Fatal fall at Palisade Head, rescue at Caribou River in Lake County

Palisade Head and the Caribou River gorge again showed how quickly a North Shore outing can turn into a rescue. In one case, Lake County deputies and a park ranger recovered the body of Seth Pipho, 29, of Minneapolis, from the rocks below the bluff. In the other, crews used ropes to reach an 88-year-old man who had fallen nearly 30 feet near the Caribou River Trail and was hanging onto a tree over the water.

The Palisade Head call came in at 4:55 p.m. on May 27, when the Lake County Sheriff’s Office received a report from a Tettegouche State Park ranger that a body had been found on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. The sheriff’s office Marine Unit and Rescue Squad recovered the body. The case remains under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office.

The second emergency came in at 1:01 p.m. Sunday near the Caribou River gorge, where the older man fell down a steep embankment. Rescuers reported that he landed in a precarious spot over the river and was able to hold onto a tree until help arrived. Lake County Sheriff’s Office personnel, Lake County Search and Rescue, Lake County Ambulance and a Minnesota state park ranger all helped bring him out. He suffered only cuts and scrapes.

Together, the two incidents highlight the hazards that come with some of Lake County’s most visited outdoor destinations. Tettegouche State Park is known for rocky, steep cliffs, inland bluffs, hiking, camping and rock climbing, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says visitors can drive to the top of Palisade Head from Highway 61, about 1.5 miles southwest of the visitor center. The Caribou River Trail begins at Caribou Falls State Wayside, a seasonal site open from May until mid-November, and runs about three-quarters of a mile to the 35-foot Caribou Falls waterfall.

Lake County’s emergency system has to cover a wide stretch of shoreline and backcountry with a relatively small population of 10,905. Sheriff’s Office duty stations are in Two Harbors, Silver Bay and Fall Lake, while the Lake County Rescue Squad is staffed by volunteer members and keeps equipment in Two Harbors, Silver Bay and Finland. That network is built for fast response, but the terrain still leaves little margin for error when visitors move too close to bluffs, embankments or water. Palisade Head has also surfaced in past sheriff-report entries, including an injured rock climber rescue in May 2025, a reminder that these are recurring rescue sites, not isolated trouble spots.