I wish I could say it was my idea for us to visit Voyageurs National Park, but that would be inaccurate. Certainly, it falls under the umbrella of the trips that we like to take, but it wasn’t really on our radar. That is, until a certain episode of Wheel of Fortune. Those of you that aren’t fans of the Wheel probably need to see a therapist; those of you that are know that they often give away really interesting trips. During last year’s National Parks week, a contestant won a trip to Voyageurs, houseboat included, and the trip looked so amazing, that we started to plan a trip of our own.
When I was young, my family took a trip to Minnesota, and I loved it, but neither my wife, nor any of the kids had ever been. In terms of hitting every state, this was a great opportunity. In planning this trip, we had to work our way through traveling during COVID, but this trip was one that we were able to manage.
For those of you that have traveled a lot, you know that planning the trip is almost as much fun as taking the trip. Planning this one was a bit more difficult than usual, as my wife was pregnant up until a month prior to departure. We had to hold off on booking just about everything until Alyson gave birth. This made it difficult to book everything that we ideally wanted, but it was still totally worth it to take our kids, including the newest edition, on a great vacation.
The first step was deciding how to get from New Orleans to Minnesota. The obvious was to fly into Minneapolis, but for those of you that are interested in hitting all 50 states, there was another option. It turns out that Fargo, North Dakota is no further from Voyageurs (give or take), than is Minneapolis. On top of that, the route from Fargo to the north goes directly through Itasca State Park, which is one of Minnesota’s great attractions.
So in our abbreviate planning phase, we chose North Dakota. There are no direct flights from New Orleans to Minnesota or Fargo, so that did not factor into the decision. One of the nice things about flying to Fargo is that flying into a small airport can be so much easier than a large one. We were able to walk off the plane, to the baggage area, to the our rental, all within 15 minutes. We did not have to take any shuttles, security had no lines, and everyone was very friendly.
In our planning phase, we had hoped to secure a cabin on one of the lakes, but late July/early August is the peak time for Voyageurs. The lodging options are also very limited, so when we went to find a cabin, everything was already booked. We were able to make reservations at a a really interesting hotel in Ranier, MN, which is as close to Canada as one can be, and within a 30 minute drive of all three Voyageurs visitors centers.
Admittedly, we also had a hard time scheduling things for the kids to do. We found a guide in the area that offered boat tours, sunset tours and kayak tours, but by the time we were ready to book, he had no availability. The Voyageurs National Park website has several links to potential guides who offer various services, but we really had to work through them to find what we wanted.
On day one, the Friday that we arrived at around 2 pm, our goal was to get to Itasca State Park and explore the area. For those of you who are not familiar, Lake Itasca is the headwaters of the Mississippi River. I visited once at a young age and it really stuck in my memory. This time around, I was not disappointed.
The lake where the river begins is quite large, but the river itself starts as almost a trickle. It is demarcated by a line of rocks, from where you can walk down the Mississippi River for quite a ways. For this walk, I highly recommend water shoes and a bathing suit. The river gets deep faster than you would think, and it is very rocky. As people who live near the river in New Orleans, visiting the cold, clear stream that becomes the muddy river was almost like a pilgrimage.
While Itasca is not a National Park, it is an impressive state park, and something that I feel is a can’t miss part of Americana. What I did not realize is that the state park is massive and offers much more than just the headwaters of the mighty Miss. The one thing on this trip for which we did very little research was Itasca. We spent less than three hours there, but had we wanted to, we probably could have spent two days exploring the park.
From there, we drove about an hour to Bemidji and stopped for dinner at a restaurant call the Turtle River Chophouse. We were able to sit outside next to an open field that actually had several deer in it. There was a great kids menu, and my wife and I both had burgers that were well above average. They also had several great beers from Bemidji Brewing, which were a great cap to the day.
From Bemidji, we drove onto the hotel in Ranier. We stayed at a Wyndham called the Cantilever Hotel. It is 30 room hotel in the same building as a distillery and restaurant. The hotel itself was very cool, with a roof top deck looking across to Canada. I would definitely recommend this hotel, if you cannot get a cabin, but it did have some issues. My major complaint is that hotel was not very kid friendly, despite the fact that several kids were staying. We asked for a pack and play or portable crib for our newborn; what we were provided was a playpen. Since we had no other option, we made it work, but it was basically like having the baby sleep on the floor.
The restaurant in the hotel was also a bit disappointing. The food that Alyson and I got was good, but there was no kids menu. Amongst other hipstery options, they served nachos and burgers, and it seems like in a hotel, it would be very simple to offer a grilled cheese, a kid’s burger and kid’s version of the nachos. Overall, we enjoyed the hotel, but there are a few changes they could make that would really broaden their appeal.
Enough about the hotel, let’s get to the National Park. On Saturday, we made our way to the Ash River Visitors Center, where the kids stamped their passports. Even though the visitors centers were not open, they had the stamps out for just this reason, which was fantastic. A few minutes away was a short trail called the Beaver Pond Overlook. This was a really fun, less than half mile hike to a lookout point that offered a great view of the park.
