Looking for a summer vacation spot? Voyageurs National Park has plenty to offer
INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. — Nestled in Minnesota's Northwoods, just south of the Canadian border and about four hours north of the Twin Cities, lies our state's lone national park.
Voyageurs National Park was established in 1975 but has a long history where Native Americans, fur traders, homesteaders, loggers, miners and commercial fisheries thrived.
It's a natural mosaic where the forests meet the water.
"It's just a really unique place. It's one of those parks that's very unlike any other national park. It's very water-based," said Erik Ditzler. "It's set in a unique location being the boreal forest here in northern Minnesota right on the border with Canada."
Ditzler is a supervisory park ranger at Voyageurs. He says the park, which is nearly 40% water, draws visitors from around the world.
"In the summer, lots of fishing opportunities, house boating is really popular. All of our campsites are kinda unique in that they may be on their own island, like a big loop of campsites right next to each other. They're really spread out throughout the park and on your own," Ditzler said.
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Ditzler says campsites book up early, but they aren't the only option if you want to visit.
"You could drive up for the day, you could stay in one of the local resorts or an RV in town, find one of the local RV spots outside of the park," he said.
There's an opportunity coming up for some guided boat tours.
"On April 15, all of our guided boat tours led by a park ranger go on sale on recreation.gov," Ditzler said. "They don't go quite as fast as campsites do. You may have had to reserve that back in November. But our boat tours are usually available throughout the summer. If there's a date you want, we highly recommend you book that before you drive up here because they do sell out."
Boat tours range from $40 to $85.
With discounts for seniors with the golden access pass and for children, you can book online or at the visitor desk.
"There's a really wide variety of tours. We do tours to Kettle Falls, which is a historic hotel in the park. We show shorter tours throughout the lakes. We take tours to the Ellsworth Rock Gardens," Ditzler said. "And we're even going to do a one-time tour to the Anderson Bay hiking trails, which is a really beautiful part of the park that's difficult to get to, especially if you don't have your own boat. So we're going to take a tour there in September to allow people to take those trails that aren't widely available in the summer."
There's also a chance to experience the park the way voyageurs did.
"We have what's called the north canoe tours. So the voyageurs, those fur trappers and traders, went around on these big long birchbark canoes, we have reproduction canoes we take visitors to experience how to paddle with six or eight other people in the canoe," Ditzler said.
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Ditzler says visits to the park have been up since 2020. And after a few years of tough weather conditions, they're hoping for a quiet summer.
"We certainly hope we're going to have a normal summer without droughts, floods and wildfires," he said.
His advice for visitors?
"Call a ranger, call one of the visitor centers when we're open to leave a voicemail. We love to talk to people and help them plan their trip, give them advice on what to see, where they can go, ask them what kind of things they enjoy doing and help them accomplish that. So don't be shy, reach out and we'd be more than happy to give you advice and help you plan your trip," Ditzler said.