Come Explore…Lutsen Minnesota

By: Becky Hill

Lutsen Minnesota is about 90 minutes northeast of Duluth Minnesota. It is right along the shore of Lake Superior.

Lutsen is located in Cook County as indicated by the star above.

Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Location

The Laurentide Ice Sheet

-The picture to the left shows just how enormous the Laurentide Ice Sheet really was. It covered basically all of Canada and a portion of the north United States. All of Northern Minnesota was completely covered.

(Star indicates where Northern Minnesota was)

-The picture on the left shows how winds played a role in how the glaciers of North America were affected. The Laurentide Ice Sheet moved down from Canada to the United States.

Below- Glaciers around the World

Glacial Ice

Bedrock

-As the glaciers of North America flowed over the bedrock it left large scrapes in the rock. These scrapes are called glacial striations. The ice was very powerful and could cut right through the rock without much effort. These striations took an extremely long time to form, for the ice moved so slowly.

Moraines Moraines are rock debris that has been accumulated by an alpine glaciers. There are many different types of moraines. There are lateral, terminal, and medial moraines.

Medial Moraine

Lateral Moraine

Volcanoes actually formed much of the rock that is in Lutsen MN. Especially along the shore of Lake Superior. After the lava from the volcano cooled it formed to create rock. The type of rock formed from lava is typically igneous rock.

How Volcanoes formed Rocks

Rocks of LutsenMostly Igneous rock makes up the majority of the Lutsen area. The rock the lies here is actually the oldest rock found in the state of Minnesota. The two circles on the map indicate where the Igneous rock is mainly located in the state .

This map shows that in the Lutsen area, the main rock type here was formed by volcanoes.

  

Summer Activities

There are so many activities to do in the summer while you visit Lutsen as the slide after shows.

Different resorts and companies offer different activities such as:

-Waterfall Tours-Rock Climbing-Alpine slides-Canoe Lessons-Canoe lessons-Kayak Lessons

Some of the above activities you could do on your own as well as the following:-Fishing -Hunt for rocks along Lake Superior -Swimming shore-Viewing the sites -Have a picnic-Hiking -Agate Hunting-Camping

What is there to do in the Summer

WINTER ACTIVITIES

The slide after this one shows that there are many activities to do in the winters in Lutsen Minnesota .

-Resorts and other companies can set you up with the following activities if you need assistance:

-Snowboarding-Skiing -Ride in a horse drawn sleigh-Take a snowmobile ride-Take a snowshoe walk through a trail-Ride on a dog sled-You could even have a winter picnic

What is there to do in the Winter

Take a Gondola Ride

Gondola rides are offered through a number of companies throughout Lutsen. They are not only used for getting up a mountain to ski or snowboard but to site see as well!

There are many different resorts in the area. Such as the Caribou Highlands Lodge, Cascade Lodge and Restaurant , Lutsen Resort, Solbakken Resort and Lakeshore Cabins, and many many more!

Cascade Lodge

Lutsen Resort

Solbakken Resort

RESORTS

-As you can see by the rock cycle Igneous rocks are formed by lava or (magma). Before the time of the ice age there was a volcano in the Lutsen area. That volcano spilled lava , the lava cooled and then created Igneous Rocks.

Agates of the North Shore

-Along the North Shore including, Lutsen there are many rock beaches where agates can be found.

Long before the ice age the North American continent began to split apart. Lava flows then came up to the surface of the earth. These lava flows were rich with iron. Carbon dioxide and tiny water vapers actually became trapped in the cooled lava. Later chalcedony (fine-grained quartz) filled into the air pockets. After much time passed the ice age fell upon Minnesota. The glacier came through and picked up many of the agates that were on the ground’s surface. Many of these agates were transported by the glacier to the south. It is said that the glacier actually acted as a giant rock tumbler by polishing the agates. The lake superior agates actually have a different color scheme then other agates found in different parts of the world. Lake Sperior agates are usually colored yellow, orange, and red. The color of an agate is actually determines by the amount of iron and the oxidation.

How Lake Superior

Agates were Formed

THE SOIL*The pH level in the soil of this area is between 5.2 and 5.1. This means that the soil is slightly acidic. On the pH scale neutral is 7. A pH of % is more on the Acidic side.

*The soil in the Lutsen area is fairly moist. It holds moistures fairly good as well.

Till is deposited by glaciers. It is composed by glacial sediment. This may made up of one specific type of clay or be a mixture of a few different kinds. Sand and gravels may actually be apart of the clay as well. Till is usually deposited in the moraines of the glacier. Large amounts of till is said to be, in a scene, washed away as outwash in rivers.

