The North Shore of Minnesota may look all pretty. But don?t let it fool you. Billions of years of violence sculpted this land. (Photos by the author and Sahlee Grace Kotoski)

If you go when the snowflakes storm
When the rivers freeze and summer ends
Please see if she?s wearing a coat so warm
To keep her from the howlin? winds
? Bob Dylan, ?Girl from the North Country?

I had forgotten about that feeling of violence that rises up through the ancient volcanic rock of Minnesota?s North Shore, where Highway 61 carves a thin rivulet of asphalt against a dead mountain range that descends into deep, dangerous water.

REVER Route ? MN North Shore: Duluth to Gunflint Trail via Highway 61

The sun had yet to rise. The air was cold but there was no frost. Cars with bright lights and loud trucks with loads of lumber cut through the darkness on their way to the Canadian border. My mind wandered, from Bob Dylan?s youth to the geologic time scale to the warm, soft bed my wife and I had just left.
My wife was huddled, bundled tight, hiding from the wind in a wave-carved basalt pocket. Besides a flashlight and the burning ember of my Newport, it was completely dark. Slowly the sun rose, turning purple, red, orange, and finally yellow. The lake turned blue again, and behind the lodge, the forest that covered the mountain came alive with color. It had been over 10 years since I had looked clear to the horizon over Lake Superior.

?It?s hard to believe this place is real,? Sa...