Northernmost Fun at the Northernmost Angle

The most satisfying State Park adventure yet.

I was pretty disappointed by my last hiking adventure, when I’d driven all the way to one of the most Northern points of the State to reach the most challenging Minnesota State Park, and hadn’t been able to get there.

At first I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it before I turned 25, as the park was 20 miles from shore, and I don’t have a boat, or know anyone who would be willing to haul it 7 hours North for a short ride to a small island.

However, I ended up calling one of the fishing resorts near the island, to ask if they’d be willing to bring myself and my aunt to the island. And shoutout to Flag Island Resort, because they said yes, for a very reasonable small fee.

As Flag Island is its own island just off shore, we stayed at Young’s Bay Resort in Lake of the Woods, which was a very interesting time. I was definitely a little out of my element.

But before we made it to Young’s Bay, we stopped at La Salle Lake State Recreation Area. It was great to check it off our list, but it was also nice to stretch our legs!

This was a particularly nice Recreation Area, and we stopped to have our lunch here on our way up.

There was a nice little picnic shelter that we ate at, enjoying a little lake view while we munched.

There was also a little fire pit and benches, if you were so inclined to have a campfire.

It was a really nice bonfire space!

There was also a little play area for kids nearby.

You have to cross into Canada to get to the Northwest Angle of Minnesota, which is where Young’s Bay and Garden Island are located. After you cross the border, you re-enter Minnesota a few miles later.

I wanted to stand in two countries at once.

After you re-enter Minnesota, there are a few stations nearby that you can declare that you’ve re-entered the U.S.

After your trip, when you leave Minnesota to drive through Canada and get back to the U.S., you also have to declare that you’re leaving the U.S. If you’re caught at any point in one country without having declared that you’re returning there, you’ll get charged a hefty fee. We had no troubles getting into Minnesota after driving through Canada, but we did have some difficulty leaving Minnesota, which was a bizarre feeling, being a little trapped on a tiny triangle of Minnesota.

Hey Canada, come here often?

This is the little station you use to declare where you are and where you’re going.

It was a little dreary when we arrived, but we pulled up to Young’s Bay just a few short minutes after checking back in to the U.S.

I knew I was a little out of place when I saw the “Trump 2020” flag posted above the fish cleaning hut that we drove past on our way in. And when I saw a sticker posted on the door of our resort.

I was intrigued, because my assumption was that they’d want nothing to do with the government meddling in their business, but they seemed pretty passionate about Trump!

We went in to check in, and the woman gave us a run down of where our cabin was located, and where we could park. She noted that there was a bar and restaurant on site, and also told us that there were no keys to our cabin, as we “were safe there.” As a 24-year-old woman living in the year 2019, I’ve learned the hard way that I’m not truly safe anywhere, so I was skeptical of leaving my doors unlocked at any point in time. She must have read that on my face, because she followed it up by saying that we could lock our doors once we were inside the cabins, but most people don’t.

“The worst that’s ever happened is someone has stumbled into the wrong cabin after drinking at the bar,” she said. Which was pretty much the exact reason why I wanted a key to my cabin.

Being skeptical (safety first), I left all of my valuables locked in our car and hidden under jackets while we were at the resort, not wanting to risk them in our open cabin, and we definitely locked the doors of our cabin when we went to sleep at night.

Our cabin had a nice little porch with some red chairs.

It overlooked the lake. Somewhere out in the distance, Garden Island’s shores are being lapped by waves.

Inside was a space that served as a kitchen, dining room, and living room, with a big dining table and a couch that faced a television on the wall.

There was also a kitchenette with a coffee maker.

There were two rooms with two twin beds.

There was a door in the kitchen area that led to the cabin adjoined to ours, which we kept locked during our stay. I’m guessing this would be prime real estate for fishers coming in larger groups – you could rent out two cabins next to each other, and fish during the day and party at night. You could fit a ton of people between two of these cabins, depending on how creative you’re willing to get on sleeping arrangements. You could easily fit 5 people per cabin, and could fit more for sure if you brought an air mattress or sleeping bags.

We were hungry, so we headed over to the bar and restaurant for a quick bite and beer before heading to bed. When we walked in, everyone turned and stared at us. I could practically hear the “They’re not from around here,” thoughts rumbling around in their heads, but as someone who is from a rural area, I wasn’t surprised.

The next morning our wonderful tour guide and local Uber, Mick, picked us up from the dock at Young’s Bay Resort.

He had a really nice boat that was comfy during our boat ride! It was a little rainy out, so we had a bit of a turbulent ride, but it was kind of fun.

We chatted with him about what it’s like to live on the Northwest Angle, and on an island in an area that freezes over during winter. He said they stock up on supplies, but they also drive over to the mainland on snowmobiles. He also told us that Amazon still delivers to them, but via boat. Amazon is everywhere.

