NP# 57 - Voyageurs National Park

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August 22nd -
Voyageurs National Park - #57 

 Terry booked us for a three night stay at The Pines of Kabetogama Resort.

 Excellent accommodations!

 View from our cabin porch!

 Typical sunset over Kabetogama Lake.

 Terry riding the Walleye!

 Another lovely sunset!

 Kettle Falls Resort - the destination of our Voyageurs lakes tour. 

 The Bar inside the resort. 

 Notice the slope of the floor. Makes for interesting "sledding" after a few cocktails!

 On our Kettle Falls Tour, we spotted at least six Bald Eagles.

 Another majestic Bald Eagle perched afar in the treetops.

 Terry awaiting another lovely sunset. 

 Ahhh....

 The Beaver Pond Overlook near Ash River Visitor Center.

Alas...no beavers!

Hoist Bay. 

One final sunset before heading back to Phoenix!

NP#57 – Voyageurs National Park

8/22 – After a somber and restless nights sleep, we get up early to begin our 7-hour drive to Voyageurs NP. Today, our destination is The Pines at Kabatogama Resort...the ewe'll stay for the next three nights. We got an hour back in time when we crossed from MI into WI so we arrived at the Pines at 3:15 pm. Jackie checks us into cabin #3 – a newly remodeled 2-bedroom cabin overlooking Lake Kabatogama. Nice digs! Comfy bed!

First order of business...pick up our Park Pin. The Kab Visitor Center is literally 3 minutes from our cabin. However, I take the long route, which takes us 7 minutes! Elizabeth is the Ranger on duty. I ask her if they have any park pins left, as there are none on the display rack. She checks back stock and finds none. The Kab Visitor Center is small. She suggests we go to the Rainy Lake VC up by International Falls. She says they should have them there. We will head up there on Wednesday as tomorrow we are scheduled to take a cruise up to Kettle Falls. 

We decide that rather than eating at restaurants, we'd head up to International Falls to do some grocery shopping. The Falls is about a 40 minute drive from our cabin and we eventually find a supermarket off the beaten path. The Super 1 grocery store seems to be our best bet. We load up with goodies and look around the store for some vino! Lo and behold, we discover that grocery stores do not carry liquor! The state of MN has decided that liquor must be sold separately! Liquor can only be sold in liquor stores in MN! Why, you ask? Nobody had a good answer!

The corner store just down the street from our cabin has a "green door" that provides access to their Liquor Room!  We purchase a couple bottles of vino and head back to the cabin to make dinner. Salmon, rice and salad to go along with a fairly decent bottle of Pinot Noir!

8/23- I get up at 5:45a in hopes of shooting a decent sunrise. My vantage point does not present good photo ops so I head back to the cabin and brew up a cup of coffee. I'll try for a sunset shot this evening. Ranger Liz suggests either shooting from the Woodenfrog Campground or at the end of the Blind Ash Bay hiking trail. 

Before we depart for our Kettle Falls Cruise, which will expose us to the many lakes of Voyageurs, Terry and I cook up a fine breakfast consisting of petrified cantaloupe, strawberries and cheese omelets. The cantaloupe was imported from a faraway land ( California) and needed a few more days to ripen!

At 10:00am, we board the pontoon boat called Borealis skippered by Ranger Gary. Ranger Liz will serve as our interpretive guide. Our final destination is The Kettle Falls Resort...21 nautical miles from our home port at Kabetogama Bay. The outbound trip will take us 2 hours, as we will be stopping to see the sights. 

First up, Liz points out a bald eagle nest high up in the White Pines. Ranger Liz informs us these huge bird abodes can weigh up to 4000 pounds. No birds in sight near this nest.  After a couple of more nest sightings, we come upon a majestic bird perched on the upper limbs of a pine snag.  We would be fortunate to view at least half dozen or more bald eagles as we make our way to Kettle.

Our next stop is to a small island on Namakan Lake where, in the early 1930’s, IW Stevens built his Pine Cove Resort. Ranger Gary and Liz give us an informative narrative about this hearty individual who lived on the island picking berries, skiing into town, baking cakes, running his resort and writing in his journal. He lived there until he was 94 when he finally decided to head back to the mainland. There he lived another 10 years.

We floated by Mica Island...where they mined mica and landed at the Kettle Falls marina at noon. Lunch at the Resort was very pleasant. The lodge's Lumberjack Saloon features a floor that has at least a 2-foot slope to it! Notice how the pool table has been leveled in the picture above!

