The Lake Country, MN and Voyageurs National Park

Minnesota may be the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” but the northern half of the state has such a concentration of those glacier-formed beauties, that it gets its own moniker: The Lake Country! Here, we pegged our #48th National Park: Voyageurs. Only three to go (all in South Florida) of the lower 48 states.

Make no mistake: Vogageurs National Park is a water-based park; if you’re coming here for hiking trails, you’ll be hard-pressed to find many. It’s all about the water — multiple lakes and waterways of water over 218,000+ acres. Unfortunately, during our visit the Canadian wildfires continued to cover the Northern states with smoke.

We took to the water from the Kabetogama Lake boat dock in our inflatable Sea Eagle kayak and explored the shoreline. During a waterside picnic lunch, deer were literally crashing out of the woods, loons and ducks were floating on by, and I just might have made an application video for the Survivor TV show. Truth, or fiction?

Our Voyageurs 101 education started at our last stop in Grand Portage. Second semester, Voyageurs 102, continued at its namesake park. Refresher: Voyageurs were French-Canadian entrepreneurs, which actually came from a French word “entreprendre”, which means “to undertake.” These dudes undertook a LOT as they hunted, trapped, and traveled to sell their pelts at scattered rendezvous posts on their way to fur-hungry Europe.

They traveled for months on end, wrestling bears, running rapids, breaking new trails, being filthy dirty. They drug their birch-bark canoes, and hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of furs and required supplies, from lake to land to lake to land to lake, over and over again. They were freakin’ hungry all the time, subsisting mostly on pemmican, a mixture of dried meat and animal fat, plus the random plants and berries they found. It was tough, it was dangerous and these guys lived a life that we can barely begin to imagine.

Voyageurs has many “boat-in”campsites that can only be reached via the water. Many of them, to inner lakes, even require portaging of your boat and your stuff, just like the voyageurs of old. Your campsite gets you a private patch of land, a dock (sometimes), and a bear box for your food.

We also joined the boating game via a 2.5-hour NPS “Grand Tour” of Rainy Lake. It was not super grand, consisting mostly of trying to spot eagles in the shoreside trees (they pick the barest/ugliest trees to have room to stretch out their 8 foot wide wings), but it did get us out on the water one more time in this watery wonderland, and included a stop on Little America Island, where a mining claim was in operation during a short-lived gold rush around 1893.

In listening to ranger leading the tour, we realized we were saying it wrong: a fully Americanized hard “voy-a-jurs.” The correct pronunciation requires you to imagine yourself wearing a fine French beret, holding a croissant with your pinky up, and slurring the ending, such that it comes out “voy-a-jheeee-uhrrrs.” Heavy on the smarmy slur. Practice. She did an admirable job of trying to keep the banter going and providing show-and-tell items, but there’s only so much you can do with a bunch of water.

The creation of Voyageurs National Park in 1975 was not without controversy, and the “Big Vic” voyageur statue is a monument to protest. Local landowners felt that the National Park Service’s efforts to claim their private property for the park was an egregious overreach of power.

This protest against “unscrupulousness” was led by one Vic Davis, who commissioned this enormous statue (cost: $12,000) and placed on his island (cost: $5,000) within Voyageurs. He then further offered people the opportunity to purchase 1/44,460th of a parcel of his island for $19.95, with the intent of overwhelming the NPS with paperwork.

The NPS eventually seized his island anyway, so in further protest he had a SECOND statue (Big Louie) commissioned and put on another of his islands. After many years, Big Vic was eventually moved to the nearby city of Ranier, which still pissed the NPS off, who was none-too-happy to have a statue challenging its reputation standing en route to the largest Voyageurs visitor center. Nonetheless, Big Vic still stands today as a symbol of protest, and reminder that no power is too great to confront, even if it costs you $17,000 plus a rental helicopter.

They clearly like big things around here — Philip rides a big fish, a gun-totin’ skeleton rides a big elk.

