Our 5th National Park Adventure : Voyageurs
By Paul Strubell 11/21/24
The tradition continues. As many of you know, my son and I have made it a tradition to visit a National Park for his birthday each Fall. This year, for his 5th birthday, we choose Voyageurs National Park in Northern Minnesota.
First, a little back story for those who may not know. When my son was about to turn one. I took him (in our Airstream called Bubs) to Badlands National Park for a few days of hiking and relaxing in nature. While we were there I realized this was a dream come true moment for me. I was on my first father / son trip and we were travelling in our Airstream to a National Park. It was in this moment of gratitude that I decided to continue this feeling and the tradition was born. My son and I have visited a National Park for his birthday every year. How many kids can say that?
You can read about the other trips here.
Why did we choose Voyageurs National Park this year? Being that he is only just turning 5, I still like to keep the trips small enough that camping in Fall weather and living and eating outside wont overwhelm him, but also close enough to our home in Iowa, that we can road trip in a day and a half. By default saving the more epic parks for when he is older. The parks that may require more time to experience and more time and flights to travel to.
Voyageurs also being a Northwoods “water park” allows us to embrace one of my favorite activities and go canoe camping. The potential to experience wildlife that is particularly exciting made this a pretty easy trip for year five. Animals like wolves, bear, moose, lynx, all call the park home and that made this an exciting opportunity for us and a relaxing Northwoods canoe camping trip to boot.
We left our home in Iowa with our canoe strapped to the roof and the car packed with gear. Our first stop was the KOA in Cloquet, MN just outside Duluth. We rented a small cabin there and really enjoyed our stay. The cabin had electricity, heat and A/C, but no running water. The bathrooms were easily walkable though and we took advantage of our last hot shower options for the next four days. We also enjoyed that this KOA had a dog park on site where we could let Luka run and play on the dog playground there. Of course we can sleep in the GFC roof top tent, but my son really enjoys staying in the little cabins. So for not much more money, its nice to mix it up and sleep a little warmer.
From there we pressed on towards Ash River. Ultimately putting our fully loaded canoe in the water around 11Am. We were hauling our camping gear, food, and two people and a dog for a five mile paddle to our pre-selected campsite on Williams Island.
I choose the site for a number of reasons. 1) They allowed dogs. Some of the mainland and backcountry sites do not allow dogs, because of the proximity to the robust megafauna of Northern Minnesota. 2) It was a decent open water paddle but also not so far that if we had bad weather and needed to get there in short stints, it would still be manageable for me with a loaded canoe and a dog and a five year old. 3) I also liked this site because it offered excellent views to the North sky. In the event there would be Northern Lights present (something the park is well known for), I wanted a good view and not a lot of tree line obstructions.
I had a good amount of hesitation when we arrived at the dock. The wind was howling and there were white caps breaking on the center of the lake. The conditions were looking potentially unsafe.
As I looked around and scouted the water conditions, I tentatively unloaded the canoe and moved our gear to the dock. I felt confident that we could paddle near the shoreline away from the high winds ripping through the center of the lake, but I also couldn’t see beyond the lake we were standing on. I talked with a few people coming off the water in motorized boats who assured me that this, being the biggest lake we would be paddling, was also the most influenced by the wind. Once we got into the smaller lakes on our route, it got calmer.
So we went for it. Picking our way along the side of the lake, out of the heavy wind, I paddled us eastbound towards the next lake. Once we passed through the little channel and into the smaller lakes, the speedy tailwind was helpful pushing us along towards our campsite. I was expecting a 2-2.5 hour paddle, but we landed at our campsite in just over an hour on the water. Tailwind indeed.
Our site was clean and spacious. We had a great 270 degree view of the lake and surrounding shorelines. The downside to our site was that we were pretty exposed to the ripping winds. Which required me to make some adjustments when cooking and meant I needed to be extra diligent when tying down our tent. Being on a large island however had some nice perks. It meant that Cole and Luka could roam a bit without fear of them running too far away or running into anything or anyone else.
We had a lovely few days on our little island. We hiked often. We cooked on the open fire and had really great meals. We played games with pinecones and rocks. We made swords out of sticks. We went skinny dipping in the lake on the warmest day, but rushed back the tent to get warm afterwards. We took naps and hid ourselves away in the tent when the wind really picked up. We slept great and even heard wolves howling at night from inside the tent.
We had a resident red squirrel who kept Luka busy with his comings and goings and Cole entertained with his chatter and funny antics. We saw a number of juvenile eagles playing with a dead fish off our shore. Dropping it in the lake and diving down to retrieve it one after the other.
Sadly, we did not see much other wildlife or the Northern Lights, but we did get a great few days away from work, school, TV and Computers, and that had a great impact on our souls and on our bond as father and son.
When our time on Williams Island came to an end we got up early to pack up our camp and get on the water while the lake was still glassy. We had a chilly but easy paddle back to the Ash River Visitor Center where we left our car. Since the Ash River Visitor Center was already closed for the winter season, we still had some things to see and do at the park.
Once we packed up, we drove West from the East side of the park some 45 miles over to International Falls, MN and then back Northeast to the main Visitor Center at Rainy Lake. Here we took in the educational programs, did a fun trail hike with Luka, and Cole earned his Junior Ranger Badge and became an honorary member of the Beaver Club that protects the beavers who live inside the park.
After that we headed back to International Falls where I had rented us a hotel room. We had some fun meals in International Falls and a nice stay in the area before we started out trip back home.
Already thinking about where we will go next year!
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