Eventually, Garden Island came into view in the distance.

My excitement grew. It was hard to believe that we were finally making it to the island!

There I am, incredibly excited and happy to have arrived.

Garden Island is very tiny – we were told that bears and wolves live on the island, so that was a tad alarming, as we were very far from shore on a very small island, but we didn’t see any traces of them.

The shore had several docks and a few picnic benches along it.

In the middle of the island was a shelter that you could use if there were crazy storms, or you could call for help if you needed any.

Thankfully we didn’t need to use it!

It was a short walk to the other side of the island, where there was another small beach.

As we walked along it, we found an ice breaker from the 1800s buried in the sand.

Super random! Or maybe not so random, given that we were on an island that freezes over during the winter.

After a short walk around the tiny island, it was time to return to shore. It took about 35 minutes to reach the island, and just about the same amount of time heading back.

Mick was a super nice guy, and he was a great tour guide, pointing out a lot of cool sites as we rode along.

Before leaving Young’s Bay, we had to snap a photo in front of their little landmark, calling out their status on the Northernmost Point.

I’m still gleeful from my Garden Island hikes.

We also made a pit stop at the country’s last working one-room schoolhouse.

Across the street was a phone booth, which had a dial-tone, but didn’t end up working. I have a goal of calling my mother from a phone booth one day, because I think she’d get a kick out of it – one day I’ll do it!

We didn’t realize that we’d be spending a lengthy amount of time on another phone.

There were a few carloads of people waiting to get back to the U.S. when we arrived at the border patrol station, but none of them could get through to Canada, because there were so many folks calling in at once. We had to wait in line for quite awhile before even getting on the line, and then we had to wait for Canada to pick up.

Not as exciting as our boat ride to Garden Island.

Eventually we made it through and they approved our travel into Canada.

It was interesting driving back into the U.S., because Canada’s border patrol was in what looked like a former gas station. It was super cute and little, and their border patrol agent was really friendly and was excited to let us into Canada. Meanwhile, our border was a giant cement building with a million cameras trained on you at all times. There was a lot of juxtaposition between the two.

We had another day of adventuring to do, as it was a three-day weekend for both of us, but we wanted to get as close as we could to our next set of parks, since we still had daylight left. We made our way to Bemidji, where we booked a hotel for the night, and went out for a quick jaunt to Lake Bemidji State Park.

It took a few hours, but we were ready for a little hike by the time we made it to Lake Bemidji.

We took a path directly to the lake, which was beautiful.

There was a little viewing area at the end of the path, with benches for folks to sit at and enjoy the views.

There was a little fallen tree above it, but the views were still nice.

That’s a nice lake, said in Minnesotan accent.

Along our way back, the sun was just starting to set, and it looked beautiful through the trees.

We were pretty exhausted, so we drove to our hotel, checked in, and spent a nice half hour in the hot tub before returning to our rooms and quickly passing out.

We had two parks on our docket the next day: Scenic and Schoolcraft. But before we left, we had to get a little photo with the infamous Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues.

Classic.

Our first stop was Scenic State Park, which has become one of my favorite State Parks. The main hiking trail we went down was formed when two glaciers melted, and the sediment gathered up in between. Which was incredible to think about as you walked down the narrow trail.

See how narrow the path is? On both sides are steep hills that lead to the lake. Super awesome.

We had one of the best hikes of my life through the super beautiful woods.

There were quite a few fallen trees, which was a little concerning.

But some of them made fun bridges.

The park was our playground for a little bit.

At the end of the trail was a little staircase that led to the lake.

I love a good staircase shot.

The lake was beautiful, and there was a small area for a boat to dock in case folks wanted to dock there while fishing.

Not only was the lake pretty, but there was a pair of loons swimming across it!

What a Minnesotan time!

As we headed back, we found a little shelter that was super cute. It had the only moose that I saw during any of my Northern trips.

Which was a bit of a bummer.

It was a nice cabin though!

It also had really nice wooden tables with a sign that I found pretty funny.

“It makes me feel sad and it’s called vandalism.” – What I will say the next time someone insults me.

On our way to our last park of the trip, we encountered some eagles!

I’m pretty sure he’s looking directly at the camera.

He had a buddy with him. Or her.

Like I said, I was seeing them almost every day for three months.

Schoolcraft State Park was pretty small, but lovely. It was fun to walk around, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to go there again.

We walked down a path in an attempt to find the historic site they’d listed on their map, but found nothing.

It was a nice area along the river, though.

We ran into another group who was also looking for the historic site. We narrowed down the spot we thought it was located in, but there wasn’t any signage or any kind of landmarks that we could see.