Unfortunately, Unilocal places the map directions for this beautiful, Duluth, MN park in the middle of Sioux Falls, SD. I will try to rectify that here: Take I35 to S Lake Ave. Keep following Lake Ave over the Ariel Lift Bridge on to Park Point Island. Eventually, Lake Ave turns into Minnesota Ave, but it’s still the same road. Follow the road until you can’t go any further, about 4 miles. You’ll see beautiful sand dune-y beaches and a Coast Guard station. Further south down the beach, you’ll see a stand of woods. Shuffle your way over there to find numerous linear dirt paths that all amble in the same direction. Just a note: it is impossible to get lost on the trails that traverse this long, narrow, French bread-shaped island. Park Point is a wild, beautiful, abandoned place that time forgot, but teenagers looking to get wasted did not. Nor did lots of day hikers and beach-goers, so don’t let the aforementioned description rattle you. Wayward youths usually do the things wayward youth do here at night. And anyways, are they really all that«wayward?» I mean, let’s be honest. We’ve all been there. Okay, some of us. It takes an additional 30 – 40 minutes to hike the rest of the way to the sea wall at Minnesota Point. If you hew closer to the southern shore you will see abandoned resort cabins, and the skeletal husk of Minnesota’s oldest light house. You’ll also find an incredibly creepy but fascinating«Coast Guard Buoy Depot.» I don’t even know what that means, aside from the fact there are empty brick buildings with colorful, drug-related graffiti everywhere and empty 40’s of malt liquor. There is also a chamber with a solid, rusted steel door that looks like the kind of place you might find a kidnap victim in a horror movie. Bring your binoculars for a better view of birds of prey as well as the taconite ore freighter traffic coming and going from Duluth Harbor. About 15 paces south of the«Buoy Depot» in a little stand of woods is a dilapidated outhouse with – I shit you not – a«his» and«her’s» side-by-side toilet seat. The«her’s» is round while the«his» has a hole cut to the shape of a penis. Well, it’s nice to know somebody had a sense of humor back here. The beautiful paths take you through dunes, stands of mature pines, and wild roses, but they also go through lots of poison ivy. I’m sure many an amorous encounter among area youths ended badly out here when a roll in the hay ended up being a roll in massive doses of oral steroids at urgent care due to caustic, phytochemical dermatitis. There are deer out here, and on rare summer days, maybe once every few years, the lake warms up enough to swim at these beautiful beaches on the north side. If you try that, watch out for ledges, drop-off’s and dangerous currents. Lake Superior is more ocean than lake.
