i is for INTERNATIONAL FALLS

I blame it on my husband. When we first met, he told me that he didn’t want to do any international travel because “there’s so much beauty in America, why would we want to go anywhere else…?” We started to take road trips around the US, and thus my love for the National Parks began.

So that’s how I found myself in International Falls, Minnesota standing at the top of a hill overlooking a beautiful valley in Voyageurs National Park. My best friend from medical school and I spent an extended weekend in the Midwest checking several National Parks off my list. And Voyageurs was on the list.

It’s always amazing to me how diverse the topography can be in some of the National Parks. We went from a high hill overlooking a valley to a walkway right on the water. We went from lush pine trees to bare birch trees. And, even though the view from the top was amazing, the view from the bottom was equally as beautiful

And then there’s the wildlife:

We didn’t see any big game like moose or bear, but we saw some majestic swans, and one can even see the beauty in a simple garter snake swimming in water that was way too cold for him. Still, the snake found a way to live in this place. And, what a glorious place it is…