From there, we headed to the Kabetogoma Lake Visitors Centers, where we met up with Bill. A little bit of research led us to Voyageurs National Park Tours, a guide service that offers multiple great options. We booked the five hour boat tour, which encompasses most of what he offers. You might think that five hours on a boat would be too much for a one month old, but you would be wrong. Clara handled it like champ, and the big kids loved it.
The first stop on the tour was the Ellsworth Rock Garden, a huge collection of rocks put together by Mr. Ellsworth long ago. It has recently been restored and is a really cool place for the kids to run around. Evidently, while Ellsworth was still alive, it was even more significant, but the park service has been committed to making it something tourists do not want to miss.
From there, we cruised around the lakes, into various coves and around various islands until we made it to Kettle Falls. Kettle Falls is an old dam and an old hotel that is the only place that you can actually stay within the park; it can only be reached by water taxi. We stopped in for a snack and a beer, and I am glad that we went. I do not think we would have wanted to stay there, as the hotel does not seem to have been serviced for several decades, but it is a cool piece of park history. Walking out to the dam and looking into Canada (again) is another worthwhile feature. We actually crossed the Canadian border several times during the boat ride, which is only debatably legal (especially during COVID), but it was nice for Clara to check off her first country.
When we got back, we drove to a nearby trailhead, the Echo Bay Loop. This was a doozy, and while I would recommend it for avid hikers, it is not one of the best maintained trails we have ever walked. I am not certain if it is due to COVID or just the way the trails in Voyageurs are, but it was very overgrown. Additionally, it did not really go anywhere. It was a cool loop, but we really like hikes that lead to something. We are big fans of overlooks, waterfalls, rivers, etc. This is good hike, and we saw a deer from about 15 feet away, but there is no big bang at the end.
That night we ate in a local restaurant called the Blind Pig; great barbecue, great local beer, and it was filled with local fishing guides. They had several options from the Surly Brewery and the Lake of the Woods. There are not a lot of restaurants in the area, but the ones that we found were all very satisying.
The next day, Eileen, JR and I got up early and met Brent from Rainy Dayz Guide Services for a fishing trip. We thought about taking the baby, but the guide service recommended against it, and they were right. It took about an hour for us to find the fish, but once we did, the big kids were in heaven. Neither of them had ever been fishing before, and they both committed to it like champs. They both helped bait the leeches, they both caught multiple fish, and with some encouragement, they both held the fish they caught.
Alyson and Clara met up with us, and we stopped at the Rocky Ledge Resort for lunch. The pizza was pretty straight forward, nothing special, but sometimes that’s all you need. After we ate, the Igoes set out on the Blind Ash Bay Trail. This loop claims to be 2.7 miles, but my daughter’s Fitbit said it was 4.2. We learned our lesson from the first hike and all wore long pants and loaded up on bug spray. This made the hike much more enjoyable, and the overlook at the end was fantastic. We did have to stop to feed the baby mid-hike, but aside from that, she hung out in the Bjorn and enjoyed the ride.
At 5 pm, we made our way south to the Vince Shute Bear Sanctuary. The history here is very interesting, as Vince used to shoot the bears to keep them away from his logging operations. He finally got fed up to the point that he came up with an alternative. He realized that if he started feeding the bears, he could keep them where he wanted. This is no longer a recommended way to treat wildlife, but at this stage, there is no going back.
The sanctuary is a 2.5 acre circle where wild bears come in and out, interact with the staff and eat in peace. We saw over 50 black bears, and while it is not exactly like seeing a bear in the wild, it is not the same as a zoo, either. The sanctuary was about an hour away from Voyageurs, but if you are looking for something different, this is a good option.
That night, the kids ate Dairy Queen, and Alyson and I ate at the hotel. I woke that night at 2 in the morning to see if we could see the Aurora, but had no luck. Even so, the night sky in northern Minnesota is breathtaking. Ranier could do a little better turning off the lights, but the view was still amazing.
The next day, we stopped again in Bemidji to take a picture with Paul Bunyan, then headed back to Fargo. We got there early enough to eat, and stopped for lunch at the Würst Bier Hall. This is a really unique restaurant with all sorts of brats and beers. Alyson and I both got an Iron Horse from Fargo Brewing. We were also able to find several options with which the kids were happy.
We got back late on a Monday, exhausted and satisfied. Overall, this trip was fantastic. The whole family got to check off North Dakota, we visited a bucket list National Park, and we found out some things about our travel options. One, we discovered that we are able to take the baby on a trip, on a plane, on a boat, and all enjoy ourselves. Two, we discovered that a short trip, three to four days, was enough for us to be able to visit a big park. All said and done, I could not more strongly recommend Voyageurs National Park; in the heat of the summer, it was a fantastic getaway.
As usual, do not forget to check out our Top 10 list for kids and our travel playlist. If you want to check out the itinerary that we put together pre-trip, that has been posted as well. See you next time that the Igoes go a-traveling.
