Waterfront
  • Kayaking Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
  • Apostle Islands Cruises Grand Tour
  • Madeline Island¹
• North Shore (Minnesota/Lake Superior)

¹Madeline Island is one of the Apostle Islands but is not technically part of the national lakeshore.