Like the voyageurs hundreds of years ago, campers at Voyageurs National Park must travel across water to reach their destination.
Located along the Canadian border in northern Minnesota, covering more than 200,000 acres, Voyageurs National Park offers a unique wilderness camping experience. Each of the more than 200 campsites in the park is accessible only by water.
Campers follow water routes through rocky islands and pristine northern wilderness to reach their secluded destinations. The trip follows the same routes used by French Canadian fur traders of the 1700s.
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Camping facilities
Voyageurs National Park holds more than 270 developed campsites, none of which are accessible by foot or car. Visitors can bring their own boats or rent boats to reach the remote campsites.
There are a variety of campsites available, including large, small and group sites. Most are equipped with a picnic table, privy, tent pad, food locker and fire ring.
Each of the park’s campsites must be reserved, so visitors must plan ahead to reserve a location.
In addition to campsites, houseboats are also available for rental, allowing visitors to explore the park’s more than 84,000 acres of waterways, while living on the water. Houseboat sites must be reserved ahead of time.
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Activities
Among the most popular activities at Voyageurs National Park is fishing. The park holds exceptional angling opportunities for walleye, northern pike, muskie, smallmouth bass and lake trout. With thousands of acres of water to explore anglers can find many secluded areas with high populations of game fish.
Wildlife viewing is among the activities enjoyed by most visitors to Voyageurs National Park. You may see bald eagles, pelicans, wolves, moose, black bear, otters and a wide range of other birds and mammals, which inhabit the park. Voyageurs National Park is one of only two national parks in the continental United States that is inhabited by timber wolves.
Hiking is another popular activity at Voyageurs National Park. Hikers can enjoy more than 50 miles of hiking trails, which are well maintained and offer something for every skill level.
During the winter months, the park’s most popular activities are ice fishing, cross country skiing and snowmobiling. The park offers 110 miles of maintained snowmobile trails.
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Highlights
In addition to the backdrop of northern wilderness and the thousands of acres of pristine water, Voyageur National Park boasts some of the oldest exposed rock on the planet (2.8 billion years old), which makeup beautiful rock formations and breathtaking islands throughout the park.
Visitors can also learn about the more than 10,000 years of human habitation in this region of Minnesota, from the Native American cultures that lived in this area, to the history of the fur trading industry that first attracted Europeans to this northern region.
Photo credit: National Park Guides