Though Voyageurs was not our favorite national park ever, we do like everything it stands for. A voyageur is a traveler, a bohemian, an adventurer, a wayfarer, a curious drifter. That’s just what we are! But in the RV, with softer bedding and a latte machine, a propane grill and grassy lawn, here at Rainy Lake RV Campground.

International Falls is called “icebox of the nation,” frequently called out as the coldest place in the nation on the winter nightly weather report. In 1909, the temperature reached 55 below, which while remaining warmer than the 80 below it has reached in Alaska and the 70 below it has reached in Montana, it still sounds pretty ridiculously cold to me. At least the cold slows the summer mosquitoes.

Many RV’s in the northwoods of Minnesota look a little different, laying flat on the ground with no wheels. That’s because they are “ice castles,” RVs that can sit on the frozen lakes during hard winters. They have a trapdoor of sorts in the bottom, so you can cut a hole in the ice and pull in some walleyes, northerns, smallmouth bass or large crappies, all whilst enjoying the heat in your RV, and sipping schnapps with your friends.

The nearest town to Voyageurs is International Falls. It sounds so exciting: it’s International!! Must be very large and cosmopolitan. There are falls? … Ooooh, natural wonders must abound! The reality, it’s a smallish border town whose primary industry is timber and a large, semi-smelly paper mill.

Remember our recent visit to the “largest things” city of Casey, Illinois? International Falls has the largest Smokey Bear statue, a 26-foot tall replica of the beloved national symbol of forest protection. It also has the little-known Bronko Nagurski Museum, honoring the original poster child of the NFL, who was from here. He played for the Chicago Bears and was the charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame, AND the charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, which we visited in 2019.

There are also a couple of woodsy stores, one called Ronnings with canoe paddles (of course!) for handles, and a tiny kids’ entrance. Sooo cute!

ITASCA STATE PARK

150 miles south of Voyageurs, Itasca State Park is in the heart of Minnesota’s Northwoods. Itasca is the country’s second oldest state park, and Minnesota’s oldest and largest state park since 1891. Trees – lots of trees – everywhere, even growing out of the roofs of the rental cabins; others left to lie after falling in storms.

Itasca is best-known for containing the Mississippi Headwaters, the starting point of the Mighty Mississippi River, which flows 2,552 miles to the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America. Despite its length, it is one measly mile shorter than the Missouri River, making it only the 2nd longest river in the U.S.

The Mississippi touches ten states, and 30% of its length is in Minnesota. 15,000 miles of waterway from over 100 tributaries make up the Mississippi River system, but it all starts right here, in this unassuming lil spring.

This is our second headwaters; in 2016, we visited the Headwaters of the Colorado River in Rocky Mountain National Park, but it’s only the 5th longest river in the U.S.

You can walk across, or even splash in the water here, since its only 18 feet wide and 18″ deep. But did you know Minnesota has more miles of the Mississippi than any other state? You’d think it would be Mississippi! Or therefore, logically, that the river would be named the Minnesota River! But no! Some things just defy explanation.

It might look like we are all alone at this sacred spot, but ….. not so much. It’s the most popular place in the park.

A raindrop falling in Lake Itasca would reach the Gulf of Mexico/America in about 90 days. We’ve visited lots of charming cities along the Mississippi, including LaCrosse, Wisconsin; Natchez and Vicksburg, Mississippi; St. Louis, Missouri; and many others. But it felt special to be where it all begins!

Besides big Lake Itasca, there are over 100 other smaller lakes scattered throughout this 32,000 acre state park, and 49 miles of peaceful hiking trails.

Perhaps the best thing to do at Itasca is to jump on two wheels. By combining the paved 6.5-mile off-road bike path, with the bike lane of the deserted, one-way, 10.5-mile scenic Wilderness Drive, you can cruise the rolling hills of the park in a full loop of asphalt and boardwalk trails. Fun!

DETROIT LAKES, MN

A mere 55 miles from Itasca is the popular town of Detroit Lakes or “DL,” as the cool kids call it. You might think it would be in Detroit, Michigan, but it’s yet another simply charming destination here in Lake Country. This city of about 9,000 has more than 400 lakes within a 25 mile radius of DL, including Big Detroit Lake and Little Detroit Lake.

