Voyageurs National Park
This is a park of water. The Voyageurs were French-Canadian fur traders and were known for paddling these lakes for hours upon hours a day as it was the only transportation which made sense with so much water in the area. Your visit to the park will be no different as the majority of activities here are on the water. If you don’t have your own boat or don’t have one to rent onsite – you will be restricted to some hiking trails as well as the various boat tours the National Park Service puts on during the week.
When to Go
The three visitor centers are typically open from late May to the end of September each year which is going to be the peak season for visiting this park. It is located very close to International Falls, MN and the average high never gets above 80 degrees here – so you should be comfortable during your time here as well. The park is open during the winter months as the lakes will freeze over allowing for cross country skiing and snow mobiling, so if you can handle the crazy cold temperatures – you can have a lot of fun here in winter as well!
How to Get Here
International Falls isn’t exactly the most accessible place in the USA. Unless you are able to drive here, you’ll likely need to fly into Minneapolis, MN which is about a 4.5 hour drive away from the park. Other options could be Fargo, ND or Winnipeg (Canada) which are both about 4.5 hours away as well. Bottom line – you are going to be doing some significant driving even if you fly in.
Trip Length
We spent about two and a half days at this park and did about everything that could be done without renting a boat. We hiked on some of the park’s 50 miles of trails and also got a couple National Park Service provided boat tours in. If you have your own boat – you could spend several more days here as there is a lot of water to explore!
Where to Stay
There are several chain hotels in the International Falls area, so you won’t need to break the bank to visit this park. We decided to just stay at a Days Inn which was about $100 per night in 2018. If you want to stay inside the park – your only option is Kettle Falls Hotel. It is pretty cheap at $70-$90 per room, but is way off the grid as you’ll need to take a shuttle boat to get there. You can actually take one of the NPS boat tours to visit this hotel for a couple of hours which we decided to do and will describe below.
What to Do
You have three visitor centers to choose from when considering where to start this park and your day will likely need to be planned around any boat tours you have been able to book in advance (and you should book them in advance). We had a boat tour scheduled at 10am our first morning which took off from the Kabetogama Visitor Center – so that is where we decided to start (about 30 minutes from International Falls).
Kettle Falls Cruise – 5.5 hours ($40 per in 2018)
This boat trip took off from the Kabetogama Visitor Center, but it also does take off from the other visitor centers as well – so make sure to check the schedule and take the trip that makes the most sense for you. You’ll spend about 90 minutes traveling to Kettle Falls via Kabetogama Lake where you are likely going to see a number of bald eagles (we saw more eagles in a two day period than I think we have seen in our lives combined). The boat will stop a few times for you to look at eagle nests as well and you might get lucky and see some eagles in those nests from time to time. You’ll also ride right along the USA/Canada border on your trip which is pretty cool. Once you reach the Kettle Falls area – you will dock and head up to the Kettle Falls Hotel (where you can overnight as described above). You have about 2 hours to explore this area which includes lunch at the hotel. The hotel is also called the “Tilting Hilton” which becomes very clear if you enter the bar area to see the floor at a severe angle. Once you eat lunch, you can head over to the Kettle Falls overlook area which has great views and also represents the border line between the US and Canada. If you have time remaining – go enjoy a drink at the bar and explore the hotel grounds before boarding the boat back to the visitor center.
After returning to the visitor center, we headed over to the Ash River visitor center which is where many of the park’s hiking trails are located. After checking out the visitor center, we decided to take a couple trails – both of which we recommend:
Blind Ash Bay Trail – 2.5 miles RT, Moderate, 2 hours
This was a great trail through the forest with views of Kabetogama Lake below. You will go up some mild elevation (about 300 feet) – so it is a pretty relaxing hike as well. We didn’t see any wildlife, but would expect there to be some on the trail from time to time – such as moose. At about the halfway point, you will get an overlook of Blind Ash Bay which is a great picture opportunity before heading back to the visitor center area.
Beaver Pond Overlook – 0.5 miles RT, Easy, 30 minutes
This is a short walk off the park road to an overlook of a Beaver Pond – but you are not going to see any beaver here. They are no longer active. However, this trail will give you great birding opportunities and we have been told you will also see some larger wildlife like moose from time to time. For that reason – we gave it a shot, but came up empty on wildlife. It is a nice walk through the woods though and well worth it if you have time.
We drove back to International Falls (about 40 minutes from Ash River) for the night after our hikes. The next morning, we headed over to the Rainy Lake Visitor Center which is the main park visitor center and closest to International Falls. There are a number of exhibits here and you can spend 20-30 minutes exploring those and talking to rangers about the day’s activities. We decided to do one hike and one boat tour in the area.
Oberholtzer Trail – 1.7 miles RT, Easy, 1 hour
This hike is going to take you through forest, coast line, and wetlands. You will spend time looking at Rainy Lake and also overlooking wetlands where we are still shocked we didn’t see any moose or any other wildlife for that matter. It’s an easy hike and is a good one to pass the time as you wait for your boat tour to take off.
Grand Boat Tour – 2.5 hours ($30 per in 2018)
This tour takes off from the Rainy Lake visitor center and takes you out into the vastness of Rainy Lake where you are likely to see more bald eagles. This tour also includes a short stop at Little American Island where gold was found. You will get a chance to walk the quarter mile loop trail here and take some pictures of the old gold mines before reboarding the boat and heading back to the visitor center.
One tour we didn’t get a chance to do as it was not running during our time in the park is the Ellsworth Rock Gardens tour. We have heard good things about that and will look to check it out when we return someday!