Kev n Jens Adventures: Voyageurs National Park

Friday Aug 25, 2023 - Our next drive was 3 hours north to Banning State Park. The early part of the drive was still through soybean and cornfields. Banning was another nice Minnesota State Park, with wooded sites and lots of great hiking trails.

Cornfields and soybeans

Google takes us on some crazy routes, but sometimes they're the most fun.

Home for the next 2 nights

It's a little cool in the evenings, perfect weather for a campfire

Saturday Aug 26, 2023 - We did two different hikes today. In the morning we did part of the Quarry Loop that I had picked up an interpretive guide for. We learned about the sandstone quarry mining they did in this area during the early 1900's. There were some building ruins that remained and the walls of sandstone. After lunch we hiked the Wolf Creek Trail out and back to the Wolf Creek Falls. Between the two hikes we hiked 5 miles.

Walls of sandstone

sandstone quarry remnants

don't fall in!

we think these holes along the trail were caused by erosion from the Kettle River

Kettle River view

Pretty view to the trees

View down the river to Hell's gate

There weren't any kayakers going down the river today

we made it to Kettle Falls

In the Spring this waterfall runs across the entire rock

the hike was mostly easy, but there was a bit of climbing on the rocks

pretty night sky

Sunday Aug 27, 2023 - Today we continued our drive north. I had booked most of our campgrounds ahead of time, but found a first come first serve campground in the Woodenfrog State Forest. This primitive campground has primitive sites, and no services, but it's located on Kabetogama Lake which is part of Voyageurs National Park. We were lucky enough to get a campsite with views of the lake and we'll stay here for 3 nights to do some exploring of the NP.

It's a walk down the hill from our campsite to Kabetogama Lake

We have a view of Bittersweet Island from our campsite

Campsite 38

Sunset views

Campfire weather

games by lantern

Monday Aug 28, 2023 - Today we rented a pontoon boat from Northern Lights Resort, which is a 15 minute drive from our campground. We have the boat all day, so decided to pick it up after lunch and take dinner to eat on the lake, since it was a bit chilly this morning. We'll go across Kabetogama Lake to the Ellsworth Rock Garden first. This property was bought by Jack and Elsie Ellsworth in 1942 as a summer retreat. They built a log cabin on the property and then Jack needed something else to keep him occupied. Between 1944-1965 he built 62 terraced flower beds with 1200 feet of stone walls filled with thousands of flowers. Throughout the gardens Jack arranged over 200 rock structures, some benches, tables and sculptures. By 1965 he wasn't able to return to the property due to poor health and the gardens fell into disrepair. Voyageurs NP acquired the property in 1996 and began restoring the gardens. The only way to get to the gardens is by boat, so it was fun getting to explore the gardens with only a few other people.

Mirabelle can't ever get comfortable in Tiny

It's a cloudy day on Kabetogama Lake

There is only one other boat at the Ellsworth Garden dock

Ellsworth Rock Garden

Cute little gate

Rock sculpture...is it a bunny??

Rock bridge

Table on a table

bench with a lake view

Remnants of a tepee

interesting pathways

bird sculpture?

rock chair

pictures don't really do these gardens justice, it was quite a magical spot

Next we're headed to one of the Voyageurs NP visitors centers on the other side of the lake

Kabetogama Lake was full of islands, which made navigating the lake a bit challenging

Ash River Visitor Center

beam bench

Kabetogama Lake is known for walleye fishing, so we hit a few of the fishing spots listed on our map and Kev did some fishing (not catching)

she's a cutie

it was a great day on the water!

Another sunset from our campsite

Tuesday Aug 29, 2023 - Today we did some hiking around the campground, Kev did more fishing and we went to the Rocky Ledge for dinner so we could have some walleye.