Voyageurs Trip Report

GEtting There

We made a family vacation out of our trip to Voyageurs and Isle Royale.  Kasey flew into Minneapolis from the East Coast and the rest of us flew in from San Diego.  After hitting an awesome Donut shop in Minneapolis (Glam Doll Donuts), we began the 275 mile drive toward Minnesota’s border with Canada.  If you’ve ever seen a weather forecast during the winter, you’ve probably heard of International Falls, MN as that’s had more than its share of low temperature records.  They say in Minnesota that there are only two seasons – Winter and Construction.  Makes sense.  But the drive wasn’t too bad.  We reserved a “villa” at one of the many lodges that line the lakes that make up a majority of the park.  This turned out to be super convenient for us to cook and prepare lunches for our days on the lakes.  This National Park attracts tons of fishermen, but the middle of summer didn’t appear too great for fishing.  Unless you’re mosquitoes hunting humans.

Water Water

Everywhere

Voyageurs is a tribute to the Native Americans and traders who paddled through the interconnected waterways to/from the northwest to the Great Lakes.  If you explore the area, you realize quickly that travelling by foot or horse back in the day would have been so slow, that boats or canoes would have been the most effective way to get around.  The two biggest lakes that make up the park are Rainy Lake and Lake Kabetogama (Ka-be-TOE-ga-ma) and our resort was on the shore of the latter.  On our first full day, we reserved a pontoon boat to explore Katetogama.  Before picking up our boat, we stopped at the Visitor Center for passport stamps and to get some ideas on where to go on the lake.  We were warned that we’d need navigational maps to avoid rocks near the surface.  No problem.  By the time we finished our nearly 100 miles that day, Rainy was a pro and we were never in any danger.  Anyway, when we went to pick up our boat, my training consisted of “here’s the keys, don’t break the boat.”  Perfect.  Cruising on the water was great.  Not crowded at all and there’s something invigorating to the mist and wind in your face on a hot day.  One of our stops was at the Ellsworth Rock Garden, a quirky life project of one Jack Ellsworth.  A fun stop, but the mosquitoes ensured that it was a quick visit before getting back on the water.  We decided that we would go end to end on the lake and work our way to Kettle Falls.   It’s not much of a falls, but there’s an old hotel there that still operates.  No roads to get there, either boat of float plan is it, so there weren’t many guests when we were there.  We stopped long enough for a few cool pictures and to buy postcards.  It was a long haul back to the dock, but we had just enough gas and daylight. 

Nerd

Astronomy

I’m like a kid when it comes to science.  I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights and before the trip I had loaded an app on my phone that tracked solar activity and the probability of seeing the Aurora Borealis from this northern and dark location.  Even though odds were extremely low, I saw that one night during our stay would have unusually high activity and there was a chance of seeing them around 1 am.  Well, come 1 am, I ventured out on the deck to look toward the north pole.  After a couple minutes, I realized how foolish I was, until very faintly I thought I saw a fuzzy twinkle in the skies.  I had Rainy come out to take a look and yes, we confirmed that this was an aurora and we were actually seeing it.  The phenomena was way too faint to photograph, so you all will just have to trust me.  And even though we get to check the box, we still want to capture them from Iceland or Alaska in the future.