It was a lovely view out over the lake this morning while we had breakfast.
Our first stop today as the International Wolf Centre, it’s a research and educational organization which advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wildlands and the human role in their future. The main hall had some wonderful displays about wolves and their place in the ecosystem of the American wilderness.
In the outdoor enclosures we were able to see two of their wolf pack just enjoying thier relatively sheltered life. They had a presentation on the reserach programs being conducted on the wolf population on Isle Royale national Park, which was particlularly interesting after our visit to the island last week.
After that we drove a little way down the road to walk the short trail to see the Kawishiwi Falls. It was such a pretty walk through the woods and although the falls themselves are not high it’s interesting because they are very close to a damand power plant, managed by the Minnesota Department of Natural resources.
There were some amazing trees that looked like figs to me, growing up and around old stumps and rock outcrops.
We stopped in town to have a wander around and take alook at the local stored. There are lots of outdoor outfitters selling everything from canoes to t-shirts.
We’d seen the wolves and the next thing was to see the bears! We stopped into the North American Bear Center, which also had a huge display of information about the wildlife in this part of North America..not just the bears.
We walked out to the bear observation deck and saw two of their resident black bears having an energetic time searching for the peanut snacks that had been left out for them.
After the bear center we headed back to the hotel but we decided to walk across the road to the old Pioneer Mine again, because we’d seen yesterday thet the mone shaft was opened for a few hours this afternoon. The shaft was manned by three wonderful local characters who vounteer to keep thehistory of the local mine fresh and available.
One of the guys was the local “crazy jeep guy”. he adopted us and took us around the entire exhibit, filling us in on his long connection with the area – both his father and both grandparents had worked in the mine. he was also a “picker” , someone who loves finding and collecting antiques and he very proudly showed us his WWII Jeep that he had found and restored, along with the WWII machine gun. he was such a character!
We spent so long at the mine that we ditched our plan of going into town for dinner and decided to try the hotel restaurant. After a couple of drinks in the bar we enjoyed a delicious plate of pan-fired local walleye ( fish!) . A great finish to our time in Ely.