Large rocks and boulders mixed in with the till.

Clay Till

-The Cascade River between Lutsen and Grand Marais. There is a state park actually in Lutsen called the Cascade River State Park. In both the upper right picture and the one on the left you can see that the river is slowly eroding the rock.

-The bottom left-hand picure is pointing out a point bar. The river is a curve at this point. The river isn’t at the same water level that it used to be. The river has deposited sand in that lower part.

Cascade River

Point bar

Temperance River State Park

The Temperance River is actually between Schroeder and Lutsen, Minnesota as indicated on the map above. This state park runs along the temperance river and has many trails for hiking. The opening of the Temperance River is beautiful as it joins Lake Superior. To get there travel on Cook County Rd. 1 (Cramer Rd.) to Temperance River Wayside on Hwy. 61

Lutsen Minnesota is considered to be in a snowy-forest climate. This area is also well known for having moist winters. It is a moist climate with a decent amount of rainfall throughout the entire year. Lutsen has no true dry season. It has a fairly warm summer season with a cooler winter season. This climate is also sometimes called a moist continental climate.

-The lowest monthly average for rainfall is in the month of February.

-In February Lutsen gets an average of approximately 1.18 inches of rainfall during the month

-The highest monthly average for rainfall is in July

In July Lutsen gets an average of approximately 3.96 inches of rainfall during this month

Rainfall in Lutsen

Winter Temperatures-The average high temperature for Lutsen MN in July is 72 degrees Fahrenheit

- The average low temperature for July is 53 degrees Fahrenheit

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- The average high temperature for Lutsen MN in January is 16 degrees Fahrenheit

- The average low temperature for January is -5 degrees Fahrenheit

Summer temperatures

Wildlife in

LutsenAs you can probably already tell by the pictures, there are many different types of animals that roam around in Lutsen Minnesota.

Bald Eagle

Squirrel

Red Fox

Deer

Bald Eagle

Wild Rabbit

Grey Wolves

Cardinal

Vegetation-Lutsen has a wide variety of vegetation. Part it’s vegetation is flowers. There are multiple wild flower types here. -This slide shows the more common types of wildflowers that are native to this area. You may even stumble upon a rare Showy Lady Slipper (the state flower).

Canada Hawkweed

Thin Leaved Coneflower

Orange Hawkweed

Twin Flower

Showy Lady Slipper

Lutsen is a part of the coniferous-hardwood forest zone of Minnesota. This area has a lot of spruce and fir trees. It is mainly made up of Mixed Pines and Aspen trees as indicated by the map below. Maple trees are also quite abundent in the area with some oak as well.

Fir Trees

Spruce Trees

Lutsen MN

MAIN TREE TYPES

Maple and Oak Trees

Lake superior just happens to be the largest freshwater lake on earth. Lake Superior actually has 10% of all the freshwater in the world. The surface area of Lake Superior is 32,000 square miles. -The map on the bottom shows the different depth levels in the lake. As you can see, along the outer edges of the lake it is more shallow. Near the middle of the lake it gets much deeper.

Lutsen

MN

Lake Superior’s average annual water temperature is approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It is very rare when Lake Superior fully freezes over. This is because of it’s large size. Even if it freezes over it’s a very thin layer . The thin usually doesn’t even last a full day.

Lake Superior Water

Eskers are narrow embankments of gravel and boulders. The gravel and or boulders were deposited there bfrom melting water or a stream from an ice sheet or glacier. Eskers are said to have formed during the time of the glaciers. A retaining wall of ice melts and the deposits from the stream are left behind as ridges. These ridges are called eskers. The pressure from the water and ice of the glacier is what forms the actual shape of the esker.

Eskers

After Glacier

Drumlins

A drumlin is a hill made of glacial till. Drumlins are usually oval or elliptical in shape. Drumlins are formed from underneath glaciers. A drumlin basically looks like a rounded hill or large mound . Some drumlins can actually get to be 150 feet tall.

Sourceshttp://www.lutsenresort.com

http://www.tripatlas.comhttp://www.onthesnow.com-skihttp://www.caribouhighlands.comhttp://www.google.com-imageshttp://www.dnr.state.mn.us

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumlinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esker

http://www.greatlakes.net/lakes/superior.html

http://www.weather.com/outlook/recreation/ski/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USMN0458?from=tenDay_bottomnav_undeclaredhttp://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/axel_heiberg/axel_south_aerial/icons/moraines.jpg