Alex Messenger Photo in Backpacker Magazine’s Play List – This Month’s Top Trips & Picks from August 2018.
~Play List – This Month’s Top Trips & Picks~
Open this month’s Backpacker Magazine to page 28 and you’ll find a Messenger Photo of Kawishiwi Falls at flood stage. It’s one of my favorite spots to go in northern Minnesota for a short hike and great photo opportunities. The trail itself is just over 1 mile, and loops around the waterfall, intersecting with a canoe portage that offers access to the adjacent lakes. Kawishiwi Falls is just east of Ely, MN and drops the Kawishiwi River down from Garden Lake to Fall Lake. At the northeast end of Fall, paddlers can access the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. To the southeast, from Garden Lake, the water divides into White Iron Lake to the southwest, and the Farm lakes and more Boundary Waters Wilderness to the east. It’s a critical juncture, and an important drainage in a threatened watershed; up the Kawishiwi River are the sites of proposed copper and nickel mines which could leak heavy metals and sulfuric acid into the water. It’s a delicate ecosystem, and wilderness advocates are working hard to protect the nation’s most-visited wilderness for future generations. Find out more in the issue of Backpacker, or visit savetheboundarywaters.org.
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