We capped off our road trip with an unplanned visit to Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota. Unplanned, because when I first thought about visiting the Northernmost Point I never even bothered to see what else there was to do near International Falls. Rookie mistake!
When we drove into International Falls and saw the signs for Voyageurs, I did a forehead slap and said “you dummy – how did you not remember this was here?!?!?” We were able to book a boat cruise on Rainy Lake and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. Fortunately for us, Rainy Lake was not rainy on the day we visited, and I got a bunch of nice photos. We didn’t see much wildlife, but we did get to see lots of beautiful scenery. The lake is dotted with thousands of little islands like this one.
I’m posting way out of order, but we have begun our final leg toward home, so I wanted to post one final photo from the road. I’ll have more photos and stories once I get home and am catching up!
I lived in MN for quite a while so I have a fondness for all things MN. I Falls is beautiful. And while I was there I counted 11,842 lakes! That’s 1,842 more than it says on the license plate!!!
I can see why people love Minnesota, although I know I would struggle in the cold after 30 years in the South.
Perhaps the lakes have been multiplying, or else someone just rounded the answer. I suppose 10,000 Lakes is more catchy than 11,842 Lakes. 😉
Glad you were able to include this into the trip. The lake, and its islands looks very inviting. The perspective from the water is probably the best way. Hoping the bruise on your forehead is healing!!!
We had discussed the possibility of adding the Northernmost Point and International Falls, but were concerned about making the trip too long. But we decided that there probably wouldn’t be a reason to go that way again, so it made sense to take the extra days while we were that close (‘close’ being a relative term!) And then realizing what else was there was one of those ah-ha moments.
The perspective of shooting from the boat was a good one, and I prefer being down near water level to shooting from an upper deck. I leave that for the people who don’t know better. 😉
I didn’t hit myself too hard, and any pain was eased by the actual experience of going there.