Voyageurs National Park

White Pelicans

Voyageurs, park #28 for us, is in northern Minnesota, along the border with Canada.  It is named for the French-Canadian trappers/traders who navigated these waters as part of the North American fur trade.  The park contains more than 200,000 acres, 4 major lakes, and 500 individual islands. Roughly 1/3 of the park’s acreage is water, which means the best way to experience the park is by boat.  So, we spent two of our three days there on the water. 

Captain Jason

Boat Tour

Our first outing was an all-day boat tour.  Jason, our captain and guide, took us to the major highlight areas of the park while sharing an impressive amount of history, geography and local lore. 

Our favorite stop was Stevens Island which was the home of I.W. Stevens.  “Steve”, as he was generally known, suffered from poor health, and, at his doctor’s suggestion, moved north for a healthier lifestyle.  At 47, he purchased a 400-acre island where he built his own home, guest cabins, a powerhouse, and a sauna…by himself. He lived on, developed, and maintained the island for nearly 50 years until the age of 94.  At that point, he moved off the island and lived another 10 years! It seems like the move north worked. 

Other points of interest included the Ellsworth Rock Garden which was built over the course of twenty years by a husband and wife who created nearly 200 rock sculptures and planted roughly 13,000 lilies, Kettle Falls which is one of the few places where Canada lies directly south of the U.S., and Hoist Bay which was originally a transfer point for moving lumber harvested from the area onto trains bound for area saw mills.

Kabetogama Peninsula

Locator Lake

The day following our tour, we rented a boat and set out on our own.  We started with a truly unique experience. We boated over to a trailhead on the Kabetogama peninsula.  Once there, we hiked two miles into what felt like true wilderness.  There were no other people, and you couldn’t see or hear any sign of civilization. At the end of our hike, we reached the shore of Locator Lake where the Park Service stages several canoes.  We climbed into a canoe and began paddling across the lake. Locator is one of several lakes in a “chain”, and you can paddle, and/or portage, from one to another.  We worked our way across the first two lakes which were equal parts beautiful and peaceful before returning to the trail and hiking our way back out.  We rounded out our day with lunch at a lake-side restaurant and a swim in a secluded bay that we had all to ourselves!