Location : Minnesota, United States
ESTABLISHED 1975
218,222 ACRES
ANNUAL VISITORS: 233,000
Jutting up against the Canadian border, Voyageurs encompasses more than 30 lakes. The four main ones are Rainy (bisected by the border), Kabetogama, Namakan and Sand Point; together they cover a third of the park, which is named for the French-Canadian fur traders who once tramped through these woods in search of beaver. The park’s 900 islands have formed a labyrinth for enthusiasts aboard motorboats and houseboats and in canoes and kayaks.
From their crafts or while hiking along the shorelines, parkgoers can hear the haunting call of loons and the cackling, high-pitched sound of the bald eagle as these great birds fish for bass, sturgeon, pike and walleye. Most spectacular, some 200 nights a year, the sky lights up with strobing and shimmering bands of colors— greens, purples, and reds—from the famed natural electrical display of the aurora borealis.
