My wife and I will be at a family reunion in north central Minnesota (Breezy Point) in August. We’d like to do a few days of travelling afterwards, focusing primarily on places to see birds and mammals. Rivers are great. We are not at all hard core outdoorsmen, but we can certainly do hikes up to 5 or 6 miles if the payoff is there.
We went to Isle Royale in Lake Superior two years ago, and we loved it, but that biases us away from other places that would be similar to it.
Any suggestions?
Rivers are great, you say? You will be less than 100 miles from Lake Itasca and the headwaters of the Mississippi. You can (or years ago you used to be able to) walk across the rocks spanning the headwaters. I was a child when we did that on a family vacation and I still remember it - memorable!
If you go and do that, please share. It’s on my list to possibly visit, on some future trip with my wife.
You can still cross the rocks at Itasca. I was just there last weekend visiting family. There’s also an old 100ft fire tower at Itasca that you can climb. It gives an amazing view.
Well, this is about as close to trip-planning as we get, but here’s a Google mapof our proposed itinerary loop. Stops include Darwin MN (for unspecified MaxTheVool reasons), Breezy Point (for the reunion), Itasca SP, Agassiz NWR, Voyageurs NP, Sax Zim Bog and St Croix SP.
The thing you are missing is waterfalls along the North Shore - it might be a little too like Isle Royale - although I don’t think that has the waterfalls. The Temperance River and Devil’s Kettle Falls on the Brule are my favorites.