Liz took the group on a tour of the Kettle Falls Dam, which was built to help the lumbermen move logs more efficiently. Standing on the dam overlook, Liz pointed out that we were situated at one of a few places in the continental US where you actually look south into Canada! 

Another bit of meaningless trivia Liz shares with us as we view the Dam is that the famous Hamm's beer commercial...."the land of sky blue waters..." Ad was shot just off the point where the Kettle Falls Dam sits.

On the return trip, we stopped by Hoist Bay, an area where loggers used to unload or "hoist" the fallen timber onto train cars. Hoist Bay had an old Ice House still standing. Before refrigeration, loggers would cut huge chunks of ice from the frozen lakes and store them in Ice Houses. To keep the ice from melting when the weather turned warm, they'd pack the ice in sawdust. This would keep the ice intact until the following winter!

We also were treated to a Loon sighting. The Loon is MN's state bird. Loons mate for life and do much better in the water or in the air as opposed to on land. Because of the way their legs are positioned on their bodies, they do not fare well on land. In the water, they are capable of holding their breath for up to 5 minutes. As for getting airborne, the Loon needs a 150-yard runway in order to get their bodies out of the water. Once airborne, they are capable of reaching flight speeds of 75 mph. 

Another bit of trivia I found fascinating is the fact that all of Voyageurs lakes flow north into Canada and eventually into Hudson Bay. In this land of sky blue waters, there once lived millions of beavers. It is said that the North American continent once was home to between 60 and 400 million beaver! These furry critters were almost hunted to extinction (like many other species) to satisfy the lust Europeans once had for beaver pelt hats.

On our Kettle Falls cruise, we met two other "Park Trekkers."  Gail was visiting her 50^th national park and had many questions about those we've visited that she has not. The other lady from Oregon was on #37. Ranger Kevin (Kab Visitor Center) told Gail that earlier in the season, a gentleman had made Voyageurs Park #59 in his quest to visit all 59 of our country's natural outdoor cathedrals.

The evening of Aug 23rd. We seek out potential sunrise/sunset photo ops which takes us up to Woodenfrog State Park just north of where we're staying. Nice park with decent photo potential. From there we wander down to Ash River Visitor Center to check out a site I saw when we returned from our Kettle Cruise. This site proved to be idea and I set up camp out on the rocky point.

To idle away the time before sunset, Terry and I try to reenact the Voyager as portrayed by Rilus Graham  and Roy Mosel during our crossing of the Grand Canyon. Our pose did not turn out nearly as humorous as that of Roy and Rilus...nevertheless, we got a few giggles out of our futile effort!

The evening sunset turned out to be a decent photo op. Snapped off a bunch of flicks and feel confident there's at least one or two keepers in the bunch.

8/24 – To get the most out of this park in the summer, you must get out on the water. Today, we have not sought out any means of getting out on the lakes so instead, we drive up to Rainy Lake Visitor Center to seek out our park pin! Voila! Just as Ranger Liz had suspected. Rainy has them in stock! 

After purchasing our pin, we take one of the few hiking trails found in this park.  The Oberholtzer Trail meanders through a wooded area. The first 3/10 of a mile is wheelchair accessible. After that, the path narrows considerably and breaks off in two directions. One path will take you to an overlook staring at Black Bay and a field full of cattails. The other section of the park takes you deeper into the woo where you’ll find another bench overlook.  Good to get out and stretch the legs…however, not much in the way of memorable scenery!

Back at our cabin, I teach Terry a game that every Minnesotan and Wisconsinite knows how to play – Cribbage! She catches on fast, gets dealt ideal cards and proceeds to skunk me on the first game we play!

Not ready to call it quits, I talk Terry into going back to Ash River Visitor Center for one more evening photo shoot. She agrees and we head back to the rocky point where we reenacted the voyager pose the night before.  Tonight, the sunset is even better than last evening. But before we begin the photo shoot, we decide to see what the Beaver Pond Overlook is all about. Not much to it. No beaver in sight. Mostly an overgrown swamp of a lake trying to become a meadow!

8/25 – Up early for our 5-hour drive back to Minneapolis.  Terry has worked her “standby” magic once again and soon we’re heading back to Phoenix. Our pursuit to experience all 59 of our country’s amazing parks is coming to a close. We’ve got but two more to check off the map to complete the mission. It’s been a magical experience for me.