August 2018

Our first visit to the park was at the Ash River Visitor Center, about 30 miles from our campground. The visitor center used to be a hunting lodge and was very cozy, with a fire burning on this chilly day.

The next day we went to the Rainy Lake Visitor Center, near International Falls, to catch our afternoon 2 1/2 hour Grand Tour boat ride in the park. Voyageurs is a water based park with 500+ islands and 655 miles of shoreline. On our tour we saw several eagle nests and a few eagles, plus a beaver lodge. The park ranger showed us a replica of an eagle’s egg which is pretty small considering they grow to be 10-12 pounds!  At Little American Island we got off the boat and took a tour of the island where they mined for gold in the 1800s.

 

There were also some beautiful homes on the lake and we saw a few houseboats too. This one with the slide really looks like fun!

Richard made friends with this moose at the Rainy Lake Visitor Center. There are some moose in the park but they are very rare to see.

We enjoyed our visit to Voyageurs NP and were encouraged to come back in the winter when the lakes freeze over and the roads are made of snow and ice. Sounds very cold to me!