Voyageurs national park is located at the border of US and Canada. It is only accessible by boat: kayaks, canoes, motor fishing boats, pontoons and house boats. Jet ski is not allowed here. I also did not see any sail boats on this trip probably because there is not much wind on the lakes, but it is legal. There are five big lakes: Rainy, Katebogama, Namakan, Sand point and Crane lakes. From crane lake, you drive a pontoon (18 miles per hour) to Katebogama, it takes about 3.5 hours. Rainy lakes and many small lakes are protected—–the boats from Kabetogama have to be cleaned (at your own cost) at kettle falls area before you can enter the rainy lake. There will be separate boat rentals at small lakes such as Mukooda and Little Trout Lake.
The fun at Voyageurs National Park is unique. The best season is between May to Sept. In winter, all the lakes are frozen so you can drive snow mobiles on the lake. I bet the cross country skii should be great too. But there are only some resorts that are open for ice fishing, snow mobiles.
Here are the checklist you can use for planning your trip.
- Junction bay see the water falls
- Grassy bay see the cliffs
- Explore unknown islands
- Camp on your own island
- Water hiking around a clear lake like Mukooda
- Fishing (grassy bay S22 is really good, best fishing season May-July).
- Stay in a historical unique hotel: kettle falls hotel (closed at the end of Sept)
- Water slides and wandering on the water via a house boat
- Hiking on the trails, e.g., locate lake trail (3 miles), Blind Ash trail (3 miles)
- Some national park designated locations: Hoist Bay, Rock Garden Island, I.W. Steven Cabin
- Carry your kayak/canoe for lake hopping or island hopping through portage
- See northern lights (Sept is the best month, it requires dark, clear sky and strong solar storms)
- Ice fishing and snow mobile (when all the lakes frozen)
- See fall leaves (Sept and Oct)
The park has three visitor centers. Rainy Lake is the biggest. You can drive up here and stay at the international falls, and launch your boat to the rainy lake. Ash River visitor center is located most south. It has a big dock connected to the parking lot, and is a great place for launching your boat. Kabetogama visitor center is a good stop if you camp or stay near the Kabetogama lake. All these visitor centers have drinking waters and clean bath rooms. The closet towns you can get decent groceries and lodging are ORR, MN (30 min to Ash River visitor center) and Cook MN (1+ hour).
Price per day (check the resorts in the area) as the time of 2023 summer:
- Pontoon: $170–250 + gas + tax
- House boat (most basic): $405 + gas + tax + fishing boat $75 + national park permit $20
- Island camp site: $20
We rent our boats from Voyagaire Lodge & Houseboats. Their boats and service are great, although it is a bit pricy. They offer snow mobiles in Jan too. The drawback is that they are located in Crane Lake, so it is a quite a long drive to places like kabetogama lake. But it is quite a fun drive from Crane Lake to up lakers. You pass the boarder of Canada and USA. Sometimes you are located in the Canada water and sometimes you are located in the USA water. Watch out, don’t board on an Canada island as they don’t have boarder control 🙂
There are quite a lot of other boat rental service, typically they are resorts on the lake front. Check out here: https://www.nps.gov/voya/getinvolved/commercial-services.htm These are also the places you can refill the gas for your boat.
The houseboat, the campsite, Kettle Falls hotels and even Pontoon should be booked months before, the early the better. Cell phone signals are on and off dependent on the locations. Houseboat parking site mostly has no signals. We came in August, during the day, a T-shirt is plenty enough. But we felt quite cold when driving high speed in the rain. So make sure that you bring a thick jacket.