International Falls | Road Trippin', Watkins Style

Voyageurs National Park was our next tourism destination. We broke the drive up and did a couple of nights at the Jackpot Junction Casino in Morton, MN. While there we found a couple of points of interest to see. The Birch Coulee Battlefield was a small area on the outskirts of Morton. It is touted as one of the bloodiest battles of the U.S.-Dakota War even though it was only a day and a half battle back in 1862. That, and there were only about 20 men killed during that skirmish. Horses fared worse, they had about 90 casualties. The battlefield was a short walking circular path through the field, with little history lessons posted here and there. They also had small concrete markers with footprints on them to designate the standing location of combatants, pointing out into the field to small white marker posts which designated the locations of enemy fighters. This battle was pretty much a close quarters type of battle as evidenced by the distances depicted, and it easily demonstrated the ill-fated logic of the U.S. force on choosing such an open, unprotected location to set up camp.

The other point of interest was Ramsey Falls on Ramsey Creek in the town of Redwood Falls. This was an easy drive-to with no hiking required. There is a nice viewing platform at the parking area, and if you want a closer look you can do a tiny bit of rock scrambling to arrive at the top of the falls.

The view of the falls from the observation platform/parking area

Onward and upward, again, we lucked out and I think we found the absolute last available RV site in the entire Great Lakes area. It just happened to be Arnold’s Campground and RV Park in International Falls, MN. Now, the town of Int’l Falls is nothing to write home about, it is a run down small town right on the Canadian border. In fact, if the U.S. side residents need to hit a Walmart or a Safeway, the only ones in the area are across the Rainy River in Fort Francis, on the Canadian side. And, according to signs posted around Rainy Lake, all non-essential cross-border traffic is prohibited. So there’s that…

I have to say, we were seriously underwhelmed by Voyageurs National Park. Even the rangers say it is not a real popular park in the Nat’l Park system. We hit the 3 visitor’s centers at Rainy Lake, Kabetogama Lake, and at Ash Creek. They are not open every day, even during this, the peak season, which tells you a little something about their popularity. We were in serious lake country (“Land of 10,000 Lakes, duh!) but driving around and through the area the scenery is mostly thick, green trees. Even the “lake view” trail near the Ash Creek Visitor’s Center provides you with a semi-obstructed (trees) view of water. We made one attempt at night viewing, trying to catch sight of the Aurora Borealis from the Rainy Lake Visitor’s Center, but only managed to fight the mosquitos until midnight. We spoke to a ranger about the lights on another day and he mentioned they are best seen in colder weather, more often during Spring and Fall. Such is our luck…

For our last hurrah at Voyageur’s N.P. we broke out the bicycles for a nice leisurely ride on the Rainy Lake Trail. That trail starts near the International Falls Chamber of Commerce in town and pretty much follows both Hwy. 11 and the Rainy River to the Rainy Lake Visitor’s Center. The trail weaves it’s way off and onto Hwy. 11 on it’s 15 mile stretch to the visitor’s center and is paved the whole way. You have to be ever vigilant due to the large number of BIG red deer roaming the area, particularly the nearer you get to the visitor’s center. There are not a lot of sights to see along the way, again you travel through thick stands of trees. But we got our 30 miles in and it was a pretty good workout during the last leg of the trail heading to the visitor’s center.