Dear friends from Phoenix, Rob and Jill, have a summer home here and were our uncompensated tour guides for our visit. We met 23 years ago when our infant Max, their infant Max, and other friends’ infant Max were all baptized together, wearing identical “Three Maxketeers” bibs.

Our visit coincided with the 42nd year of “WE Fest,” one of the nation’s leading country music festivals, since Alabama took the stage in Year One. It is billed as “the country’s largest country music and camping festival;” however, this is a tiny bit of trickery because the largest country music festival is actually the CMA Fest in Nashville.

Rather, this is the biggest festival that is combined with camping. 10 different campgrounds — meaning, patches of land with no hookups or amenities — can hold 35,000 people and endless amounts of discarded beer cans and red Solo cups. Also, lots of inflatables: inflatable pools, inflatable sofas, inflatable dolls.

It is also one of the largest by attendance, with up to 100,000 people descending upon this small town of 9,000 every year. To say the local police hate the WE Fest, would be an understatement. But the fans love it!

The grounds of Soo Pass Ranch are transformed every year with three stages, food booths, vendors and activities. And young people. Lots and lots of young people. The average age of the crowd was probably around 24 or less; the average blood alcohol amount probably around 0.15 or more.

Philip realized his lifelong dream of riding the mechanical bull, lasting a full four seconds to the roar of the crowd.

There seemed to be a unannounced uniform for WE Fest. Spandex or lace short skirt, with butt cheeks peeking out below. Tiny halter top. White cowboy boots. We saw endless iterations of this combination during hours of entertaining people-watching.

This year’s lineup included artists like Hardy, Jon Pardi, Cody Johnson, Ashley McBryde, Megan Moroney, Kip Moore, and Gretchen Wilson plus more. It runs into the wee hours of the morning for three full days. We obviously only attended part of the days, since we go to bed when most of the attendees were just waking up from the day before.

Since 2024, Detroit Lakes had had the world’s largest installation of Thomas Danbo trolls. Danbo is a Danish artist who uses his team and local volunteers to create oversized outdoor trolls from scrap wood and recycled trash.

Danbo even built a troll for the California alternative culture festival called Burning Man! Meet the artist and check it out in this entertaining YouTube video. There are currently more than 156 Dambo Trolls across the globe, including in Denmark, China, France, South Korea, Australia, Chile, Ireland, and the USA.

Here in DL, they have created an interactive treasure hunt for five trolls, a hidden golden rabbit, and three magic mirror portals. Other than the secret rabbit, purple painted birdhouses provide clues to the paths or hiking trails that help guide you to the trolls.

The easiest to visit is located in City Park, called “Alexa’s Elixir,” and holding a wooden book of symbols.

The idea is that you gather clues from each of the trolls, including a riddle in Alexis’ book, to form a word which leads you to the Golden Rabbit in a very secret location. (That being said, you can also cheat and google it, but that would make you a very bad person.) Orrrrrr, you can get very turned around and lost, on a twisty forest path, and tire out your tiny Frenchie dog, before finding it. That was our program, anyway!

Here, they have created the tallest troll yet, a 36-foot-tall giant named Long Leif, who stands proudly in a clearing at Detroit Mountain Recreation Area (where they are building a new RV campground soon!), complete with nose booger.

Barefoot Frida is at the end of big stepping stones, encouraging playful visitors (and dogs) to skip out to see her.

Frida is located at Ortenstone Gardens, whose garden paths are dotted with other large-scale sculptures, including two on load from environmental artist Olga Ziemska.

Big things are apparently all the rage around here … including a Big Loon (Minnesota’s state bird) and the World’s Largest Turkey. Who is ready for Thanksgiving?

The warmth of friends and family is a joy on the road, and time with Rob and Jill was no exception!

And so the sun sets on our Minnesota journey. We’ve been in the state for almost a month and it was everything we had hoped it would be! Until next time, North Star State!