Eloise Butler Wildflower Sanctuary

This morning we walked the trails (about 1 mile) in the Eloise Butler Wildflower Sanctuary in Minneapolis. At the begining of our walk, we saw a barn owl up in. a tree, so fun to see! There were many wildflowers in bloom, a chipmunk, an assortment of insects: butterflies, dragonflies, lightening bug and a sweat bee. Fun day!

Topper Lake

Our fourth stop along the Gunflint Trail today was to hike a portage route to Topper Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. We started at a pullout on the Mayhew Lake Road near Mayhew Lake in Superior National Forest, and soon entered the Boundarty Waters, this was less than 1 mile round trip. Through the forest with muddy places, we saw a toad, dragonflies, swallowtail butterflies and some wildflowers and fungus. Lovely little hike!

Devil Track Wildflower Sanctuary

Today we drove the Gunflint Trail (highway 12) to Gunflint Lake, with several stops to walk along the way. Our first stop was to the Devil Track Wildflower Sanctuary. We enjloyed walking the trails (about 1 mile total) here along the Devil Track River to see many native wildflowers and we also saw a ruffled grouse in the woods. Some of what we saw

Bitterroot Trail

Ater our hike at the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area, we did the short drive to the Wild Horse Wind Farm to check out their Bitterroot Trail to see if the bitterroot and cacti were in bloom. This is a short trail next to the visitor center, about 1 mile round trip with 150 ft of loss/gain. We saw bitterroot blooming on the lower half of the trail and one basalt cactus in bloom along with other wildflowers. Nice color along the trail!

We also had distant views of Mt Adams, Mt Rainier and the Goat Rocks

Some of the bitterroot we saw in bloom

A budding basalt cactus and a blosssom on a basalt cactus

Other wildflowers seen along the trail