New First Creek Bridge and Morning Beach Photos

Yesterday was the last day of school here in Grand Marais. One of the teachers, Brian Prill, had his class construct a new bridge over First Creek. They have been planning and working on this project for quite some time.

As many of you know, First Creek is located in the Donahey Woods, which is located just west of Woodland Park a few blocks down from the museum. Here is the sign explaining the origin of the Donahey Woods.

There are three sets of steps in the Woodland Camping Park area. This is the west set of steps. Here are some shots of the steps before the construction of the bridge. The steps directed you to the right toward the beach and had a bench at the turn.

Brian's class made a new bench and opened up the platform to connect with the path going directly west toward the creek. When I was a kid, there were no steps here. We always took the sand path -- either straight toward the creek or to the right where the steps now are.

Here are pictures showing the changes in the path, bench, and new bridge.

This is part of the original path.

This is a shot looking south from the new bridge.

Once you cross the bridge, you have access to a trail that heads up the bluff. At this point, the trail does not continue all the way to Sable Falls. There is also not easy access to the beach. As more and more people use the new bridge, I'm sure that the trails will be worn down.

Even though I had to bushwhack my way through to the beach after crossing the new bridge, I did so. It was a gorgeous morning to be on the beach. Too bad I had to head right home to get work done.

We had huge waves yesterday that must have come way up the beach. The big lake's waves changed the mouth of First Creek. Compare the picture below with the one taken the other night.