Lake of the Woods & International Falls, MN

I must say, this part of Minnesota was something of a bust for us. We had been looking forward to spending about a week in Minnesota; after Lake Itasca, we had booked two nights in what is supposed to be a beautiful state campground on Lake of The Woods. As we headed up that way, though, the weather was just miserable: high 80s with 80% humidity, overcast with thunderstorms expected. And the weather was not supposed to break for several days. Rather than suffer through that, we just passed through Lake of the Woods and headed to International Falls. It was not our day, however; the road connecting the two border communities was closed so we had to drive through about 30 miles of gravel roads through a national forest and, I think, an Indian Reservation. The road was completely deserted the entire route, making us feel just a little bit nervous, waiting for that huge thunderstorm.

We eventually made it to International Falls, where we booked a room in what we thought was a budget motor lodge. Turned out ot be budget in amenities, less so in price. That was no big deal, but we were a little put off at check-in when the owner gave my husband a kind of long lecture about how we were responsible for our children and accountable for any damage they might cause (????). Just wasn't a great day.

We got out of International Falls quickly and headed to Voyageurs National Park where we spent part of the day. Voyageurs is beautiful and, if the weather were better, we would have spent a few days in the area. Most of Voyageurs is on the water; it covers four islands and 50 plus miles of of river portage (tracing part of the route of the old French Canadian fur traders, the voyageurs. You really need to be on the water to enjoy Voyageurs. We had also meant to head towards Ely, the gateway to the Boundary Waters, but with the weather being so totally suck-o, we passed on that and headed right towards Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is also hot right now, but drier and sunnier, giving us some welcome relief. We're in Hayward Lakes in Northern Wisconsin, a place we visited last year and enjoyed very much.

We're seeing a ton of Minnesota plates here, so everyone in Minnesota must have had the same idea we did: get out of Minnesota and go to Wisconsin!